« November 30, 2008 - December 06, 2008 | Main | December 14, 2008 - December 20, 2008 »
December 13, 2008
Small, Sluggish, Insular.
And self-pitying. Coming soon: "A Passion for Mediocrity". It will be at least one post--but possibly a series, a new blog, or a new think tank on the scale of Brookings, Heritage or AEI.
"SSI" will cover in vivid detail how some "team members" of car rental companies (okay, Alamo is one), airlines, grocery stores, gas stations, IT consultant, health care providers and law firms often regard "work" during the current recession in one "flyover" American city. And these people often have children; they instruct them on work and life.
No wonder Americans can't make and sell anything that anyone wants to buy. Can we bail them out with counseling? With appeals to self-respect? And teach them not to ever say to a customer, client or patient the words: "I'm on my break"?
Stay tune. WAC? takes back everything it ever said about the Gen Y Slackoeisie (well, not everything).
We found a new nadir. And it's a disease: "Post-union daze".
(M. Judge/MTV)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
Morocco's Maryam: Heads South.
No one should meet a woman on a laptop. No one sane should bring a laptop to Paris. And no human should watch over an angel with a Dell Inspiron. The first two are easy. I don't like computers; it's no way to be fully in the world. But after I discovered via an odd route fellow Yank traveler Maryam during a trip to Paris in 2005, the Dell was all there was, given her life, mine. We've not met, probably a good fact. At her My Marrakesh, see more of her beguiling photographs, playful prose: "Mauritanian men, also known as a tale of tempting turbans.....". How many American women have this gig?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:07 PM | Comments (1)
December 11, 2008
Advice of the week.
"The only way for a reporter to look on a politician is down."
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Salon: "Rod Blagojevich's bad hair day"
Here, by Salon's Edward McClelland. It begins: "For every Barack Obama or Abraham Lincoln, this state produces a dozen Rod Blagojeviches." See DOJ's December 7, 2008 criminal complaint, and 75 page affidavit.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
New Trends in UK Collections Practice?
And introducing the new Albion-style Mass Dine-and-Ditch. See "Geeklawyer Revenge Award 2008: Low-life punter won’t pay bill?" and this related story at The Daily Telegraph. Allegedly a London law firm
reacted to a client's failure to pay its fees by taking a large group of junior lawyers to a bar owned by the client? Having drunk the bar dry, they left without paying the bill.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2008
Writing well--and sanely.
One of WAC?'s most clicked-on articles, a short one, is "Just Say It: The War Against Legal-Speak". It was inspired by parts of a disturbing if entertaining lawyer document we were forced to read for money at work. Our point was, and is, that plain, simple, clear and non-legal style writing in the legal profession could help get things done and, if humanly possible, help the image of lawyers.
Note: At least one respected UK lawyer and pundit agrees that the profession's continued use of "Legalese or Lawyer-speak" makes little sense to anyone. London's erudite and playful Charon QC brought up and even read aloud an earlier version of the same post in his July 2008 interview with Dan Hull.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
The Tree of Good Writing
By Andō Tokutarō, circa 1846
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2008
Russia, the Caucasus, and language.
See "Georgian on their Mind" by Richard D. Lewis at Cross-Culture. Ten years ago, Lewis wrote, and keeps writing, the book on cross-cultural "collisions" that business people can use in practical and immediate ways. We only wish he'd write more at Cross-Culture when he is between larger projects. The above piece begins:
US, French and other western political leaders who have expressed sympathy or support for Georgia in its recent conflict with Russia may not be aware of certain linguistic factors which complicate the dispute. Language is often a root of strife in the Caucasus – an area home to 40-50 indigenous tongues.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2008
The French to corner nuclear?
See The Economist: "Power struggle: Will France continue to lead the global revival of nuclear power?" Excerpt:
France is poised to develop its expertise into a significant export. Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, considers the sale of nuclear power to be central to his diplomacy: it is a badge of France’s technical prowess and a reaffirmation of its status as a global industrial power.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
The President-elect is likely "eligible" and can still take the oath.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a claim that Barack Obama might, in effect, be 'part Brit', had dual nationality at birth, and is therefore not exclusively a "natural born" U.S. citizen "eligible to the office of President" under Article II, Section I of the Constitution. See AP, and SCOTUS and WSJ blogs. A stay application was filed in Donofrio v. Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey (08A407). The Court sought no response to the petition, and gave no reasons for denial.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:53 AM | Comments (1)
Just Praise: For Colin Samuels and Blawg Review #189.
See, read and feel this inspired and amazing creation, and form of art unto itself. Blawg Review this week is hosted by literate wordsmith-lawyer Colin Samuels at his Infamy or Praise. In #189, he spins and weaves last week's best posts together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2008
London's GeekLawyer seeks U.S. lawyer to craft "Limeyism" suit against ABA Journal.
He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct.
--General Corman to Willard, briefing him about Colonel Walt Kurtz, Apocalypse Now (1979)
Over in the UK, GeekLawyer, the normally reserved and self-effacing product of Eton and Oxford, and rightful heir to some strange ancient crown in Ceylon who hosted Blawg Review earlier this year, is angry.
He is more disturbed than usual that he was not included in the ABA Journal's "Blawg 100". We received the below message very early Friday morning, when most Americans were still asleep. He apparently read our post of Thursday night. In response he was very matter of fact. He wants a pro-bono lawyer for his crusade.
Any takers? We know him as a persistent if frugal human who will press this until he gets want he wants. He would be a cooperative client, and he understands the trial process in the U.S. and the UK. He is, after all, under his real name, a key player in Legal London. He has contacts, influence, Inn membership and a motorcycle called "The Terrible and Inexorable Wrath of God". If you are a man, he can introduce you to lots of professional women. Anyway, his request:
Can you recommend a good lawyer who'll act for me against the ABA? This is clear Limeyism - it cannot stand. They'll need to work pro-bono because although I have plenty of money I need to keep it for mead and hookers.
Lincoln's Inn, Holborn, London
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:00 PM | Comments (2)
The fourth Senator Kennedy?
And why not, if you like a mix of ideas and personalities in the U.S. Senate? See New York Times: "Kennedy Is Said to Cast Her Eye on Senate Seat" (is NYT's headline deliberate, or an eerie Yeats slip?). Next month, New York Governor David Paterson may appoint lawyer-writer Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat once Clinton's nomination to be Secretary of State is confirmed.
If Kennedy becomes New York's next U.S. Senator, watch for her to be more moderate and centrist than either of her uncles, Ted and Robert (who also held that seat in New York, 1965-68). She will be "practical" and more like her dad, John Kennedy, who was no fire-breathing liberal, or even a tad doctrinaire, as a U.S. Senator or President.
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, December 1960.
Photographer: Lynn Pelham
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)