ABA's Answer to Shoddy Legal Job Market: "Architecture"

As a national association representing the legal profession, the ABA should provide objective views and rationale answers to obvious and known contemporaneous issues in the profession--namely, the job slump. That's really not a hard premise to swallow. Having accepted that statement, I find it deceptive and even unethical for the ABA to assert that "As Traditional Legal Jobs Dry Up, Students Can Mold Unique Careers" (BTW that is actually the name of the article...no I am not joking). Knowing that reporters and writers for journals often desire a certain mood in their writing, I expected this to be sarcasm. But after re-reading the title and completing the 12 line article, I could not have been more wrong, the ABA was SERIOUS.

Read this excerpt from the article --"Meg Reuter, assistant dean for career planning at New York Law School, is among those who see the bright side. 'American law schools now produce more graduates than there are traditional lawyering positions,' Reuter told the National Law Journal. 'There is more opportunity to secure an alternative legal job, which often can be better renumerated.'"--
I wonder if Meg knows that "renumeration" is defined as "compensation for services rendered", and if so, does she know that "alternative legal job" hardly EVER means better pay. Like most recent law grads, whenever I hear the words "alternative" and "job", I see an image of a flame-thrower and my law school diploma. Also, choosing "opportunities" for alternative legal jobs is a decision that many make before coming to law school. Often the decision to take on an alternative legal job in a downward sloping job market is not an opportunity at all, but instead a cost.

As an aside, I noticed that NYLS is not exactly a highly acclaimed law school (T4?), and considering that they exist in perhaps the most highly competitive legal environments in the US (Manhattan, NY) Meg's career planning office must be entirely about alternative legal jobs. Just a thought.

Perhaps the cherry of the entire article is Meg's insightful and highly analytical framework for recent law grads in the job market, QUOTE: --"Said Reuter, 'When you decide what type of lawyer you want to be, you will be more attractive to the employers at the kind of jobs you want.'"-- Type of lawyer? How about an employed lawyer?

Article: http://www.abajournal.com/news/a_traditional_legal_jobs_dry_up_students_can_mold_unique_careers

Create Your Own Intelligence: Bush-era Techniques Were Super Good.

So apparently the CIA's much criticized interrogation techniques do in fact yield really good information. Of course they do---they produce the intelligence required for Bush's henchmen to walk the beaten path of governance by self-interest and subterfuge (i.e. WD-40, I mean, WMD?).

You see, hindsight is 20-20, and formerly classified CIA reports are golden for this reason. We can get a glimpse of the raw, mostly unedited, pathetic and hypocritical governance that we sometimes call a democratic republic. Absolute control over the dissemination of information (information is really a good euphemism here for intelligence) becomes a ruling party's most powerful weapon against its own people. How else can the public's perspective and the political thought-process be manipulated to conform with self-interested rulers? After all, information brought us the War in Iraq.

Enough sentiments, here's an interesting thought: What IF a thorough psychoanalysis of detainees revealed that our CIA's interrogation techniques are actually counterproductive? A scientific paper published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences details the enhanced techniques our agents use in producing...creating...extrapolating information from detainees.

The conclusion is simple: CIA techniques are damaging to the truth. But who's looking for the truth? It's information we are after, and if we can essentially plant the information we want--it doesn't get much better than that.

Yahoo Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_cia_interrogation_study

Gilbert, AZ Parents "Fear" Exposure to Obama's Message!!!

Parents of Gilbert, AZ public high schoolers fear exposure to Obama's education address will corrupt their children. I couldn't help this blog...I think you know what's coming.
Are you kidding me? The main concern seems to be fear of exposure to partisan politics, because the speech might be perceived as political speech, and it may "coach" students into favoring a particular political flavor.

Let's address the issue directly, and just assume Obama's education reform speech WILL be 100% political. And the problem is...? Exposure to politics and the political process is precisely what the young adult demographic needs. Unfortunately, teens are not exposed to the political process early enough to gain an interest or relate the PROCESS to their lives. As a result, this demographic is slow in developing a taste for politics, and is silent on many issues that directly affect them or will affect them.

Parents that fear their children may form a biased political opinion need to understand what their children in public schools are already being exposed to. Perhaps they would then realize that political speech should be the least of their concern. High school is a social institution, where students develop a taste for an array of social influences. Does politics exist in a vacuum independent of this social institution? Besides, most high schoolers are capable of developing their own interests and opinions on political issues, regardless of the slant being portrayed. But the initial spark must occur during formal education for young adults to comprehend and appreciate the political process. It's a this point in their education that they should gain an appreciation for how this country functions.

Besides, Obama's address is about EDUCATION, maybe that's why it seems so out of place in Arizona (we are one of the lowest ranked states in education). I think parents are afraid kids may learn something from Obama. Just imagine if they heard such a speech one year ago, they would have learned that "nuclear" is pronounced "new-cle-er" and not "nuke-Q-ler" [just listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hORaebYWDwk]

So when precisely should young-adults be exposed to politics?? Wait, wait... I know...when they impregnate or become pregnant from their first sexual experience they can wait a few years until they are old enough to vote on abortion issues. At least then political issues will become relevant.

Here's the article. http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2009/09/03/20090903gr-obama0905.html

Here's a sample of what Obama is most likely to say: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/10/Taking-on-Education/

Advising Start-Ups, and Creating Opportunities

Start-ups have a lot on their plate. Troubleshooting each and every issue, from technical to market feasibility to legal, presents an issue too profound to address alone. It's no wonder that nearly 90% fail in their first year of existence, and nearly 75-80% fail in year 2 or 3.

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http://www.law.asu.edu/?id=1938