BlogHer - Law - Comments

Total Free Ride.

Catherine Morgan — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:24:08 -0500

Hey Kim. Great post. I agree that John McCain is getting a total 100% free ride from the MSM.

What do they need to do differently? Call him out on his propaganda.

They covered his "so called" speech on health care, as if it was an actual policy that had the potential of helping the problem. I actually read a post by a young woman with chronic illness who heard the speech, and believed his policy would benefit her. Obviously, speech writers can make selling the Golden Gate Bridge seem like a good idea...But, the people, like that woman who suffers with chronic illness, count on the media breaking down these speeches and telling it like it is.

The same goes for thier coverage of his Environmental speech.

This is the real John McCain...

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

Thanks, Maria

Kim Pearson — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:47:33 -0500

I really appreciate your taking the time to read and comment.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Fascinating and touching story & history

Maria Niles — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:28:37 -0500

Thank you, Kim for sharing Rosemarie's story and some of the history of Afro Germans with us. Really very interesting to learn more about both.

ConsumerPop Marketing
PopConsumer (Politics, Current Events & Links)
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The Gas Diet

Pam — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:19:56 -0500

This aggravates me in so many ways. We're still seeing roads full of gas guzzling SUVs, we're still treating fuel like a "right" not a commodity, we're still not investing sufficient resources in alternative transportation. Instead, McCain's idea is to give a price break to gas junkies for the summer? What? Huh? I don't get how this solves our dependence on foreign oil. I don't get how this encourages reduction in use. I don't get how this is advantageous at all except by pandering to voters who whine about how much gas is costing them without pressuring their lawmakers to provide alternatives.

Furthermore, this amounts to price control and gov't subsidies (I think) and from a Republican anti-gov't in your business point of view, this seems really contrary to party values.

The gas diet isn't a better way for the long term, it's the only way. A temporary price break on gas is like giving us a temporary price break on fast food. It's not good for us, we shouldn't be addicted to it, and we need to find a another way.

Nerd's Eye View

Problems...

MommaMary — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:02:40 -0500

I watched some news piece on this last night, and they brought up some good points, like:

1) So they suspend the tax? How do we know that the oil companies are going to keep the prices? So, now gas costs 3.75 instead of 4.00, but why would the gas station owner lower the prices to 3.75 when people will pay 4.00?

2)The "savings" aren't as much as you'd like to think. Think about it. If you fill your 16 gallon tank once per week, for twelve weeks (all summer), you are going to save (16*.184*12) 35.33. So, what can you buy with that? 7 gallons of milk? 7 meals at a fast food restaurant? You're not saving enough to do squat. Most people aren't going to notice $10 per month...

I think that the Gas Diet is a MUCH better answer. Oh, and figuring out what we are going to do in the long run... We need to SOMEHOW stop our dependencies on foreign oil. (God help me I sound like the GW)

Quite so, Nelle

Kim Pearson — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:28:53 -0500

Thanks for such a clear-headed analysis!

Cheers,

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Thanks

Leslie Madsen Brooks — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:31:37 -0500

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Kim, I too was wondering what's going on with the bar association. I know next to nothing about professional ethical codes for lawyers--something new to learn!

Leslie

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Research and Academia
Proprietor, The Clutter Museum
I also blog at MuseumBlogging

Deciding on the fly...

nelle2nelle — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:20:26 -0500

and as I write this. I'm trying to look at it through the lens of my own work, and the question as seen through that lens, becomes one of whether his employer has been harmed, creating cause for dismissal.

There are lines here between his work for one employer vs another. Was there conflict between the two? I wonder what school policy is on outside activities, what they allow or not. I suspect it is in his contract in some form.

Was the school aware of his outside activitity? Did they tacitly condone such work? Probably on some level. During his leave, was he still tethered to the university? In other words... records of this would exist - the employer would grant leave, with an expectation date of return, and whether things like health care continue to be rendered, whether he continued to be paid, whether he had to pay his employer for his health care during this time.

As a professor of law, and as a practitioner of law under the bar, it is his duty to uphold the law. Was his advocacy sufficiently abstract and in a gray area as to render it simply opinion, or open advocacy for disregarding law, with some flimsy justification? And then there is state law to consider.

Did the administration act solely based on the advice he gave? Did they have to follow his advice - did they obtain the opinions of others?

Lots of questions, no easy answers... so guess I'm not going to decide on the fly, and will let the questions float for contemplation by me and by everyone.

nelle

I'm of two minds here.

Kim Pearson — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:25:00 -0500

Hi Leslie,

This is a really important issue and a great summary of the debate. I think we can agree that the Bush administration did not suddenly decide to violate the Geneva conventions because John Yoo said it was okay. He didn't drive policy. What I am wondering is why his bar association hasn't been asked whether there isn't a problem with an attorney giving his client advice that is clearly legally and ethically questionable.

Should Yoo retain his tenure? There are tenured academics who argue that black men shouldn't be allowed to ride the New York city subways after dark. There tenured scientists who devote their careers to arguing that scholars who share their belief in intelligent design are being persecuted, harassed and,,, denied tenure. We don't take away tenure for professors who tell female students that a particular problem set will be harder for them because they have smaller brains.

If we don't deny tenure to people who make these kinds of unsupported and objectionable claims, how can John Yoo be denied? Especially since his scholarship in this area has been published in venues appropriate for his discipline.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Boalt Hall students

Dagny — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:15:16 -0500

Having worked briefly with students at Boalt Hall (the law school at UC Berkeley), I know that they are not easily swayed by the opinions of others. They regularly shared with me their opinions of the various professors.

That said, I am horrified by Professor Yoo's memo. And I am currently picking my brain to remember if he was one of the professors about which I had heard. I think so.

But then I am reminded of the words of my forensics (public speaking) coach from high school. How does one say that someone should not say something? Yes, this person's thoughts are reprehensible but at the same time how do you silence his/her thoughts without putting the thoughts of someone else into question?

I suppose the easy answer would be when the person is speaking of illegal acts. And that's what this all gets down to. Torture? Morally wrong. And a violation of the Geneva Convention as well. But of course, this seems like the preferred methods of the current administration. And right now, Yoo just looks like a scapegoat for their actions. "Well, he said that it was OK so we did it..."

I think that we have bigger fish to fry, as the saying goes, in this situation.

Help us boycott

VelvetVerbosity — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:14:16 -0500

This case outraged me, and I've long thought the quickest way to effect change is to rally consumers to boycott. I started a boycott campaign over at thepoint.com to start boycotting Goodyear Tire Co and make an example of them. We need 10,000+ supporters by Mother's Day to start the boycott. We need to spread the word though!! We need lots of bloggers to post about it if we're going to get the momentum and press under it.

Goodyear may have kept the discrimination secret from Ledbetter, but now that WE know, we don't have to keep it a secret. Nor should we let Goodyear quietly slink off. The more we blog about the issue and the boycott campaign, not only do we raise more awareness, but we make it really tough for Goodyear to hide from it. The last thing a company wants is to have a bunch of negative articles show up in the search engine rankings when someone googles their company name or products.

So let's shout it out!!

You can also find info at my blog Velvet Verbosity

Video Games Are A Whole Other Animal

MSmith — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:00:06 -0500

Hi Kim,

Thank you.

I read the excerpt you suggested and like you said it has some very helpful suggestions for parents with kids who like video games.

Welcome to the 21st century...sigh.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

About violent video games

Kim Pearson — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:06:41 -0500

First, Megan -- kudos on a great post!

Second, I share your concern about videogames such as "Bully," produced by the same lovely people responsible for the Grand Theft Auto series. In that context, I thought that this excerpt from the book, Grand Theft Childhood, by the Co-directors of the Center for Mental Health and Media, was really interesting. It has suggestions to help parents of children who are drawn to violent videogames. I think that the suggestions might also be applied to this situation.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Megan

lilmommythatcould — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:21:54 -0500

with an SOS pad.

For More On Kids And Violence

MSmith — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:41:15 -0500

I should point out, Laina's recent post "What Is Happening To Our Kids?" Increasing Violence Among Young Women.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway