I just did my pro bono reporting for 2012. It seems I did over 36 hours of pro bono representation last year, plus 4 hours of non-representative legal volunteer work. The former was all in Grandma + the Methheads; the latter was in judging a mock trial competition. This makes me feel somewhat better about all the complaining I do at people who want ( Read more... )

I write a lot of letters to people. I listen to people and tell them what to do so they do what they are supposed to do. Sometimes I put on good clothes and go ask big important men (and women) who wear black to do what I want them to do ( Read more... )

The other day, on an impulsive, indulgent lark, I bought a brand-new hardcover copy of Lois McMaster Bujold's latest book, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. A few days later, on another impulsive indulgent lark, I spent most of the work day ignoring everything and reading it. Chapter 5 has this marvelously relevant summary of the daily task of checking ( Read more... )

I love that the White House has an official position on building a Death Star.

Click to view

Taylor Swift's 'You Belong With Me,' though a monument to the most obnoxious kind of American anti-exceptionalism, becomes vastly more tolerable when you imagine that the singer is a boy.

And now for something completely different and kind of gross:

An Oregon circuit court has made the news in the ABA Journal. Judge Bailey has ruled in favor of a woman who has a 77-pound Dachshund, in a suit against her by Oregon Dachshund Rescue (which apparently is a thing). The animal rescue group claimed she was treating Obie cruelly by taking ( Read more... )

Today contained a lot of good things, and a lot of very distressing things, but I can't talk about any of them for one reason or another. This comes up a lot in this business.

So instead, I'll tell everyone who didn't know that Dar Williams wrote a song about the Milgram electroshock experiments, which is basically the most amazing thing ever. Or ( Read more... )

Today I had planned to go to the OTLA family law section meeting. I arrived downtown on time, and spent about 15 minute circling the blocks looking for a place to park. No space in lots, no spaces on the street, anywhere. I finally gave up and went back to the office, rather than keep looking and eventually wander in half-way through ( Read more... )

Over the past few days, there have been several bits of internet arcana that produce a positively vertigous effect of scale. I can't imagine they're at all related, but there's a strong common theme.

First, the Astronomy Picture of the Day people produce this fascintating application for showing The Scale of the Universe. It illustrates in simple ( Read more... )