Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ask a Clueless Frat Boy: Should I go to law school?

The author of a new Kindle book called "Learning From Precedent: Is Law School for You?" asks a bunch of non-representative, successful people about their law school experiences. Michael Bloch, who is, per his HuffPo bio, "a former student government senator for the Associated Students of the University of California, the President of the Beta Psi chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and a member of the Berkeley chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International" says:
I truly believe that law school teaches you a certain way of thinking that is a great skill to have in politics, public policy, and more. Yes - it may be extremely expensive, but even if you don't want to be a lawyer, if it can improve your ability to succeed in another profession, it could still be worth the cost.
In conclusion, law school is a land of contrasts. Thank you.

People who thoughtlessly and carelessly encourage college students to take on hundreds of thousands in debt to get skills applicable to "politics, public policy, and more" should be ashamed of themselves. I truly hope that every cent he makes on his Kindle sales is siphoned up immediately by law school tuition. 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

What is this I don't even

Your dating criteria are bad and you should feel bad.

One commenter gently disagrees:
It’s one thing to suggest that our sexual attractions relating to personalities, temperaments, interests, hobbies, familial backgrounds, hair colour, eye colour, height and size, are influenced by society, and we should all be really careful about letting bigotry seep into those additional preferences when choosing a partner. However, as soon as you start to question the sexual orientation (including gender and sex/genitals/body), you will lose 99% of the people you are talking to. The experience of the vast majority of people (gay, straight or bi) when it comes to sexual orientation is that genitals matter as much as gender identity. And there’s nothing wrong or bigoted about that.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Public art and curious restraint

I'm not surprised that there are budding vigilantes out to purge Penn State of its famous Joe Paterno statue. What surprises me is how seldom this happens. Surely other monuments  could attract the attention of indignant vandals (for example, the "Memorial to an Unknown Rapist" in Vienna).

Monday, July 16, 2012