tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79123422011-09-28T21:06:05.276-04:00Thoughts on law, religion and shooting stars from a girl in a wide-brimmed straw hat.fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.comBlogger1241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1164853279120349852006-11-29T20:38:00.000-05:002006-11-29T22:21:30.513-05:00

One of the odd but not unpleasant side effects of singing in a high school choir is the subsequent knowledge, every December, that people you haven't seen in years---some of whom you may never see again---all have the same song arrangements stuck in their head as you do.For what was probably a mix of aesthetic and historical reasons, my high school had a marked preference for the

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1162231740617462972006-10-30T13:07:00.000-05:002006-10-30T13:09:00.636-05:00

...is the opposite of an underdog an overdog? How come no one ever talks about those?And why do absentee ballots require additional postage?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1159908517592665942006-10-03T16:18:00.000-04:002006-10-03T16:48:37.766-04:00

On the New Year it is written,And on the Day of the Fast of Atonement it is sealed.How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,Who shall live and who shall die,Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,Who shall perish by water and who by fire,Who by sword and who by wild beast,Who by famine and who by thirst,Who by earthquake and who by plague,Who by strangulation and who by

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1157986218219037142006-09-11T10:47:00.000-04:002006-09-11T11:07:56.626-04:00

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, I was in French class learning about how to craft stereotypes. No, really. I might always have remembered that class even were it not for the world events that I knew nothing of at the time, because it was the hardest time I have ever had staying awake in a class. There was no good reason why this should be

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1157749584579226142006-09-08T16:56:00.000-04:002006-09-08T17:06:24.596-04:00

...what are they worth?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1155504447625519782006-08-13T17:19:00.000-04:002006-08-13T17:27:28.326-04:00

Courtesy of my backyard:I need to learn to stop compulsively photographing deer, seeing as they seem to be nearly always there. Oh, well.Photos of Quebec will manifest themselves whenever I get the time to narrow down the number that I took into something that could conceivably fit in a blog post.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1154574222336623412006-08-02T22:49:00.000-04:002006-08-02T23:25:05.676-04:00

I wasn't sure I could think of anything to say this Tisha B'Av, since the world seems to be pretty much a blur of deeply upsetting things I can't do anything about, but I was reading Elf's blog, and followed her entry back to a post I wrote two years ago. In it, I wrote:As Elf pointed out a while back, the central thrust of the book of Lamentations is the horrible devestation and degradation

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1153052177816493072006-07-16T08:10:00.000-04:002006-07-16T08:16:17.826-04:00

Can someone explain to me what Israel is trying to do here? Not "why they have every right to be fed up with Hezbollah and with Lebanon for hosting them" -- what are they trying to do? What sort of sustainable future benefit are their current actions aiming for, and how is the current situation supposed to get them there?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1152153485388415842006-07-05T22:32:00.000-04:002006-07-05T22:38:05.483-04:00

Devout Christians Associate Salvation With Pagan Goddess.I can see what they meant to get at, obviously -- but where's a professor of Symbology when you really need one?!

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1148417302420968662006-05-23T16:26:00.000-04:002006-05-25T23:53:19.453-04:00

Newsweek's cover this week shows the Last Supper, with the figure claimed in the Da Vinci Code to be Mary Magdalene Photoshopped over so that she's leaning against Jesus's shoulder. Their clothes do match -- but has anyone else noticed that instead of this creating an image of marital bliss and the fusion of the divine feminine and masculine, it looks like Jesus is trying to pull away and

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1145827397637883552006-04-23T01:01:00.000-04:002006-04-23T17:31:22.916-04:00

For those of you who might have been wondering why your taxes weren't due until April 18th this year: a photo tour of an attempt to cross Boston on public transportation in the middle of the Marathon. (Apologies for hugeness to people on the LJ end.)I part ways with the Marathon...

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1145291408925161032006-04-17T12:25:00.000-04:002006-04-17T12:30:10.436-04:00

Apologies for the extreme lack of posting. In the meantime, here's an article about how Mormon women in Australia have increased the survival rate of fairy penguins rescued from oil spills to 98% by knitting them miniature sweaters.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1143204801329804232006-03-24T07:51:00.000-05:002006-03-24T07:53:21.343-05:00

No real content at the moment, unfortunately. But this is delightfully surreal, as is this. We're really an odd species, sometimes.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1140992583097978512006-02-26T16:49:00.000-05:002006-02-27T09:36:14.376-05:00

A somewhat intoxicated law school friend once informed me in confidence that s/he had read The Bell Curve and found its arguments for some genetically related groups of people being more intelligent than others persuasive. To my further surprise, this statement was followed by another that I found very interesting -- that in the end it didn't matter whether such differences existed, because it

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1140797663552147822006-02-24T11:13:00.000-05:002006-02-24T11:40:46.196-05:00

This is just weird all around. From my perspective, anyway. The Lord Mayor of London compares a reporter who approaches him after a party to a Nazi war criminal, refuses to change the assessment when discovering the reporter is Jewish, and is suspended from office for four weeks for "conduct unbecoming his office," all the while refusing to apologize and arguing that sanction is inappropriate

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139943452314541272006-02-14T13:42:00.000-05:002006-02-14T13:57:32.423-05:00

Why do people who want the death penalty to be judicially abolished under the Eighth Amendment (prohibiting "cruel and unusual" punishment) always seem to focus on the "cruel" element? It would seem like it would be a lot easier to argue that something was once usual and is now unusual, than to argue that it is now cruel when it wasn't then.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139929243743614962006-02-14T09:59:00.000-05:002006-02-14T10:12:55.243-05:00

The Vice President of the United States's private hunting trip on Saturday became public knowledge after it emerged that he had accidentally peppered a 78-year-old Republican lawyer, and fellow quail hunter, in the face with birdshot. Now it appears that he did not have a licence to do so. (TimesOnline)(Also, read the historical notes at the end of the article -- they're hilarious.)

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139707307864619912006-02-11T19:37:00.000-05:002006-02-11T22:05:34.566-05:00

Apparently, an Egyptian paper reprinted the cartoons in October, during Ramadan, and no one cared. I know that cultural offenses are always more offensive when done by someone of a different culture, but still, it's another point of confusion in my attempt to figure out what percentage of this furor is caused by a legitimate religious sentiment (however incompatible, in its current expression,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139599778040162672006-02-10T14:07:00.000-05:002006-02-24T00:34:59.566-05:00

An open query to whatever of my readership may know the answer:Under traditional Jewish law, building a fire is one of the fundamental things one cannot do on the Sabbath. I seem to recall hearing that at one point point there was even a dispute as to whether lighting the Sabbath candles was permissible, since even though they were lit beforehand, they would continue to burn into the

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139539655252796902006-02-09T21:14:00.000-05:002006-02-09T21:48:50.166-05:00

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139419540714490282006-02-08T12:24:00.000-05:002006-02-08T12:25:40.730-05:00

Here.*moment of respectful silence*

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139289900167047962006-02-06T23:28:00.000-05:002006-02-24T00:42:12.910-05:00

The Times reported yesterday that,Iran’s biggest-selling newspaper has waded into the Muhammad controversy by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust.Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept freedom of expression.I suppose at least

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1139193529520993182006-02-05T21:38:00.000-05:002006-02-05T22:33:21.340-05:00

This is just awesome.[Ed.: Link has been switched to something that will hopefully not lead to a login page. I'm not sure why the other one led to a login page either, though, seeing as I didn't log into anything to get there myself.]

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138987884029061632006-02-03T11:13:00.000-05:002006-02-03T13:29:54.426-05:00

I continue to be struck by the ways in which the debate (and sometimes more-than-debate) going on on the other side of the Atlantic seems to be being conducted on somehow completely different terms than our church-and-state skirmishes in the U.S. And, I mean, the relationship between religion and civil society is arguably the biggest current divide in America, with plenty of grandstanding both

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138907204518597672006-02-02T13:20:00.000-05:002006-02-02T14:06:44.576-05:00

According to The Times:Meanwhile in Europe, Jacques Lefranc, the editor of Paris daily France Soir who today splashed a caricature of the Prophet on his front page to illustrate the row, was sacked.Under the headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God", the cartoon also showed Buddha, the Christian and Jewish deities sitting on a cloud. The Christian God is saying: "Don’t complain Muhammad

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138882287234726232006-02-02T06:58:00.000-05:002006-02-02T07:13:37.726-05:00

The top headline on The Times's web site at the moment is:Allies signal big pullout from IraqBritain and America are preparing for a pullout of troops from Iraq that could cut the number of coalition forces by a third in 2006. . . . As The Times first reported in December, American and British commanders have drawn up detailed plans for a pullout that they will present to the new Iraqi Government

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138689184830795572006-01-31T00:20:00.000-05:002006-01-31T12:34:25.696-05:00

Is this about a clash of standards of religious and cultural sensitivity (or decency or taste) between societies, or a fundamental lack of understanding within the Muslim world that, when a newspaper prints something, the government of the country in which it is printed really has nothing whatever to do with it?That's a false dichotomy, of course; it could easily be both, and a number of other

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138209271289503712006-01-25T12:10:00.000-05:002006-01-25T14:56:08.993-05:00

"Pope moved that we strike from the State's brief and appendix a selection from the Year Book of 1484 written in Medieval Latin and references thereto. The State provided no translation and conceded a total lack of knowledge of what it meant. The motion is granted." – Pope v. State, 284 Md. 309, 396 A.2d 1054 (Md. Ct. App. 1979)[Apparently in the unredacted form of the case there's an

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1138022240532210032006-01-23T08:07:00.000-05:002006-01-23T08:17:20.543-05:00

The question is, is this more or less weird than the Incredible Popeman?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1137473236091742412006-01-16T20:49:00.000-05:002006-01-21T20:47:05.726-05:00

From an MLK Day trip to Newport, Rhode Island.It was very, very cold and windy on the beach, though much less so on the Cliff Walk. (Which has a fascinating legal history.) Upon closer inspection, these look like they might be more interesting than the usual sort of duck, but I haven't been able to figure out what they are.The rocks in this photo just never stop reminding me of grilled chicken,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1137067429858302602006-01-12T07:02:00.000-05:002006-01-12T07:03:49.866-05:00

2001 was supposed to be the "United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations".I suppose it all depends on how you define dialogue...

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1136911603893676372006-01-10T10:59:00.000-05:002006-01-10T13:12:58.653-05:00

So, I'm doing reading for my Church and State class, and it's discussing how one of the foundational ideas of American separation of church and state is the notion that everyone's salvation or general relationship to God is a personal matter between them and God, which is inherently nobody else's business. There's also a correlated notion that non-voluntary religious devotion is worthless anyway

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1136819162568466262006-01-09T10:05:00.000-05:002006-01-09T10:09:40.826-05:00

An interesting article on Sharon, from the TimesOnline.It's a bit surreal to see so much optimism regarding Israel itself (which I can only hope is born out by future events), and so many incisive comments regarding Israel's current situation, juxtaposed with so many gratuitous jabs at Charles de Gaulle.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135884639696231092005-12-29T14:29:00.000-05:002005-12-29T14:34:02.350-05:00

Someone has to write a novel (or maybe a movie) based on this.I especially love the bit about how the island has "enjoyed a new-found wealth in recent years as the place where Madeirians like to go to get away from the tourists."

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135844772291174352005-12-29T03:18:00.000-05:002005-12-29T14:06:07.356-05:00

It was a whimsical evening. We built a fire in the fireplace, and sat and watched the younger dog run back and forth down the hallway and around the loveseat at the speed of light while the older dog blinked, and we laughed. The fire was in part courtesy of a canister of foot-long matches that my mother came across lying in the middle of the floor in a random room of the house – they were

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135830442027427252005-12-28T19:05:00.000-05:002005-12-28T23:33:20.986-05:00

Or, "my sister goes riding, and I take photos". (I will possibly narrow down the assortment at some point, since sunsets do have a tendency to all look alike. But I like looking at all of them, and it's my blog. And you have no idea how many photos I narrowed this down from!)Blurry photo of a cow. My sister and my father both assure me that there is no cow on this farm. But they both agree

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135638211687031982005-12-26T17:44:00.000-05:002006-02-11T21:32:54.366-05:00

Does this every happen to anyone else, that every now and then you get a memory of a person stuck in your head, much like a tune? Not necessarily someone you wished you'd dated, or a mysterious person you passed on a train platform and never saw again, but just someone you knew for years once, and haven't known for years since. The sort of person you could probably have a nice chat with - maybe

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135627053853494052005-12-26T14:47:00.000-05:002005-12-26T14:58:26.976-05:00

I do want to know what the legal status of President Bush's executive authorization of domestic wiretapping without a warrant is. But what I really want to know is why he didn't just request warrants anyway. I haven't heard any indication that it would have been difficult, or that anything was gained by (potentially) sidestepping the legal process that couldn't have been accomplished just as

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135548074688522292005-12-25T16:51:00.000-05:002005-12-25T17:05:28.743-05:00

But there was just a gigantic, brilliant, sometimes-double rainbow, stretched from horizon to horizon, so bright you could see it reflected on the rain-washed pavement, with the sky slate-grey behind it, and the cloud-hedged setting sun painting the fields and farms and closed shopping centers a totally unreal shade of gold. Like something straight out of The Wizard of Oz, or a doctored

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135534714292450532005-12-25T13:18:00.000-05:002005-12-25T13:18:34.293-05:00

...does that make it a Silver Christmas?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135466936632052832005-12-24T18:22:00.000-05:002005-12-24T18:32:51.646-05:00

A Merry Christmas to all applicable!

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135373622738195772005-12-23T16:22:00.000-05:002005-12-23T22:34:00.663-05:00

This summer, I was reading through John Adams's diaries as part of my work as a research assistant. I was especially entertained by his entries as a 21-year-old divinity student, where he sounds enchantingly like everybody I knew in college (this may be a function of the sort of people I knew in college).* Then he decides to become a lawyer instead of a minister, because in spite of his

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135367267741024982005-12-23T14:46:00.000-05:002005-12-23T14:53:11.333-05:00

The TimesOnline on the benefits of separation of Church and State:"It is surely no accident that America remains as religious as it has ever been while the country’s legal institutions keep religion out of the public square. The surest way to kill off a religion is to establish it. Maintaining any link between fallible political institutions and infallible religion has, historically, proved

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1135311709481784412005-12-22T20:37:00.000-05:002005-12-22T23:42:57.066-05:00

In honor of the New York transit strike, I spent the past two days driving around Appalachia in a minivan.Some thoughts:Why on earth did anyone think it would simplify things, or otherwise be a good idea, to take the apostrophes out of place names that clearly need them? Even the fact that it was Congress isn't quite enough to explain it. Looking at all those dispossessed signs is just

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134959930220791122005-12-18T21:36:00.000-05:002005-12-18T21:40:37.653-05:00

Patty LuPone Plays Mrs. Lovett and the Tuba, Simultaneously. Unrelatedly, did Bush just say anything he hasn't said before? What was that about?Also, does anyone know what the precise legal status of Bush's domestic-spying authorizations was? No one seems to be discussing that in the papers, though I haven't had the chance to do a comprehensive search. I mean, can we get some informative

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134921596721180882005-12-18T10:57:00.000-05:002005-12-18T11:02:31.446-05:00

Did as many people end up with Post-Traumatic-Stress-Syndrome effects from World War II as from Vietnam? If not, why not? And if so, why did they seem to reintegrate into society better? (I don't know much about the matter one way or another, but assuming equal proportions, in WWII that would have been a whole lot of people.) Are people more likely to be scarred in lasting ways when they're

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134764134897710332005-12-16T15:11:00.000-05:002005-12-17T23:30:23.050-05:00

Macabre."Wow. One more contribution by Jews to Western Civilization. As if the polio vaccine and RENT weren't enough." - Lawrence

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134492527573092882005-12-13T11:08:00.000-05:002005-12-23T15:08:30.323-05:00

Unfortunately, this is going to have to be another one of those posts in which I speculate on something I know nothing about, in this case because even I can't pretend that at the moment I have the time to do the necessary research. But landmark cases are frequently decided on erroneous fact patterns, so it may well be that there's something worth saying, anyway.I've followed the recent saga of

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134488345672731872005-12-13T10:31:00.000-05:002005-12-13T10:39:05.683-05:00

To the people reading this blog in the LJ-syndicated version (and if you're not and you want to, go here):Unfortunately, I don't get notification of comments made on the LiveJournal end of things. So you can comment there if you want, and I may see it, but it's much safer to comment over here. (I also have the less altruistic, and possibly foolhardy, hope that having all the comments in one

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1134426602223229182005-12-12T16:43:00.000-05:002005-12-18T22:15:05.113-05:00

A well-travelled international friend of mine, who has lived and worked in a large chunk of the countries in Asia and the Pacific, asked me the other day why American Jews don't engage in the secular trappings surrounding the Christmas season. After all, she pointed out, much of China and Japan do, without having any context for the religious significance of the holiday. A committed American

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133875499905675632005-12-06T08:21:00.000-05:002005-12-06T08:24:59.926-05:00

Can anyone think of an instance of colonization where the end result was a fusing of the foreign and local cultures into a reasonably seamless whole that benefitted strongly from both influences and proudly identified itself as one country? The main example I'm thinking of right now is England, but I'm wondering if there are others.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133813763681048612005-12-05T15:07:00.000-05:002005-12-05T15:16:49.173-05:00

As I sit here editing a trademark paper and receiving spam (the latest from "Brunei E. Crimson", which inexplicably makes my day), it occurs to me that this piece of case I read for class a month or so really ought to be shared. So here it is.From Hormel Foods Corp. v. Jim Henson Productions, Inc., 73 F.3d 497 (2nd Cir. 1996) (citations omitted): Since 1937, Hormel has used the trademark

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133812277170782482005-12-05T14:46:00.000-05:002005-12-05T14:51:17.180-05:00

McCarthy's on Trademark and Unfair Competition has a list of terms that have, for whatever reason, been found to be generic for trademark purposes. Because whether a term is generic can depend a lot on what it is being used to describe, each listed term is followed by a parenthetical description of the relevant class of product. One such entry is:CELL THERAPEUTICS (goods and services that treat

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133557660273505262005-12-02T15:45:00.000-05:002005-12-23T21:40:44.550-05:00

I should know the answer to this, but I don't:I know there have been attempts by conservatives to amend the federal Constitution, and various state constitutions, to do things like give rights to fetuses or prevent various degrees of acceptance of gay marriage. They haven't succeeded on a federal level, (and some of those proposed on state levels wouldn't pass muster under the US Constitution,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133466502312884102005-12-01T14:38:00.000-05:002005-12-01T14:48:22.323-05:00

Have I mentioned lately how great I think it is that Isidore of Seville is a proposed Patron Saint of the Internet?(Though according to Wikipedia, "In 2003 he was proposed as the patron saint of the Internet, but was not among the top six vote totals in an Italian language Internet poll." A mildly comprehenisble Google translation of the Italian article.)

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1133391274346808382005-11-30T17:51:00.000-05:002005-11-30T17:54:34.356-05:00

The irrelevant thought of the day was going to be that 'occidented' really ought to be introduced as a synonym for 'disoriented'. But then I checked the Oxford English Dictionary and discovered that 'occident' really is a verb. It's not a synonym for 'disorient', but it is an antonym for 'orient', which is close enough.Oh, well.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1132754776705942542005-11-23T08:34:00.000-05:002005-11-23T09:06:16.770-05:00

In high school, I vividly remember one of my more colorful teachers proclaiming that, "Most people on death row I wouldn't weep tears for even if I found out they didn't kill that guy." I was reminded of this by an article in the New York Times today, about how the Wisconsin Innocence Project and its supporters are reeling after their poster child for wrongful conviction's indictment for a

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1132693037019401432005-11-22T15:45:00.000-05:002005-11-22T15:57:17.076-05:00

According to a professor, Moby Dick is really about the existence of God. (I have to say, that didn't jump out at me when I read it, but he mentioned it as if it were a matter of conventional wisdom.) Apparently it was the product of a school of thought that believed that there was a God who created the world and its natural laws, but wasn't necessarily benign or interested and would let us

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1132626663346552582005-11-21T21:25:00.000-05:002005-11-22T12:43:31.716-05:00

Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism are, respectively, the legislative and judicial solutions to the gap between the the world of the Torah and those of subsequent generations.(But they do share a common Executive. Kind of like the British Empire, actually...)

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1132502926304786022005-11-20T10:38:00.000-05:002005-11-20T11:17:11.070-05:00

So, yesterday we read Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac, which -- aside from being a puzzling and compelling story in its own right -- is very interesting for the things that have been read into it. One example would be the theory that Sarah's death is mentioned immediately afterwards because she drops dead upon discovering that her husband was willing to sacrifice her son on God's command

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1131994262951566862005-11-14T13:20:00.000-05:002005-11-14T13:55:17.340-05:00

[Note: this post may be subject to editing in the future, when I have more time and ready access to my books.]About four hundred years ago, James I & VI of England, Ireland and Scotland* decided that since the royal courts were technically his representatives and met in his name, he was personally empowered to act in a judge in any situation in which they were. Sir Edward Coke, (pronounced "Cook"

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1131645260750988052005-11-10T12:50:00.000-05:002005-11-10T12:54:20.763-05:00

Okay, I've gotten no responses to my matrilineal descent inquiries at all. I know my readership better than that! It doesn't have to be authoritative, but tell me what you do know, or have heard. It's an important question.Unrelatedly, there's a rose trellis down the street that's still in bloom, in mid-November in New England. That's very inspiring somehow, though maybe also a bit crazy.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1131494471218098472005-11-08T18:38:00.000-05:002005-11-08T19:04:41.646-05:00

I got an e-mail recently asking me about the Conservative Movement's policy on matrilineal descent (the rule that Judaism passes through the mother, so that the children of a Jewish woman are always automatically Jewish, but the children of a Jewish man are not). I was able to give a few incomplete answers, but I was wondering if my wonderful Judeo-geek readership could pool their various

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1131235444783473932005-11-05T19:02:00.000-05:002005-11-05T19:04:04.796-05:00

I have substantive things to say, but no time in which to write them. So for now, you get an article on the physics of cow-tipping.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1128815238514239322005-10-08T19:47:00.000-04:002005-10-08T19:47:18.520-04:00

Well, so much for that.

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1128610681854009862005-10-06T10:52:00.000-04:002005-10-06T11:31:51.750-04:00

Thus exits 5765, maybe the most theologically challenging year I can remember. It wasn't a particularly bad one as far as I was concerned – a bit reminiscent of a commiseration I had with a good friend sophomore year of college, which ended with the exchange, "Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger, I guess" "Or tired" – but for a twenty-four-year-old third-year law student who does

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1128606553671503492005-10-06T09:36:00.000-04:002005-10-06T09:49:13.703-04:00

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority seems to be charging an exit fee of $1.25 (equal to a normal fare, but not payable by monthly pass) for the privilege of leaving the Quincy Adams station. (Oddly, Braintree, which is further away from the city and would thus be expected to cost even more, did not have an exit fee as of the last time I was there.) I understand that the T has all sorts of

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1128030514321140712005-09-29T17:28:00.000-04:002005-09-29T17:48:34.366-04:00

According to the New York Times, this afternoon John Roberts was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by Justice John Paul Stevens.This inaugurates a new era in American law, and answers a long-pondered question of mine, namely, "Who swears in the Chief Justice?"

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1127407914960262422005-09-22T12:51:00.000-04:002005-09-22T12:55:14.946-04:00

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1792355,00.htmlI was just wondering this morning who the heck decided it made sense to name storms. How weird is that, once you start to think about it?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1127242149963272732005-09-20T14:46:00.000-04:002005-09-20T14:49:09.966-04:00

According the The New York Times:When Rita approached the Florida Keys on Monday with sustained winds of about 70 miles an hour, emergency officials ordered partial evacuations as far north as Broward County, even though the mainland was not expected to bear the storm's brunt. About 40,000 residents of the lower Keys were ordered to evacuate, and the normally carefree spirit of Key West was

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126883350066870102005-09-16T11:08:00.000-04:002005-09-16T11:11:06.470-04:00

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19269-1782424,00.htmlAny thoughts?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126629027775960512005-09-13T12:26:00.000-04:002005-09-13T12:30:27.783-04:00

One of the headers in my university's alphabetical database of e-journals is "Cheese Industry Profile: New Zealand" Followed by Cheese Industry Profiles for Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (who knew Taiwan had a cheese industry?), Thailand, the UK, the US, and Venezuela.Whoa.The things you find out doing research. Now, if I can only find the citation I'm

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126616365918681602005-09-13T08:55:00.000-04:002005-09-13T08:59:25.923-04:00

This is awesome. The things you never guess about books you read as a child -- though they did always seem to have about that sort of cultural mix, from about that time period.And I suppose it's a sign of the times that at first I automatically read "He wound up selling bathtubs on the Amazon" as "He wound up selling bathtubs on Amazon.com." Though really, which sounds more probable?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126576993329086872005-09-12T21:39:00.000-04:002005-09-12T22:08:07.396-04:00

A word about the late Chief Justice of the United States, William Rehnquist. There were many things about which I did not agree with him – I had particular trouble getting through his Establishment Clause opinions, a chorus of objections ringing out in my mind at every turn of phrase – and, in fact, as time went on and conservatism took a different track, there were many things on which no one

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126575307807706622005-09-12T21:27:00.000-04:002005-09-12T22:10:36.056-04:00

My age upon the date of Rehnquist's joining the Supreme Court was minus nine. He became Chief Justice the year my sister was born. I have a vague recollection of the fact of the Clarence Thomas hearings, and of my mother describing the nature of the controversy to me in terms that were admirably accurate while not being overly explicit. I was only the teensiest bit aware of Ginsburg's nomination,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1126213103573617962005-09-08T16:53:00.000-04:002005-09-08T16:58:23.580-04:00

...because there are entirely too many relevant topic to discuss. And maybe at some point soon, I will. But in the meantime -- I've been reading wine-confusion cases for Trademark class. A few quotes that I found interesting:From E&J Gallo Winery v. Consorzio del Gallo Nero, 782 F. Supp. 457 (N.D. Cal. 1991):The only opposition Gallo Nero offers to Gallo's characterization of the wine-buying

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1124431840240486002005-08-19T01:26:00.000-04:002005-08-19T02:13:36.663-04:00

Interesting question raised by some reading I did during research: what to make of this?[W]hatever theories of 'free will' theologians and social philosophers may develop with regard to the individual, there is no free will in the thinking and actions of the masses, any more than in the revolutions of planets, in the migrations of birds, and in the plunging of hordes of lemmings into the sea.*--

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1123478166364033222005-08-08T00:27:00.000-04:002005-08-08T12:17:03.430-04:00

I love being a research assistant. (Convenient, you say, since I am one.) After an evening spent looking at options for the year after next and wondering how I'm going to explain why I spent my second summer of law school as a research assistant -- the real answer is something like, 'Because I really, really enjoy it, so much that I was slightly undermotivated to look for other jobs by comparison

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1122607373500536542005-07-28T23:13:00.000-04:002005-08-02T20:19:16.783-04:00

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1122254263612091602005-07-24T21:13:00.000-04:002005-07-24T21:58:37.400-04:00

A while back, a friend asked me what the arguments were against an originalist reading of the Constitution – i.e., interpreting the Constitution in light of what it must have meant at the time it was written. IANALY, but I am a hopeless-legal-academic-in-training, and it’s a subject that’s interested me for a long time. Conveniently, I’m also both strongly attracted to, and highly ambivalent

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120760934961290172005-07-07T14:23:00.000-04:002005-07-07T14:38:20.440-04:00

From the Lord Mayor of London:"I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120357568545422492005-07-02T22:25:00.000-04:002005-07-02T22:27:09.200-04:00

In a discussion with a friend the other night, I mentioned how much the substance of the debate over abortion has changed over time. Today the issue is largely argued as a matter of ‘life’ versus ‘choice’, with the central questions being things like “When does life begin?” “How should the fact that we really have no good answer for when life begins affect our abortion policies?” and “Can an

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120258912354373872005-07-01T18:48:00.000-04:002005-07-01T19:01:52.360-04:00

As usual, I don't actually know enough to have a definitive opinion. But a few thoughts:1) History would seem to suggest that it's not all that easy to pack a court. A good case in point would be O'Connor, who was expected to be part of the group to take down Roe v. Wade, and ended up being the vote that's kept it around. Justices tend by nature to be rather strong-minded people, and because

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120099598842619632005-06-29T22:46:00.000-04:002005-06-29T22:47:47.050-04:00

One of the Moot Court judges was also a member of the clergy, leading one of the participants to speculate that he might be extra hard on the pro-Ten-Commandments-monument side, since he would naturally be sympathetic to them. I expressed puzzlement at the time, and continue to be puzzled each time I encounter the idea that religious people would automatically be inclined to prefer a stronger

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120097773936232022005-06-29T21:55:00.000-04:002005-06-29T22:16:13.956-04:00

I admit, I haven't had a chance to read the new Supreme Court cases; when I do I may post something, though I'll have to wait and see whether there's anything to say. One thing that did occur to me anyway:My law school's intramural Moot Court case this year was based on a fact pattern modeled after Van Orden. We argued the case four times, and were judged each time by a different person, with a

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1120100774024595332005-06-26T22:51:00.000-04:002005-06-29T23:06:14.030-04:00

I guess I've been a bit out of it; I only hear that former Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered (or acquiesced to, or whatever) the installation of curtains in front of the partially-clad figures of Justice and Law in the Great Hall where he made formal speeches now that he has departed and those curtains have been removed. Oh, well. I'm not sure I have anything to say about it anyway, except

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1118983437899323012005-06-16T23:35:00.000-04:002005-06-17T00:48:45.043-04:00

I'm contemplating starting a "Weird Info of the Day" feature, though the catch is that I'm not sure I learn something truly bizarre every day. However, multiple people have, over the years, expressed a wish to commission me to stand around and spew random information at them, so it seems like it might be a valuable public service. (In fact, it seems like it may be my chief marketable talent,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1117943294756279932005-06-04T23:47:00.000-04:002005-06-04T23:56:45.600-04:00

I'm collecting a list of ugly (or at least unseemly) words for beautiful concepts.* So far, I have**:bucolicpulchritudecrepuscularAny suggestions?* Don't ask me why. Really, does one need a reason?** "Chryselephantine" gets an honorable mention of sorts. It doesn't quite do justice to the artistry of what it describes, but -- both etymologically and sound-wise -- it's pretty awesome in its own

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1117813545973000552005-06-03T11:37:00.000-04:002005-06-17T00:51:09.523-04:00

The majority of European newspaper articles on the current constitutional-referendum situation seem to frame the story by saying that the French voted "non" and the Dutch voted "nee" -- as opposed to, say, simply reporting that they'd both rejected the constitution, or using whatever the word for "no" is in the newspaper's native language. While in any given case this is likely a choice based on

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1117581917720128292005-05-31T19:22:00.000-04:002005-06-03T11:47:23.303-04:00

So now we know. But what a shame it didn't turn out to be Rehnquist. That would have been awesome.[Ed.: Though, as my father points out, that would mean that Deep Throat now has a trache. Which is a disturbing idea.]

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1117139289241588932005-05-26T16:25:00.000-04:002005-05-31T19:26:15.183-04:00

"If we only had some God in the country's laws, instead of being in such a sweat to get him into the Constitution, it would be better all around." -- Mark Twain, Letter to W. D. Howells, 9/18/1875

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1116607057632677262005-05-20T12:35:00.000-04:002005-05-20T12:41:40.710-04:00

Three things I can never help wondering about, when reading The Divine Comedy:1) What would Beatrice think of it?2) What would Vergil think of it?3) How would Dante feel about going down in art history as The Guy in That Hat?

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1116373485208570502005-05-17T19:36:00.000-04:002005-05-19T20:32:40.430-04:00

An expensive jewelry ad on the back of The Boston Globe Magazine, showing an artfully-photographed pile of rings ("priced from $750 to $15,000"), in different metals, styles and shapes*, scattered across the corner of a Massachusetts marriage certificate, with the caption,"It's been legal for a year.Make your move already."* Some of the rings seem, or at least appear in the photograph, to be

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1115582201618835512005-05-08T15:30:00.000-04:002005-05-08T16:10:31.663-04:00

I dislike the idea that there is anything too obscure to be Googlable, in this day and age. Even obscure spellings of weird post-facto rationalized spellings of inexplicably weird archaic English words. So, to do my part:Wakegoose (n.): obscure alternate spelling of 'Wayzgoose', which was itself probably an invention of a later dictionary compiler, who wanted to make etymological sense of the

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1113191641928182012005-04-10T23:42:00.000-04:002005-04-10T23:54:01.936-04:00

Some ideas seem to come up everywhere, when they come up at all. I first started thinking about this post while browsing through The Fellowship of the Ring the other night, realizing my attention was primarily drawn to the travel-writing, the walking through woods while nothing in particular happened. And then at lunch today I was talking about how my day school had sorted the Judaics-studies

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1112637939328311672005-04-04T13:44:00.000-04:002005-04-04T14:21:36.590-04:00

The Law School announced that today’s Daily Mass would be a special commemoration of the Pope, and invited all students to attend, so I went. I think I was the only non-Catholic there, but I also knew almost everyone (the priest officiating actually judged a round of Moot Court), which sort of made it both weirder and more normal at once. It turned out, through a fluke of calendrical dynamics,

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1112497045060556262005-04-02T21:22:00.000-05:002005-04-03T16:30:15.953-04:00

First of all, can we not talk about whether John Paul II was good for the Jews? Let’s leave aside, for the moment, the fact that he was the first Pope to enter a synagogue (unless you count Peter, who must have). The fact that he was the Pope under whose leadership the Vatican formally recognized – however quietly – that the Jews have their own covenant with God and do not need to be Christian

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1111705175283739642005-03-24T17:21:00.000-05:002005-03-24T21:03:52.723-05:00

Substantively, I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said. The case seems to me to be an question of fact; if the facts are considered resolved, all the poking at the law is not going to make a difference. I have no personal way of knowing what the facts are. I sympathize with Terri Schiavo's family, regardless of whether I think their conclusions have merit. May none of us ever

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1106242992169247872005-01-20T13:25:00.000-05:002005-01-20T12:55:27.783-05:00

I had the oddest sensation, listening to the Inaugural Address, that I would have felt much differently about it if it had come from someone else. Almost anyone else, actually. There was sort of a major disconnect between what I thought of the words he was saying and what I was reading into it. Part of it was the fact that it was a US government officer saying it, part that it was the President

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912342.post-1106111318984996212005-01-18T23:16:00.000-05:002005-01-19T00:33:41.676-05:00

As temperatures in New England dip toward zero, I can't help but wonder: how did the Pilgrims do it? How did only half of them die, and that half largely from disease, when most of them didn't even have houses? Taking my hand out of its mitten last night to make a quick phone call as I waited for the trolley, by the time I finished my fingers were almost too stiff to lock the keys. At the law

fleurdelis28noreply@blogger.com3