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February 28, 2008

Tar Heel Blues.

I
am beginning to feel that I work at the Law School Subdivision of the University of North Carolina Athletics Program.

The law school is bordered on two of three sides by athletic fields -- one a practice field for the football team; the other a field for the field hockey and lacrosse teams.

For weeks now, the field hockey/lacrosse field -- a synthetic astroturf field that was regularly watered (!) through the fall notwithstanding the region's record-setting drought -- has been under some sort of radical reconstruction. And so trucks and service vehicles for that project constantly clog the adjacent parking lot, which (in theory, at least) is supposed to serve the law school.

And now a major portion of the law school's parking is off-limits because of a multi-day indoor track meet. Guards stand at the entrance to all of the law school lots and wave faculty, staff, and students away because of the needs of the Athletics Program.

The result of all of this (and other athletic events that routinely claim the law school's grounds for their purposes) is periodic turmoil for the School of Law. I myself came within about 3 minutes of having to cancel my Constitutional Law class this morning because the guard refused to allow me to enter. Faculty members are being pointed to specific spaces where they will be permitted to park in a lot that's supposed to be open to us all (and where we pay for the privilege of parking). Faculty members who can't get in are idling their cars and reading at the steering wheel, waiting for permission to enter their own workplace. Faculty members coming to the office for research and writing and class preparation on the weekends are often being turned away to make room for sports events.

It's bad enough that the law school will have to relocate to a satellite property two miles from campus in order to grow, rather than simply occupying a contiguous piece of the open acreage that surrounds the law school and that spends most of each day vacant and unused. Perhaps there's some sense in a university's disconnecting its law school from the rest of its campus in deference to field hockey. I confess that I don't see it.

But it's just absurd to frustrate an academic unit's core missions of teaching and research in order to open up some prime parking for a track meet.

When I arrived here ten years ago, the law school was in the midst of construction on an expansion project that took years to complete. Our next-door neighbor, the School of Government, also sat mired in construction that lasted for years on end. But when the football team needed an indoor practice facility, an enormous building -- the Eddie Smith Field House -- sprang up virtually overnight in the shadow of the School of Law and the School of Government.

I suppose that episode should have taught me all I needed to know about the position of athletics in the university power structure. But I guess I'd forgotten. Our current situation is reminding me.

Posted by Eric at 3:08 PM

February 27, 2008

Mayhem Down Under.

I
n Australia back in November, a family dog kept a snake from eating a child.

Now we hear from Australia that a snake recently ate a family dog while the children watched in horror.

Coincidence? I doubt it.

Up next: Australian Kid Eats Snake While Family Dog Watches.

Posted by Eric at 2:51 PM

February 24, 2008

My Mom

mom

O
ctober 30, 1934 - February 24, 2008

Posted by Eric at 4:23 PM

February 20, 2008

Barack Obama Remembers

I
t's a small thing, but a nice thing: Barack Obama's statement of yesterday noting the Day of Remembrance.

Posted by Eric at 12:32 PM

No Need To Fly Your Learjet Up to Nova Scotia ...

... to see tonight's total eclipse of the moon.

If you've got clear skies, check it out. Should be pretty.

Posted by Eric at 9:13 AM

February 18, 2008

Day of Remembrance, 2008

T
he 19th of February is the Day of Remembrance -- a day to recall the forced exclusion and incarceration of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry in World War II, and to think about the lessons of that episode for today and the future. In recent years, the Japanese American community has also encouraged people to remember those of German and Italian ancestry -- principally, though not exclusively, aliens -- who were also swept up in the wartime hysteria.

I'll mark this year's Day of Remembrance with a few moving pieces by internee artist Estelle Ishigo.


Posted by Eric at 9:29 PM

The Obama Plagiarism Scandal: It's Much, Much Worse!

E
veryone is screaming about Barack Obama's supposed plagiarism of Deval Patrick's "Just Words" speech.

Here at IsThatLegal we've set our crack team of researchers to work, and we've discovered something that's going to blow the lid off this whole thing.

It turns out that Deval Patrick himself cribbed major portions of his speech without attribution!

At one point, for example, Patrick said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." It turns out that Ted Sorensen John F. Kennedy said that!

And we have learned that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" were actually the words of Franklin Roosevelt. (no link available -- no time right now -- researchers are still trying to identify the precise source.)

"I have a dream" also sounds familiar to me, but I can't quite place it. We're working on that one.

Posted by Eric at 3:29 PM

February 11, 2008

Wow. Just wow.

Posted by Eric at 7:05 PM

How Cool Is This?

D
id you know that John Paul Jones teaches Admiralty Law?

(It was either that or Heavy Metal Law, I suppose.)

Posted by Eric at 2:49 PM

"Come get 'slant-eyed' at the Goat!"

A
t Mixed Race America, appropriate outrage about anti-Asian prejudice at a local bar.

Here's the flyer in question.

Posted by Eric at 2:34 PM

Is McCain's Surge Really Working? No.

T
his from a good friend in the Army's medical corp serving in Iraq:

"Anyhow, this second deployment is totally different. . . we are losing Soldiers on the daily! My Unit is operating a Level II TMC here right in the heart of Baghdad and trust me, we have seen every kind and type of injury you can imagine. We are working 7 days a week/ 14 hour shifts. There is only time for sleep and work and nothing much in between."

So -- for commentators like Andrew Sullivan -- how many more dead and maimed American Servicemen is enough before he asks, "is the surge really a success"?

For the likes of Fox News' Fred Barnes, how many more years of "winning" in Iraq can American servicemen stand?

The surge is a failure, whether measured by the non-existent independent Iraqi government McCain -- and Bush -- promised us. Or by American casualties.

Sorry . . . . Not a success.

Do you hear that Andrew Sullivan . . . McCain is wrong.

Posted by shertaugh at 9:41 AM

February 7, 2008

A Tip.

O
K, so here's a little tip, just from me to you, grounded in personal experience.

If you're away caring for your aging and ailing parents, and you're looking for some brief diversion, you might want choose a movie other than The Savages.

Posted by Eric at 8:50 PM

Islamophobia Goes To The Movies

T
his is how fear works: a Raleigh, NC, woman in a burqa goes to the movies, and soon there are rumors of a terrorist attack.

Posted by Eric at 8:19 AM

February 4, 2008

A Clip from "The Office"

D
avid Brent practices a corporate motivational speech he's going to give by asking his lieutenant, Gareth, to insult him. ("The Swindon lot" to which Gareth refers is a group of employees who have recently been transferred to Brent's office in Slough from the company's office in Swindon.)

Posted by Eric at 1:41 PM

February 1, 2008

Resurfacing, for a moment anyway.

I
've spent the last several days having and then beginning to recover from a partial meniscectomy.

The major downside so far: my knee sounds like a half-empty gas tank. Slosh, slosh. Disconcerting.

The major upside so far: I have watched both seasons of the original English version of "The Office." (Does anyone know why they quit after just two seasons?)

UPDATE: OK, I lied. When I posted this, I hadn't watched the last episode of Season Two. Just watched it now. What a sad ending.

Posted by Eric at 1:14 PM