Vets and Education

May 27, 2014

The politicians are on a rant about the Veterans Administration. There’s certainly plenty to be concerned with, although those who are hollering the loudest are the same crew that limit funding for veterans and most everything else. That aside, while politicians do what they do, real people are making a difference. Here’s a piece by my friend Melissa Vito, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, and Vice Provost for Academic Initiative and Student Success at the University of Arizona:  After Vets Have Served, UA Reaches Out to Serve Them. Dr. Vito’s title says much about the U of A’s commitment to students, and the column reveals serious efforts to respect the service of veterans. If

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Is the Court We Have the Court We Want?

May 26, 2014

Nine justices sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Eight—Justice Elena Kagan is the exception—were federal appellate court judges before they ascended, with four serving on the D.C. Circuit, two on the 2nd Circuit (Connecticut, New York, and Vermont), and one each on the 1st Circuit (the rest of New England) and the 3rd Circuit (Mid-Atlantic states). Only Justice Anthony Kennedy, who served on the 9th Circuit, does not come from one of the 13 original states. (Justice Stephen Breyer was born in San Francisco and graduated from Stanford, but went to Harvard for law school and has spent his professional life on the East Coast. Justice Clarence Thomas also spent time in Missouri early in his

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Testing, testing: The Friday Curmudgeon

May 23, 2014

The Friday Curmudgeon is a new feature that may or may not last. I’ve got some “in the life” issues, and for reasons unknown Andy Rooney passed through my head while I was thinking about one of them. Mr. Rooney worked for 60 Minutes at CBS from 1978 until he died in 2011. He ranted on and on about this and that for many years. People listened. I’m sure many people thought he was (more than) a bit of a nut, but ranting was his job, and he performed.

In fact, Mr. Rooney earned his right to rant. He was a war correspondent during World War II, and went to work for CBS in 1949. I, on the other hand,

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Stupid Talk!

May 22, 2014

It’s everywhere, and while it may by my memory playing tricks on me, I don’t remember so much “stupid talk” in the past. Gary Kiehne, running for Congress in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, claimed “[i]f you look at all the fiascos that have occurred, 99% of them have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people.” (Mr. Kiehne apologized promptly and unconditionally.)

Rep. Ted Yoho (Rep.-Fl.) said:  “I’ve had some radical ideas about voting and it’s probably not a good time to tell them, but you used to have to be a property owner to vote.” And the National Review Online published a piece by A.J. Delgado on Monday, Crying Rape, which asks the

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“Well, I’ll Just Say …”

May 21, 2014

“Well, I’ll just say …” is a phrase I hear from time to time. The conversation usually involves a client, and it’s probably someone with whom I have not had a long-standing relationship. And it comes along when I’ve identified a problem or issue that gets in the way of the desired outcome.

Now, I’ve been practicing law for 11,899 days. (With a calculator, I’m counting, and for those who are math-challenged, I’m five months away from 33 years.) I’ve been blessed with many clients who I’ve been representing for 70-90% of those days, and with them it’s “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but,” plain and simple. I’ve also noticed, for most of those days, that by some

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The Wednesday Curator – 5/21/14

May 20, 2014

Wednesday again. Here goes:

Jonathan Gatehouse, writing for the Canadian weekly Macleans on May 15, has noticed a phenomenon he calls America Dumbs Down. Well, duh!!! (#tbt—which, in our acronym-flooded culture means Truth Be Told—I was sort of hoping others wouldn’t notice our dumbing down. On the other hand, others would have to be pretty, pretty dumb not to notice.

Still Tinkering by Linda Greenhouse, in the May 15 issue of the New York Times, takes off on Justice Harry Blackmun’s comment, in a dissent from a refusal to take a death penalty case in 1994, that “[f]rom this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Ms. Greenhouse calls to attention very well the

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Graduation 2014

May 18, 2014

Graduation! Truly a special time, when all around us are young (mostly) people who are ready to make their way in the world. (Even as I write these words I get verklempt, which is Yiddish for excited, overjoyed, and full of emotion.)

I was walking to Brueggers for a bagel on Thursday for lunch and ran into a line of cars the likes of which we only see downtown on Friday evenings, Second Saturdays, and the day in May when some of the colleges at the University of Arizona hold graduation ceremonies at the Tucson Convention Center arena. Verklempt.

Every time I checked Facebook today, there was another picture of a graduate, usually with proud parents. Verklempt.

And then

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Mark’s Excellent Saturday Evening!

May 17, 2014

I know a Saturday that is excellent must include two or more names for any excellent experience requires at least two people. Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) had an excellent adventure! (They also had a bogus journey, and are working on something else that has not yet jelled.) Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) had several adventures together, all of which seemed excellent for them. (Maybe not so much for viewers.) Skipping at least a couple of generations, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour—yes, that’s three people, but in those days there had to be a girl—did well with seven “on the road” movies.

So this post is about solo time. Ms. J is away at

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Frustrated With Meaningless Journalism About Numbers!

May 16, 2014

Many years ago I read a terrific book, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, by John Allen Paulos. It calls out and destroys myths about math in a very readable manner. Alas, in and amongst the books—one reader referred to my being inundated with books earlier in the day—I cannot find my copy of Mr. Paulos’ book. I do, however, have some pet peeves of my own when it comes to numbers and the news. Here are three:

Late afternoon drive time radio reports tell me “the markets were mixed today.” In stock-speak that means less than all of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ, and the S&P (Standard & Poors) 500 are up or down at the market

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Too Many Books!

May 15, 2014

Bom·bard:  attack (a place or person) continuously with bombs, shells, or other missiles. Yes, I get all that, but books? Can a person be bombarded with books?

I just did a quick, rough walk-around survey of our house. Eight hardcovers on my night table. 25 or so books in the study that are recently purchased and not yet finished. (Some don’t have their spines cracked yet!) The new John Paul Stevens book, Six Amendments:  How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, arrived yesterday, and is sitting on the counter in the kitchen. I only opened the box tonight.

That’s the books in their traditional, physical incarnations. The Kindle has more than 15 books that I have

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