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LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSIONPosted by Ron Coleman on March 21, 2008
Today is the Jewish holiday of Purim. (Unlike the biblically-based Jewish holidays, this is one, like Chanuka, during which I’m allowed to blog!)
As well explained in the Book of Esther, it’s the holiday of turnabout, surprises, false identities, intrigue, perhaps some emotional legerdemain, and not a little spiritual confusion. The outcome isn’t always funny, or even fun, except perhaps in the sense of the divine comedy.
It all comes around in the end, though!
Posted in Faith and Works, Jocularity, Past is prologue | 10 Comments »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 20, 2008
ABC News breathlessly reports, “Osama Threatens
Europe Over Cartoons.”
I am certain he has been dead for years, and the more often he is propped up like this with stock photos certainter I get. You can imagine how rock-solid certain that is with a guy like me, already.
Posted in Medialites, Oppression, Orient | 3 Comments »
Posted by pennywit on March 20, 2008
This morning, three different national editorial pages offer three different perspectives on the Iraq war five years on, but only one newspaper offers a dollop of common sense. The New York Times excoriates the Bush administration for not paying attention to facts. At the Wall Street Journal editorial desk, hope springs eternal. And the Washington Post bursts with righteous anger as it calls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and President Bush to task for living in fantasy worlds.
Of the three, the Post makes the most sense. Five years into the invasion and occupation of Iraq, this nation’s leaders owe it to their constituents to move beyond swapping blame for the Iraq situation and arguing about how we got there. As the Post urges, they also need to move beyond the idiotic dichotomy of “stay the course” vs. “withdraw now” that has dominated airwaves for the past five years. Neither blame nor fantasies serve the American electorate.
I do not argue that America should not reflect on the Iraq invasion and its consequences. But with the exception of a few bright spots, the intense partisan rhetoric has shed much heat and little light on the Iraq situation. Moreover, the “lessons learned” examination of Iraq can wait. More immediate and more essential is coming to grips with reality. The United States toppled the Iraqi government and has continued interests both in that nation and in the greater region. How will it manage those interests going forward?
Posted in Politics and Poker | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 19, 2008
Instapundit links to this headline:
ABC NEWS: Buried in Eloquence, Obama Contradictions About Pastor.
It is rather ironic how the definition of eloquence has devolved. It once meant a talent for powerfully, persuasively and elegantly communicating ideas. Now it is used to describe the use of pretty language to obscure meaning.
There are other words for that.
Posted in Medialites, Politics and Poker, Style | 23 Comments »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 19, 2008
New York Magazine (NSFW if you read out loud) has a good rundown. Literally. You have got to see the magazine cover — which, actually, has it wrong.
Spitzer’s Folly was absolutely not about that thing. The article actually makes this pretty clear.
Posted in Homo sapiens, Politics and Poker | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 19, 2008
Get this:
New Jersey prosecutors have subpoenaed records of JuicyCampus.com, a Web site that publishes anonymous, often malicious gossip about college students.
Language on the site ranges from catty to hateful and offensive. One thread, for example, on the “most overrated Princeton student” quickly dissolves into name-calling, homophobia and anti-Semitism.
JuicyCampus may be violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act by suggesting that it doesn’t allow offensive material but providing no enforcement of that rule — and no way for users to report or dispute the material, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said Tuesday.
What a load of baloney! I have litigated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act frontwards, backwards and sideways, and believe me — this would be an unbelievable stretch. If Milgram’s interpretation were to fly, it would make that statute an omnibus be-a-good-person-online law with essentially no meaningful limitations. Not that I doubt that the Attorney General would love to have such power, but that would certainly be beyond anything contemplated by the New Jersey Legislature when it was passed.
Of course beyond what the Act itself provides, such an application of it would be unconstitutional too.
Unfortunately, neither of those are giant concerns to many judges in the Garden State.
By the way, this is not an endorsement of online defamation, especially when done anonymously. On the contrary. But please, let’s call a fraud a fraud.
Posted in Lex scripta, Nuvo-Techno, Oppression | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 19, 2008
In a liquor store, in Clifton, New Jersey.
So this is what it’s come to!
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Posted by pennywit on March 18, 2008
This morning, a colleague of mine forwarded me the documentation for the mortgage-backed securities that Bear Stearns held. After rifling through the papers, I found out why they ran into trouble.
Turns out that they held securities for mortgages on Whiteacre, Blackacre, Yellowacre, Redacre and Blueacre. As any law student or graduate knows, owning those properties is a recipe for trouble.
Posted in Jocularity | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ron Coleman on March 17, 2008
Random thoughts, random links to Jewish blogs, on the almost-eve of Purim.
Posted in Blogophilia | 1 Comment »
