Terrible Idea (.net)

Posting turbulence ahead because of (1) driving home, where internet is pretty touch-and-go, and (2) a writing competition whose submission is due Monday.

To the Virgins, to make much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

I’ve had a renaissance of poetry reading recently. I’ll try to put together a few thoughts on this and some of my other favorites.

Everything that may reasonably be said about William F. Buckley, Jr. has probably been said today, or will be said shortly.  Rather than repeat it, I will point to J Urban’s take on Buckley, which says a lot about the man, and give a link to a video:

And a quick transcription, of Buckley to Gore Vidal: “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-nazi, or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

I wish I could say that and sound half as classy as Bill Buckley (“Buckles” to those who loved him). The interesting thing about that clip is that Gore Vidal was making a pretty good point (or at least one I would like to have heard fleshed out; I know very little about Vietnam-era politics), but was completely drowned out by Buckley’s (let’s face it) uncouth and unwarranted comments. Sounding classy is most of the battle in politics, I guess.

The scene: Property class. The professor is lecturing on about some obscure common-law concept that is convoluted and (in this student’s opinion) outmoded. (It was tenancy by the entirety, for those who care.) Questions are asked, and the hypotheticals become more and more far-fetched. The professor finally gives one last twisting and turning hypothetical, then asks, “so what happens in this case?”

But before anyone can attempt to unpack what he just said, he throws his hands in the air and says, “OK, too much talk.” The class breaths a sigh of relief, and maybe a giggle or two of nervous laughter. Then, in a fit of self-realization, the professor quietly adds, “I guess I shouldn’t say ‘too much talk,’ since that’s all I’ve got to offer.” The class laughs at the joke, and jovially moves on to the next topic.

And I’m left with this feeling that it wasn’t that much of a joke. Or if it was, it wasn’t very funny. Law school really doesn’t do much to prepare us for real live lawyering. Sure, we have our two credit “Introduction to Advocacy” class, but four memos in eight months doth not a lawyer make. I really and truly do love my “substantive law” classes like property, but even though we read real cases, we are reading the very few gem cases that have bubbled up through the slimy morass of the American judiciary. The cases we’ll encounter in practice will be far more mundane — the outcomes will turn on something wholly banal and boring, rather than on something that is excellently illustrative of what the common law is or should be.

Every few months or so, Slashdot (for those out of the loop, its tagline says it all: News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.) will have a discussion about computer science education. It may arise from an “Ask Slashdot” submission, or any number of other sources, but it will happen. And when it does, one of the points that is consistently raised is that if you have a good foundation in the theory of programming computers, you will be able to map those skills onto whatever new programming language you encounter, or whatever problem you encounter. The best computer science cirricula are based on teaching the fundamentals, then working on the implementations in the real world. Trade schools that teach on a language-by-language basis don’t cut it compared to a real CS degree. Basically, theory first, then appliation.

I think this is roughly analogous to law school. However, in a computer science program, you are still programming, even if it’s not for real clients. I can’t imagine trying to make the argument that what law students do every day in class, and in preparation for class, is anything close to what a real lawyer has to do for his clients. The method of teaching the fundamentals of lawyering is divorced from the actual practice of lawyering in a way that teaching the fundamentals of programming is not.

Of course, the day-to-day activities of an attorney do involve lots of talk, I’m sure. But is the “talk” in which we engage in law school the right kind of “talk” to prepare us to be attorneys? I must admit that I don’t know yet, but it seems that law school really may be too much talk.

My previous blogging efforts petered out long ago.  I got bogged down by unwieldy software, ugly themes, and something akin to writer’s block.  Since I stopped posting on this site, I’d tried to start several different anonymous blogs, but they failed for various reasons.  I think of it like going to the gym (something I never do, incidentally, but I’ve heard people talk about this phenomenon): You won’t do it unless you have a friend to force you to do it.  So, J Urban and his blog will hopefully serve as a sort of a “lifting buddy,” inspiring me to keep posting.

So, here it is.  Posts will be about a variety of things.  I’ll write about the law, about movies I see, about books I read, about technology, and about life in general.  The law, because I’m  law student, and that’s pretty much all I think about during the day.  Movies, because I love movies and, increasingly these days, TV shows.  Books, because I was an English major, and I still try to keep my mind fresh by reading non-law-related books.  Technology, because computer science and coding was my first love, academically speaking.  And life in general, beause I’m a young country lad experiencing the (relatively) big city for the first time.

This should be fun.