iCommunicado

Liquid Mountineering

2010-07-21T22:39:00.001+01:00

When the Bar Exam is over, I'm taking up this new sport:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3St1GgoHQ

Where I am now

2010-06-23T18:26:00.005+01:00

This past month has been one of many graduations for my family:

Javan graduated from Wheaton in early May:

I managed to graduate from Notre Dame the week after. It was great, the whole family came out for it and we had a wonderful long weekend of midwestern sun and celebration.

Joel graduated from high school as well! And I'm pretty sure his GPA blew the socks off mine.

My parents threw us all a big party back in Port Orchard last week.

Though the schooling is done for me, I'm still slaving away at the books. Hopefully I'll pass the New York bar exam, which I am taking at the end of July.

Rebirth

2010-06-23T18:19:00.002+01:00

This one is for you Grandpa Miner!

I got a great graduation card from my grandpa the other day. He's 91 years old and as tech-savvy as your average high schooler. He reminded me that I haven't posted anything on this blog since about this time last year.

So, for grandpa and for anyone else out there who still happens across this blog on occasion, I am going to start blogging again.

Prestige

2009-08-09T02:36:00.004+01:00

I was in Haiti a few weeks ago. Who would have thought they had one of the best American style lagers in the world? In 2000 it took the gold medal at some kind of world beer contest for lagers.

I'm not sure if you can find it in the states, but I hope so, it's really good. And I ask you, "how cool is it to drink Haitian beer?" Very cool!

Back Home

2009-08-09T02:28:00.002+01:00

I'm back in Port Orchard for a few weeks. It's so great! Today I went kayaking for about 4 hours, and then I came home, pulled out the chainsaw and cut down some of the many trees growing out of control around my parents house. Good to be home!

My summer in New York went really well. Loved the firm, liked the work, and should be going back to work for them after I graduate! It's funny what a contrast New York was to the rural sort of outdoor country life I grew up with here in Port Orchard. The thing is, I really like both! I loved living in the busy city, and I look forward to going back. But I also love the chance to get out in nature and to work on the land. Maybe someday I will figure out how to put the two together???

I'll be relaxing here with my parents for the next couple weeks, and then heading back to South Bend to finish my last year of law school.

Hopefully I will use the more relaxed life here to blog a bit more. There are quite a few things I have been too busy to write about, but I would like to get them out on paper.

Some quick thoughts upon returning to the US

2009-05-18T13:28:00.003+01:00

It's not culture shock: London and NYC are too similar for that. But I have been struck by some really brilliant things I left behind in London, and also found myself really gratified to be back home. Here are the things that have stuck out.

America:

service at restaurants, it's fast, friendly and effective! So much better than the UK
hamburger, I ate a cheeseburger at one of New York's supposed top 5 burger places. It's an Irish style pub that serves food. So delicious. English beef just does not taste like American beef.
prices: wow! I don't have to multiply the price of something by 1.5 to get the dollar amount! That's fantastic. I never thought I would say that NYC was cheap, but it is!

London:

Escalators, I miss the unbreakable social rule that all people must stand to the right and walk on the left. I'm a fast walker, so that was like heaven for me. I will miss it.
The Tube and buses. NYC doesn't have a bad system, if fact it's great. But I just love the tube more, it feels cleaner, and you can't even compare the london bus system to new york's. In London the bus stands actually have maps of the buses routes in them, and they have displays to tell you when the next one is coming. Here you get nothing.
My friends. I'll miss you guys. It was one of the best years of my life, thanks to you.

Because everyone needs some emo...

2009-05-01T20:53:00.003+01:00

I'm currently listening to the album "Wooden Bones" by Pilot Speed. You can preview it here. It's good, definitely got some emo style to it, but nothing quite as sappy as old "Dashboard." As far as sound goes, they are somewhat like "One Republic," but I hesitate to say that because One Republic gets tiresome so fast. In contrast, I think Wooden Bones has staying power, the lyrics are more full and thoughtful. I particularly like track 4, Ain't No Life. It's a classic sort of melancholic emo tune, but rather than wallowing in some sort of lost love, it proclaims something more hopeful. This may be a band to watch out for. Catch, but with some depth.

(A note to my parents or grandparents or those unfamiliar with the term emo: It's a musical sub-genre of rock, shortened from "emotional." It tends to be melodic and a bit meloncholic instrumentally, with the lyrics often dealing with past pain or emotion in a confesional stlye.)

The tube

2009-04-16T11:13:00.002+01:00

One of the things I love about riding on the tube is the announcements that they make whenever things are not running properly. If you on the El in Chicago, or the subway in Manhattan, the train often stops dead and they never tell you why. But in London, even if you are delayed for about 30 seconds waiting for a red signal, the driver will come on, and in perfect English tell you what's happening. One announcement a few weeks ago was rather tragic "we are experiencing delays due to a person under the train on the District Line." But I think this one illustrates rather well just how important the information is to the tube passengers. They want to know what's going on with their train, and they train will tell them, even if it's really sensitive.

My favorite announcement so far was by a guy with a strong Indian accent who informed us that "Warren Street station is closed for refurbishment. This train will be non-stopping through Warren Street."

Beer as old as me

2009-02-19T19:14:00.003Z

Last week I took a trip to Belgium with two of my friends who were visiting from Seattle. We found an amazing little beer pub in Antwerp called Der Kulminator. This place deserves a blog post of it's own, as I believe it may be the holy grail of excellent beer. But for now let me devote this post to the very best beer I have ever tasted, and likely ever will taste in my life.

Der Kulminator has been run by a husband and wife team since the late 1970's and they have been storing up and aging beer since they opened. On their menu, which has about 500 listed beers, was a Chimay from 1982 which Nate decided he was going to try. At 18 euro, I was thinking it may be a bit steep a price and didn't get one of my own, but I had a few sips of his and it turned out to be more than worth it.

Now i knew that aged wines get better. I've tested out that theory, and it's true. I had also heard the same of fine beer, but never tried it until the Chimay. The bartender, the wife, was pretty excited to open the bottle, she had to pull out a special opener to carefully take off the bottle cap, which had started to rust slightly. She lovingly poured it into a nice wide Chimay glass and encouraged us to let it sit for a little and enjoy the smell. Indeed, it was like a blooming flower that smelled like all the most excellent scents of beer, the malt, the spice, the sweetness and a hint of honey-foamyness on the air. The taste following the nose was absolutely superb.

I think the best way I can describe it is to ask you to consider the taste of Chimay, and then imagine every element of that taste being heightened and perfected. For my philosophically minded friends, consider this being the true form of a beer, of which before then I had only experienced the shadow.

Lest you think that what I was tasting was simply in my mind...we got a bottle of new Chimay to compare side by side. The old one really was better by leaps and bounds.

You can see the dust of 26 years storage still on the bottle.

sorry folks

2009-02-18T23:55:00.000Z

For some reason Blogger flagged my blog as a "spam blog." I have no idea what that means, but it's some automated thing.... I've attempted to have this cleared up, so hopefully that will happen within the next day or two, but until it does, I can't use the blog fully.

-jonathan

This week in the British English : Bits

2009-02-17T08:24:00.003Z

Today's phrase was brought to my attention by my friends Nate and Ben. They came and visited me from Seattle last week and noted that orange juice is sold "with bits"and with "no bits," rather than with "pulp" or without. I currently have "no bits" in my refrigerator.

Free Philip Rizk

2009-02-10T10:48:00.002Z

LEGO!

2009-02-06T11:42:00.003Z

An entertaining photo series of NY done in Lego:

My Favorite:

This is fun

2009-02-05T10:13:00.002Z

A picture of me in Zambia

London Snow Is Falling Down...

2009-02-03T20:00:00.003Z

Hooray for lame titles: But I couldn't resist.

We had some snow here yesterday, it appears to have made worldwide news coverage...I guess it's been 20 years since they got snow like this. It was probably about 5 inches in London, and it totally shut down the city. I got stranded on Sunday night and had to walk about 30 minutes as the buses were not running regularly and for some reason the tube closed. Really, I understand the streets having issues, and closing down, but the tube is underground, (where there is no snow) so I didn't understand why that was a problem.

Anyway, I got a snow day on Monday! Haven't had one of those since highschool.

Here are some pictures, it was quite pleasant for a day, but this city doesn't believe in snow plows or snow shovels, so everything is a slushy, gray mess today.

Trafalgar Square viewed from School.

The square, looking toward Parliament.

The Catholic church on my block.

The view of my neighborhood from my balcony.

Amsterdam Reviewed

2009-02-02T20:33:00.009Z

When you say "Amsterdam" the first thing most people seem to think of is the Red Light District and Space Cakes. I've never been interested in either, but I do really love Amsterdam. There is SO MUCH MORE to the city than the stereotypes. The design of the city is spectacular. The rings of canals catch my imagination. They lend a sense of natural vitality to the city, reminding me of something pastoral, maybe agricultural, green or natural, flowing placidly wherever you wander.
All this fits the Dutch architectural style so well. The tall thin houses, many of them former converted warehouses with the arm of a tackle and pulley system still to be seen at the peak, with strong exposed wood beams, rugged brick and tastefully simple open windows and bold painted shutters.
You can't mistake the style once you've seen it.I guess what the city has is a combination of two things I love: the canals lend a hint of being in nature walking beside a stream, and the houses surrounding it remind me somehow of building tree forts as a kid.

It's a great city by night too.

Also, some small cars.

Current Listening

2009-01-31T17:03:00.002Z

I think most of my friends have been on to these guys for a while, but I'm behind the times. Nonetheless, I am really loving The Crane Wife by the Decemberists. It's a clever and well put together album that tells a story. If you are not yet a fan, I do recommend buying the album, but before you judge it, listen through the whole thing at least 3 or 4 times. It takes a while to make its full impact.

Redundant

2009-01-27T12:37:00.000Z

Another phrase in the British English.

If you get fired over here, they tell you "your position has been made redundant."

As used by the priest at Westminster Abbey at evensong during the prayers of the people: "we pray also for those recently redundant..."

This is cool!

2009-01-23T13:23:00.002Z

Create Your Own Bike Lane Adam Stein
January 21, 2009 11:49 AM
With lasers! Concept system paints a virtual lane wherever you travel

This product doesn’t actually exist, but based the internet enthusiasm for it, somebody ought to get it into production real quick like:

Traditional blinkers might alert drivers to a cyclist’s presence, but they don’t do a very good job establishing a zone of safety around the bike. By “painting” a visible marker onto the pavement, Light Lane establishes a boundary that could keep riders safer. Beyond any utility the device might have as a safety device, it seems like a nice social statement. If your city doesn’t support cyclists, then make your own infrastructure, in a non-destructive kind of way. Of course, the product doesn’t actually exist, and it’s not clear that it would even work. Bikes bounce around and vibrate a lot, and that nice crisp line would likely be more of a blurry squiggle.

Amsterdam

2009-01-23T11:30:00.001Z

I have a meeting with the planning committee for Humanity in Action on Monday in Amsterdam and thought I would make a weekend of it. Hopefully I won't get rained on the entire time. I'm also hoping to get some amazing pannekoeken -- large Dutch pancakes.

Sterling

2009-01-22T13:17:00.008Z

The pound has been dropping precipitously since I arrived in London. The UK has very little in its economy within the manufacturing and heavy industry sectors. Most of their economy is built on services, particularly financial services. Because of this composition of their economy, they have little to offer for sale to the world right now. People are consuming less financial services, and indeed, if they can, they are fleeing British banks, and putting their money elsewhere. This has meant that people prefer to have other currency than the pound and it has fallen in value (demand has plummeted). Now there is even some slight concern that the UK could end up defaulting on some of it's public debt in the future. They have taken on many billions of dollars in liabilities in nationalizing or bailing out their banking system. The cost of buying insurance against the a default of liabilities by the UK government has skyrocketed recently as a result of this fear. (The reality is that the UK will not default on their loans, they will likely simply print money if it really gets bad, using inflation rather than taxes to pay their debts.)

All this is pretty bad news for the UK economy and especially for the city of London, which is the financial center of the country.

It has been interesting to observe all this from within the eye of the storm. I have met a number of bankers around the city. At the beginning of the downturn they all said they were still busy and doing fine, but now they are worried and speak of not having much to do at work. The dramatic retraction of banking profits has also badly hit the companies that sold things to those bankers. If you walk down Oxford street, the fashion/shopping center of the city (sort of like Chicago's Michigan Ave on steroids) you will see almost every store has their merchandise going for up to 70% off. Restaurants too are struggling. The Malaysian restaurant that shares the bottom corner of my school building, is running a special where you can get any of their entrees for 5 pounds, it's good food too! And for comparison, when I first arrived in London a slice of pizza from a street vendor cost about 2 pounds.

While all this is pretty catastrophic for the economy, it has actually been rather nice for a student on a budget. Here's a graph of the value of the pound compared to the dollar.
This chart has data extending back to the mid 1990's. The sheer drop started about the time I got here. My first withdrawal of 500 pounds cost me close to 950 dollars. Yesterday the same withdrawal came in under 700 dollars. It's over 30% less expensive to be here in London than I had planned on.

Protest Day 2

2009-01-21T18:20:00.003Z

Here are some pictures that my friend Marissa snapped of the police cordoning off the protesters that I mentioned the other day. The yellow people are the police. The shot is taken from the window in our school library.

Happy New President Day

2009-01-21T11:35:00.003Z

I've just got to say, it's nice to see someone in office who I voted for. I watched the inauguration yesterday with a bunch of my classmates. There was a palpable sigh of relief as Bush stepped into his helicopter and left DC.

Obama's got a huge task ahead of him, and I'm pretty sure he will mess a bunch of thing up. But his presidency helps to renew my pride to be an American, and I'm hoping for the best. Godspeed Mr. President.

P.S. I guess I'm not the only one to feel relief at seeing that helicopter take off. . .

Take it to the tip

2009-01-20T12:34:00.001Z

Another great phrase in British English.

"Take it to the tip" means to take something to the dump, to trash something.

As used by my landlord in reference to the dishwasher in my flat that has just been replaced.

My note is done

2009-01-19T20:41:00.003Z

I have finished my Note for Notre Dame's Journal of Legislation. The Journal focuses on analyzing and discussing current legislation. Here's what I wrote about:

Homeownership has played a vital role in spreading the benefits of capitalism to the American people and it has served as a central source of vital capital for the economic engine. The United States has a proud and long tradition of promoting homeownership with roots stemming back to the founding, and blossoming in the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Since the passage of the Homestead Act the proportion of American families owning their own homes has been steadily growing. However mortgage and economic crisis of 2008 greatly threatens some hard won ownership gains. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 contains some helpful legislation to protect and promote homeownership. The authorization of emergency funding for Fannie Mac and Freddie Mae, the HOPE for Home Owners Act, and the changes to the first-time buyer tax credits are a good start, but they do not go nearly far enough. Significant changes need to be made to maintain ownership and set the groundwork for future economic growth. Even if support for homeowners needs to come at the taxpayer’s expense, history has shown that where individual property ownership is concerned the investment is well worth it.

Current Reading

2009-01-18T12:55:00.000Z

Protest Day

2009-01-17T20:39:00.006Z

I've been working hard to finish up a 10,000 word paper for the Journal of Legislation. They call it a "note" but who thinks 10,000 words is a note! Anyway, I've been doing most of my writing at school, which is usually a good place to concentrate, but not this afternoon...There was a big protest in Trafalgar Square over Israel's attack on Gaza and the protesters marched back and forth past the school a few times. The news isn't reporting it yet, but there were minor clashes with the police right outside our building. I think they had formed a line to keep the protesters from marching down Pall Mall.

Red marks the school, blue marks the protest, and green marks the police clash.

Painted Art

2009-01-16T15:06:00.002Z

I needed a short break from writing this afternoon, so I popped into the National Gallery for a few minutes. It's the building right next to the law school, so pretty easy to do. Sadly, I haven't actually been in there before, until today. I have resolved to slowly take it all in over the next months. (Entry is free) Today I just walked through a few rooms of 16th century paintings, all Italian stuff. It's so amazing to see 500 year old painting that still look so fresh and crisp. I'm always shocked at how photographic the faces are. So amazing. I can't even do stick figures.

It wasn't cricket

2009-01-14T12:19:00.003Z

The second installment on strange words (phrases) in British English.

"It wasn't cricket"

One of my professors used this today. It means roughly that something "is not done," or "isn't proper."

Today in my Russian Legal System class:

2009-01-14T11:56:00.005Z

We are studying the new (1993) Russian Constitution. While this class may not be of immediate use to working in a law firm, it is really interesting stuff. It has a good deal of relevance to my interests in how to structure legal systems so as to foster economic development. Essentially, after the fall of communism Russia had the chance to start over and faced all kinds of questions about how to restructure.

We talked a little bit about property law within the structure of federal constitutional law. Obviously under communism, there was little in the way of private property and certainly people did not have a legal right to it. But even before the soviet era, there was no conception of private property either. All land was held at the pleasure of the Czar, sort of like an under-developed feudal system. So when it came time in the early 1990's to write up property laws, the legislative bodies hit a huge ideological wall. That one issue actually ended up derailing a whole body of civil law for a while. The two legislative branches, the Duma and the Council of the Federation compromised by leaving the property law out of the civil code until a later date.

Why bailouts are bad

2009-01-13T22:02:00.002Z

My Classes

2009-01-13T11:47:00.002Z

Business Associations
Canon Law
Law of the European Union
Jurisprudence
Russian Legal System
International Public Law

Current Reading

2009-01-12T08:34:00.002Z

Just finished this, very entertaining travel/adventure story.

The Second Reading

2009-01-10T19:36:00.002Z

At the same caroling service I mentioned in my last post, the following took place: After singing While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night Derek Gill, Clerk to The Hon. Mr. Justice Sweeny stood before the gathered crowd and with the utmost solemnity and deepest respectful sounding Oxford English accent read to us Christmas Traditions, 1814: A Recipe:

Take a large olive, stone it and then stuff it with a paste made of anchovy, capers, and oil.
Put the olive inside a trussed and boned lark.
Put the stuffed lark inside a boned thrush.
Put the thrush inside a fat quail.
Put the quail, wrapped in vine leaves, inside a boned lapwing.
Put the lapwing inside a boned golden plover.
Put the plover inside a fat, boned, red-legged partridge.
Put the partridge inside a young, boned, and well-hung woodcock.
Put the woodcock, rolled in breadcrumbs, inside a boned teal.
Put the teal inside a boned guinea-fowl.
Put the guinea-fowl, well larded, inside a young and boned tame duck.
Put the duck inside a boned and fat fowl.
Put the fowl inside a well-hung pheasant.
Put the pheasant inside a boned and fat wild goose.
Put the goose inside a fine turkey.
Put the turkey inside a boned bustard.

Having arranged your roast after this fashion, place in a large saucepan with onions stuffed with cloves, carrots, small squares of ham, celery, mignonette, several strips of bacon well-seasoned, pepper, salt, spice, coriander seeds, and two cloves of garlic.

Seal the saucepan by closing it with pastry. Then put it for ten hours over a gentle fire, and arrange it so that the heat can penetrate evenly. An oven moderately heated will suit better than the hearth.

Before serving, remove the pastry, put the roast on a hot dish after removing the grease, if there is any, and serve.

After the reading of the recipe in which 15 birds were stuffed one within the other, we all stood up and sang O Little Town of Bethlehem.

So, Christmas dinner for next year?

Public Religion

2009-01-08T11:45:00.002Z

England is interesting. It's a secular country for sure, but it has a state religion. I have observed an paradox in this. My initial reaction would be to think that having a state religion would cause the religion to become pretty whitewashed and weak. And indeed, many beautiful Anglican churches stand empty on Sundays, and there is little evidence of the Christianity in popular culture. However, and here's what I think is the paradox, the fact that the religion is state sanctioned, means that when it IS invoked, it speaks more truly to what stands at the core of Christianity than public religious references I have observed in the US.

For example: Before Christmas break, and right after finals, some of my friends here went with me to a Carol service at the Royal Courts of Justice. The Temple Church Choir conducted the service. So there we were, in the central court of London, an undeniable central and powerful arm of the state, yet in the midst of this state bastion, we were celebrating the coming birth of Jesus. A very strange mix of church and state for any American. But it wasn't just that mixing, it was that the Jesus we referred to was real, not some kind of bland, "everyone is OK, and God is Love," public religion. If you were to go to a similar service somewhere in DC, it would be far less clear what you were celebrating, but here we read of Christ's birth from the gospels, and the prayers after the reading clearly referred to our sinful state, Christ's sacrifice for us, and the need for following Him in order to be redeemed.

I'm not sure why this deeper sincerity exists. Maybe the fact that England has embraced Christianity as part of the State, means that attempts at inclusiveness need not be made. Or maybe the fact that there is no legal separation of church and state means that the use of religion in state functions or arenas need not be tiptoed around as sensitively as in the US. Or, in the same sort of vein, maybe since there is no constitutional separation, there are fewer people who complain when the Christianity is presented accurately within an arm of the state?

This same church service presented me with some other observations on the British, so stay tuned for tomorrow's installment where I shall share a stunningly delicious traditional British recipe that puts our tradition of eating turkey to shame.

Who owns the church building?

2009-01-07T11:52:00.003Z

With the coming split of the Episcopalian Church, the question of who gets the church property is going to be a very hot topic. I think that if the churches that want to split actually believe in why they are splitting, they should be willing to take the sacrifice of loosing their building. Stand up for what you believe in, even if it brings hardship. Is that not Christ's example and call to his people?

I subscribe to a American Lawyer daily digest, that had a interesting little blurb on what's happening with this issue in California. Here it is...

------------------------------------

January 6, 2009 2:16 PM

Four Am Law 200 Firms on California Episcopal Church Case

Posted by Zach Lowe

When litigation is simmering nationwide, people tend to look to California for guidance. On Monday, that state's Supreme Court ruled that three breakaway Episcopal churches--offended by the parent church's 2003 decision to ordain a gay bishop--forfeited their property rights when they affiliated with a different parent church, according to the ruling and this recap from the Los Angeles Times.

The ruling was a win for two Am Law 200 attorneys who argued the case: John Shiner of Holme, Roberts & Owen, representing the Los Angeles diocese, and Heather Anderson of Goodwin Procter, representing the U.S. Episcopal Church. (A team from Weil, Gotshal & Manges submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the U.S. Presbyterian Church--another parent church concerned about losing property to breakaway parishes.)

On the other side, Mayer Brown--with an assist from its academic affiliate, UCLA's Eugene Volokh, namesake of the Volokh Conspiracy blog--wrote an amicus on behalf of the Presbyterian Lay Committee arguing that the property belongs to the breakaway churches.

Property deeds support that argument. But the deeds also include a clause (added in 1979) that parishes must hold the property in trust for the governing churches--and that they agree to be bound by the church's rules. The court, citing a California state law dealing only with religious property disputes, ruled that the parishes forfeited their property when they broke away.

Donald Falk, a Mayer Brown partner who co-authored the brief, says the ruling does not follow the "neutral principles of law" doctrine, which would hold that the neutral documents (i.e., deeds and trusts) determine who owns property. California supreme court judge Joyce Kennard agreed, saying the California law giving preference to higher churches does not follow the "neutral principles" rule. (Kennard joined the unanimous verdict anyway, citing the California law).

"Neutral principles should be neutral," Falk says.

Falk declined to say how Mayer Brown came to represent the Lay Committee.

John Shiner of Holme Roberts and Heather Anderson of Goodwin Procter did not return messages seeking comment. Anderson's partner at Goodwin, David Beers, says the firm handles much of the U.S. Episcopal Church's litigation since he is general counsel to the presiding bishop of the church here and in 16 other countries. (Beers even has an official title--Chancellor).The firm represented the church in a similar property dispute in Virginia earlier this year, according to this piece from The American Lawyer's February 2008 issue.

Weil's Christopher Cox, handling the matter on a pro bono basis, authored the amicus brief on behalf of the U.S. Presbyterian Church, says Douglas Lumish, a Weil partner also working on the case. The firm has represented the church in matters for several years, ever since Douglas Nave, a Weil partner and active Presbyterian based in London, began working with the church on various matters, Lumish says.

Nave did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The issue is not going away anytime soon. As the Associated Press notes, there is pending litigation related to church property issues in several states--including an appeal of a recent decision in Virginia, where a state judge ruled in favor of 11 breakaway parishes. And last month, about 700 conservative Episcopal congregations moved to form their own church in North America.

Jacket Potato

2009-01-07T11:42:00.004Z

Announcing a new segment on funny things in the British English.

Jacket Potato: common pub food, a baked potato with the potato skin on. The skin is the "jacket" I guess... They come served with lots of interesting toppings. One topping is baked beans. Somehow that does not seem delicious to me, so I have not tried it.

Looks delicious, No?

Back in London

2009-01-06T05:40:00.002Z

5:41 AM!!! I would rather not be up right now. The jetlag thing isn't working out so well for me today. I woke up around 4 feeling pretty chipper and hungry, and after tossing and turning for a few minutes, decided to do what every law student does when they have some time on their hands, homework. Now I'm having some breakfast, peanut butter on crumpets, and thinking I'll go work out in a little while.

It's been far to long since I blogged last. Don't raise this to the elevation of a New Year's Resolution, but I'll try to be better at blogging for a little while and see how it goes.

2008-11-19T12:23:00.004Z

I took this from this blog here:

http://blog.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis/

It's a very nice graphic of what happened to the economy recently:

Shocking

2008-11-16T16:03:00.003Z

A recent Gallup Poll of people's attitudes toward Sarah Palin, which I have pasted below, shows that a full 76% of Republicans would favor seeing her as a national political figure in years to come.

I guess I am really more disconnected from the Republican base than I thought. I find it hard to see how so many people could consider her as a legitimate presidential candidate. Does the fact that she is "strong on family issues" and is willing to talk about God actually outweigh her total lack of educational and political experience?

================================

PRINCETON, NJ -- Just 45% of Americans would like to see Sarah Palin become a major national political figure for many years to come, while a slight majority of 52% say they would not. These sentiments are sharply divided along partisan political lines.

Over three-quarters of Republicans would like to see the former vice-presidential nominee and current governor of Alaska become a major national political figure in the years ahead, in sharp contrast to the 43% of independents and 20% of Democrats who share that attitude.

Palin has been much in evidence since the Republican ticket's defeat on Election Day, appearing in interviews on NBC's "Today" show, Fox News, and CNN. Palin is also slated to give a major address to the Republican Governors Association meetings in Miami Thursday, followed by a press conference.

Palin's post-election media appearances certainly fuel speculation that she is interested in playing a major role on the national political scene in the years ahead, perhaps by running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 or 2016, or for the U.S. Senate from Alaska. The data reviewed above, from the Nov. 7-9 USA Today/Gallup poll, suggest that she has a way to go to convince the average American that her presence would be a positive addition to the crowded political landscape.

Obama and the stock market

2008-11-06T16:02:00.001Z

A Republican friend of mine pointed out to me that the stock market (measured by the S&P 500) dropped something like 400 points the day after the election. While I an quite willing to admit that Peter is probably right that some of that drop came from worried small busniess owners pulling money out of the market in fear of what Obama may do with capital gains taxes and so on.

I don't think that's the whole story and have been trolling around the "inter-web" looking for some more analysis. It seems the drop has more to do with a fundamentally shakey economy, new numbers on job loss being released, and some reports of potential profit downturns at major "bellweather" firms like Boeing. Another hit to the market were some massive slides above 10% in the value of Citi group and other major bank stocks that reflected writedowns of bad mortgages that are starting to take place as part of the government bailout plan. Those major banking drops didn't have anything to do with the election but are simply part of the continuing readjustment of the market.

Bloomberg had an interesting little bit on which party tends to have a bigger impact on reviving the stockmarket. I quote:

"Should either party have an edge in reviving the stock market, history suggests it is the Democrats. Since 1928, the S&P 500 climbed 9.3 percent in the 12 months after the Democratic Party captured the White House, based on the median change following the election of six Democrats from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Only once did the benchmark for American equities decline, after Jimmy Carter's victory in 1976.
Among the six newly elected Republicans, five -- including Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush -- preceded stock-market declines, with a median retreat of 4.3 percent for the group, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The data excludes incumbents that won re-election.
Overall, the S&P 500 generated a median 62 percent advance from the time a Democrat is elected in November or elevated from the vice presidency until the next president is chosen. For Republicans, the gain is 28 percent.
History may not be an accurate indicator this time. 'In a normal year, you would expect some kind of relief rally after the election is over with, just because we won't be talking about this anymore said Brian Barish, the Denver-based president of Cambiar Investors LLC, which oversees about $6 billion. But I would throw in that there's been nothing normal about 2008."

If you would like more in depth analysis of exactly what the market has been dooing, through the lense of analyzing several major sectors and also world stock indexes, this link may be fruitful. Though, it's a bit dense....

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4dQtLxVSHEY&refer=home

So there's a little bit of what I'm thinking about today.

-jonathan

Some thoughts on the VP's

2008-10-23T13:09:00.002+01:00

Alright, I know I'm WAY behind on this, but here are some thoughts on the vice presidential debate. This morning I had a few minutes to sit down and watch part of the debate on youtube. Biden is experienced and polished, he actually including specific proposals and details of Obama's potential administration into his debate. In my opinion he clearly won the debate. But, I'm not surprised by that. What did surprise me was Palin; she came off pretty well. It would scare me if she were president. I really don't think she has the background to approach the world stage with the necessary diplomacy and authority befiting a great power. But, I certainly could see some of her appeal in the debate, she speaks simply, she's good with the camera and she is able to craft cheeky responses and sound tough quickly.

One of the things I've oftern heard about Palin is that her ascendency to Alaskan Governer and now VP candidate from a middle class background represents the American Dream. Digging into that a bit more, you find that her educational background was one of floating through something like 5 or 6 undergraduate schools before getting a degree, and now, being pulled onto the national state by the Republican party in an attempt to assuage conservative voter's fears about McCain's position on family issues and religious conviction.

As I understand it, the American dream has usually looked more like someone with a fierce will and commitment to hard work rising from obscurity and climbing one ring after another to the top. This is as opposed to being plucked from obscurity to the top by those with power. Senator Obama, coming from a single parent middle class family, working hard to get into Harvard Law school, becoming the editor of their law review (the first black editor ever), moving on to be a law professor at University of Chicago, (one of the top ranked schools in the country), and then entering politics in Illinois and on from there to the U.S. Senate. In my mind that is more the map of the American dream and for me is much more inspiring.

London Housing

2008-10-22T10:50:00.002+01:00

My roommates and I found a great place in Kentish Town really quickly when we arrived in London. It's a nice two level flat on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a nice house. Maybe I'll get some pictures up of it soon. It was actually the first place we looked at.

We were pretty fortunate because everyone says that housing in London is really hard to find. It's also incredibly expensive.

Generally high costs are a result of a supply problems. That appears to be particularly true of London. Restrictions on how many stories a building can have, and the existence of tons of historic/registered buildings that can't be modified or torn down seems to make it hard for the housing stock to increase and bring prices down. As a result of the difficulties of finding housing, an astronomical number of letting agencies have sprung up in the city to list and rent out property. The commercial area of my neighborhood has about 7 letting agencies in a 4 block area. The other day I passed through an intersection that had three letting agencies on it. Two right next to each other and one right across the street. (Almost like gas stations in the US.)

We interacted with a few of these agencies and many of my friends here had to work with them as well. The overwhelming impression is that they are a waste of time, they simply add cost, and they require way too much documentation to get into a flat. So, I would propose closing all of them down, and converting them to flats. I think you would probably add 50,000 or more places for housing by doing so. That's not too much property in a huge city, but it surely would go a long way.

The Law Lords:

2008-10-14T21:45:00.002+01:00

Currently the UK Supreme court is a judicial committee of their upper parliament, The House of Lords. This will change next year though as the UK severs this seemingly close tie between its judiciary and legislative branches and creates a new body which will be called the Supreme Court, and will be housed outside of Westminster and symbolically separate from the Parliament. The head of the current body is the Lord Chancellor, a position that apparently has been around for 1400 years.

I had to go visit an active court here in London for my English Legal System class, and decided to see this historic court before it was dissolved. All the UK courts are open to the public. I went with one of my classmates and we got to skip ahead of the tourist lines to see the house of commons and walk deep into the heart of Westminster to a regally appointed, but very small court room where the Law Lords were hearing a case. It was quite an experience. I haven’t been to the US Supreme Court, but I’ve read about their strict procedures, time limits and formalities, and this was NOTHING like our system. The barristers arguing their cases kept going off on long tangents unrelated to their line of argument, they gave lengthy introductions to their arguments, they cited to cases that were not in their briefs, but in huge secondary tables of authority (they had over 7 volumes for the case) and they often cracked jokes which the Lords cheerily joined in on. We sat just behind the bar, within sneezing distance of the barristers, and paper-airplane-throwing distance of the Lords. It was quite an enjoyable experience, though it was difficult to follow some of the proceedings because we didn’t know the general facts of the case.

Unlike the US, the Law Lords, and next year the new Supreme Court, do not consider themselves the interpreter of the constitution (there is no unified written UK constitution, but there is a constitution of sorts in the compiled traditions, major legislation and ancient documents of the kingdom.) The Parliament is supreme, as such, the court does not consider whether parliamentary acts are “constitutional” and does not overturn legislation on those grounds, rather it only interprets legislation, and is the final authority on such interpretation.

Though the court is thus in a sense more limited that our US Supreme Court, it is nonetheless a grand institution with massive authority and weight. It was interesting then to see how relatively casual the court really was. The contrast with the way we do things in the states is interesting to dwell on. Ostensibly, some of the formality and procedural aspects of our Supreme Court may be necessary to deal with high case loads and efficiency. But I think part of it is connected to a particularly American trait of attempting to impart solemnity and weight to our institutions through rules and regulations. The “sorry, that’s just the rules...” approach. In contrast, if you are meeting in the House of Lords, in a building that outdates our country’s founding, led by a Lord Chancellor who’s position has been around for 1400 years, then solemnity and weight impregnates the very air, and you can therefore toss formality out the window with no great loss. (I’m open to the challenge that since the barristers had to wear funny wigs and gowns in their oral arguments, that they still do have unnecessary formality...however I would counter by asking you whether someone cracking a joke in a 17th century style Victorian wig is more or less funny that if they were to do so without the odd wig on...)

Anyway, I think it will be interesting to see what becomes of the new Supreme Court here in the UK. Will it simply import some of the aura of the Law Lords, or as a new institution will it take sense a need for creating new traditions and formalities in order to posture itself as an institution worthy of it’s new name?

Some pictures from the UK.

2008-10-14T20:20:00.005+01:00

I often post pictures on Facebook. But seeing as most of my uncles and aunts and grandparents, and even my mom, dad, sister and younger brother have declined to be a part of that social networking world, I guess I should try to put some of the same material up here as well.

So, if you click on the link, you will get to see a picture essay of a trip I took to Stonehenge last weekend.

Click Here:
or, if you prefer, you can paste this into your web browser:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031320&l=0716b&id=187702608

and, just in case that doesn't work...

-Jonathan

The dust of Zambia:

2008-10-08T12:13:00.001+01:00

It took three of four times through the wash, but I think the deep dust of Zambia has finally come out of my clothes. That’s not particularly interesting update, but serves more to say... Yes, I’m back from Zambia. I’ve been back for quite a while, since Aug 12, but have been incredibly busy, with trying to get a law firm job for next summer, flying back and forth between Seattle, South Bend, Chicago and New York several times. Fortunately that’s all over now and I am pretty well set up in London for the school year. London deserves it’s own post, so I’ll make sure to get to that soon, as well as putting up some final thought on my experience in Zambia this summer.

Back from Kilimanjaro

2008-07-28T11:03:00.002+01:00

I'm reluctant to post anything since I can't upload pictures right now, but I thought I should give a brief update on my Kilimanjaro climb.

I met up with Aidan and Leah in Arusha and had a great 7 day climb. Our route took us through about 5 different climate zones, from jungle, to scrub, to heather, to alpine desert, to glaciers, and then back down again. It was quite a beautiful hike, about 90 K in all.

The summit attempt started at 11:45 PM on day 5 of the climb, and was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. The atmosphere after 18,000 feet was really thin. The last hour of the climb felt like those dream sequences where you want to move fast, but every step takes all your concentration. I was hungry and nauseous all at once, tired from the early start, had a slight headache, my heart was racing as it tried to pump blood with little oxygen in it, I was dizzy and had to concentrate hard on walking straight, and I needed to rest almost every 50 feet.

We gained the summit of 19,240 feet at about 6:00 AM, just as the sun was coming up. There were low clouds obscuring Africa below us, but it was still an amazing sight to be thousands of feet above the clouds and see the sun illuminate them as it climbed to greet us.

I definitely had second thoughts about the climb during the last hour. But, once I was down from the summit by a few hundred feet, my breathing got easier and I felt great. As we hiked, I kept looking behind at the huge mountain and had a feeling of awe and excitement that I had made it up there.

In my experience, mountain climbing isn't necessarily enjoyable in the moment. As you force your body to take that next step up while all of you is screaming to stop, it's easy to wonder why on Earth you are doing this again? I think that in a dangerous environment like a cold, windy, icy mountain top, you are very much at God's mercy and at the mercy of the mountain. In some ways, the mountain is letting you climb, you are not conquering it, but nonetheless, the extreme effort and sense of accomplishment after summiting is quite rewarding. Though It's not a thrill I think I will seek too often, It is a once-in-a-while experience that reminds me of the glory of being alive and of all the possibility and excitement that is ours for the taking if we are willing to keep on taking that next step.

Herein you will find the sad tale of the last white rhino in Zambia.

2008-07-28T10:46:00.002+01:00

The real last white rhino was poached off long ago, but the same species lives across the border in Zimbabwe and in South Africa.

Some years ago 4 new white rhinos were reintroduced into Zambia to try to restart the population up here. The first one was grazing on the bank of the Zambezi river and the bank collapsed beneath him. Rhinos cannot swim. The next one died of natural causes. The currently living rhino and his mate gave birth to a male rhino, who grew up healthy and strong, but when he reached a mature age, he realized that there were no females other than his mom in the park, and he starved himself to death out of love-sickness. Then not too long ago, poachers made their way into the park and shot the remaining female rhino. Hearing the gunshot, the male ran away, in the process he badly dislocated one of his hind legs, and has been nursed by the park staff for the past year as they try to help him heal.

This last sad rhino is the one I got to see when I was in Livingston a few weekends ago. I don't know if all rhinos look so sad, but his beady little eyes, folds of gray skin and slow wallowing walk made him absolutely pitiable. He needed a hug. Unless some more white rhinos are introduced from South Africa, this poor beast is the last.

There are apparently plenty of gray rhinos in the north of Zambia. Now, to be clear, both the white and gray rhinos are gray in color. The name for the white rhino is a corruption by the English of what the Dutch had called "wide-mouthed" rhinos. The "wide month" do indeed have more of a shovel like jaw than the gray rhinos. Incidentally, the white are more friendly and safer. Our guide told us there is no way a gray, even a sick one, would let us that close.

Rhinos have excellent hearing, and it was fun to watch him swivel his giant piglet like ears around on the top of his head as he listened to us and our cameras clicking away. What they have gained in hearing though, they have lost in eyesight. It is the poor eyesight that prompts the rhino to want to charge pretty much anything it senses has gotten too close.

Fortunately, if you ever find yourself in the wilds and are being charged by a rhino, it is quite simple to stop him. You need only to get behind a fallen tree or stump. The obstacle in his charging path will stop the rhino, for he can not process the situation fast enough to realize he should go around the obstacle, and his jumping skills are apparently as poor as his swimming.

If I could get the internet connection to work well enough to upload a picture, I would add one of the rhino here...so please imagine a sad rhino picture.

Some Details on the Route

2008-07-15T09:35:00.003+01:00

Lemosho Route ****

The Lemosho route approaches Kilimanjaro from the west. Rather than simply intersecting Shira Plateau (like Machame), Lemosho crosses it from Shira Ridge to Shira 2 Camp, in a pleasant hike. Climbers encounter low traffic until the route joins the Machame route. Afterwards, Lemosho follows the same route through Lava Tower, Barranco and Barafu, known as the southern circuit. The minimum number of days required for this route is six days, although eight days is ideal.

Like Machame, this is a scenically spectacular and varied route. Thus, Lemosho is a highly recommended, but difficult route.

Sample Itinerary

Courtesy of http://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/routes.htm

The Top of Africa

2008-07-15T08:35:00.003+01:00

I depart for my Kilimanjaro hike on Friday! It looks like we will be doing the lemosho route as it is supposed to be the must beautiful, and less crowded of the possible hikes.

If you were on Mefloquin/Larium and dreamt of going to the DMV…

2008-07-10T11:55:00.004+01:00

…then you would know what it’s like at immigration.

Lines at the door. “I need a temporary permit.” Sign booklet. First you are told that any desk will do. Go to desk 5 because there is no line. “What? No you have to go to desk 10!” From one desk to another. Lines again. Desk 10 gives you a stamp on papers you brought. But then a problem! Find out instructions on website are incorrect, run next-door to hotel to make a copy of part of your passport. Ignore the taxi guys honking at you, you can walk, it’s less than a block away. Copy made. Go back to desk 10. There your copy is stapled to the other papers you brought. Now go to another counter to pay. Proceed back to the desk 10. But the lady behind desk 10 has left for another part of the office. Find her behind desk 3, she tells you to go to desk 9 after leaving your papers on her old desk--desk 10 if you were confused. Then stand in line behind panic-stricken expats/students trying to catch bus at 14:00 hours/confused Chinese woman yelling into phone. Finally at the desk. You get a stamp in passport, and summons to go back to Imigration after 30 days to pick up your permit. Explain upcoming trip out of the country. Watch as man's face becomes agitated. Then finally sigh of relief when he decides your summons paper is enough to cross the border and come back. Walk back to the office through dusty streets. Repeat in 30 days.

President Levy

2008-07-03T15:21:00.002+01:00

There were reports this morning that Zambia's president Levy Mwanawasa had died in Paris after complications from a stroke he suffered while in Egypt. It appears now that those reports were wrong, and he is still alive, but on intensive care. People here are sad and confused, and he Levy appears to be well liked, so it will be a blow for this country if he does die.

The Southern Sky

2008-07-03T15:18:00.002+01:00

I had a chance to go star gazing two nights ago with a few friends. An old employee from my office took us to the bush on the outskirts of Lusaka where the light pollution from the city was less intense. The experience of looking up at the sky and seeing such a dramatically different sight was odd, but thrilling.

Down south the part of the Milky Way you can see is much thicker and brighter. Both of the dippers are too far north in the night sky to be seen here during this time of year, but the Southern Cross was pretty clear and one of our nearby planets was extremely bright. It didn’t have Mars’ customary red tint, so I’m guessing it was Venus, though a google search for viewing planets in the southern hemisphere didn’t confirm that. We also had a pretty clear view of the low horizon and thought we were going crazy seeing some of the lower stars jump around and shake in the sky quite dramatically. We were seeing scintillation though, where the light from the stars at the horizon bends and twinkles more due to the added atmospheric gas it has to pass through before reaching your eyes as compared to the stars at the zenith.

I’m looking forward to seeing the night sky when I climb Kilimanjaro. I’ll be farther away from city light sources there than I think I’ve ever been before, and so the night sky should be really amazing.

Please Pardon my Dairy Odor?

2008-06-30T09:39:00.004+01:00

I’ve been told that you can identify people’s origins/home country by their smell. Apparently Americans tend to smell of dairy products. People here in Zambia assume that I’m British though, so maybe this dairy smell hypothesis isn’t true. I do tend to drink lots of tea though, so maybe that’s throwing off their noses?

Back home a revolution in dairy delivery products is under way. Apparently there are new milk jugs being rolled out that offer better stacking abilities, and thus greater economy in shipping and storing, which leads to fresher milk on the grocery shelves. They have been met with a great deal of consumer skepticism, and are difficult to pour from. Maybe if it’s less satisfying to pour that glass of milk, we will stop smelling like dairy?

Lawering as Rent Seeking?

2008-06-26T08:50:00.002+01:00

Prompted by my supply chain colleague over at Harso International Passport, I would like to reflect briefly on law and rent seeking behavior in the legal profession. Rent seeking usually occurs when someone can receive concentrated benefits through government action while the costs are dispersed throughout the whole of society. The result is inefficient supply and pricing, or distortion of market incentives.

For example, subsidies for agriculture and regulations limiting importation of agricultural goods artificially raise the cost of some of our basic groceries by a few cents. That extra cost bourn by all consumers accrues in concentrated form to a relatively small number of farmers/agro-businesses. (The morality of such a move may be debated…there can be very compelling reasons why we would want to maintain local agricultural capacity, but that is a topic for another post.)

Now, carry rent seeking over into the world of the lawyer. Let’s pick on class action lawsuits, because those are pretty prominent in the public eye. There’s a great deal of regulatory law that imposes relatively small penalties per violation for certain kinds of corporate conduct. If each person were to try to sue the company for the violation on their own, the costs of litigation would far outweigh the potential recovery. Without the class action mechanism to concentrate those costs into a lump sum—essentially creating economies of scale within litigation—those cases would not be brought. That would mean the violating company would be a successful rent seeker.

On the other hand, the lawyer prosecuting the class action can be though of as a rent seeker as well. Generally at the conclusion of successful class action litigation, the lawyer’s cut is far more substantial that the $7.29 check that you get in the mail. The fees they collect come partly from being awarded their costs of litigation, and partly from the pot of money that is to be paid out to the class members.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for the lawyer is the entrepreneur bringing the case and taking a risk on whether it will be successful. If governmental action isn’t successful in regulating corporate behavior, then enabling private lawyers to act as entrepreneurs to hold corporations accountable may be socially desirable. But, even if it is socially desirable, the lawyer in such a case can still be seen as a rent seeker. That is, because of governmental regulation enabling the class action, they are able to obtain concentrated benefits, the cost of which is dispersed amongst the corporation and the class members.

Class actions make a convenient vehicle for rent seeking analysis in lawyering. Similar rent seeking could occur in any area of the law where regulation creates a cause of action that allows a lawyer to collect fees paid not directly by the client, but by broader group of people. Perhaps malpractice law, where higher insurance costs for doctors accrue to everyone in the insurance pool, could be considered in this light as well.

Well, that’s hopefully out of my system, I’ll try to get back to Zambian posts soon.

Follow the Fir

2008-06-22T18:17:00.002+01:00

My first extended stay outside the US introduced me to SPAR. The Dutch grocery store chain. They provided me with stroopwaffles and coffeemilch. Spar means the fir in Nederlandich and their sign is a fir tree.

I wasn’t too surprised when I noticed SPAR stores in Copenhagen last summer as well. But, I was surprised to see SPAR here in Zambia! I googled them over my lunch break and was surprised to find that they are one of the worlds largest grocery chains stores, and if I ever make it to China or India, they will be there to greet me as well.

Unfortunately SPAR Zambia doesn't carry the stroopwaffles.

How to not blend in: A story of coffee, intrigue and betrayal on the high seas

2008-06-20T10:31:00.003+01:00

Well…maybe this is just a story about coffee.

Walking to work I am usually the only Westerner on the road. I don’t look for them, but I think I have seen one other white person in the last week and a half on my walk to and from work. He was in a car. This doesn’t cause me self-consciousness, I say it to set the stage. Of course I can never “blend in” here in Lusaka, but I do try not to stand out too much. There are a few tricks you can do for that, don’t look like a tourist, walk quickly, know where you are going and go straight there, dress like the people you are around, and so on.

Normally I will try to blend in, and usually the only reaction I get from people on the way to work is a honk or two from the taxis that pass me. Yesterday I learned about one thing you can do that certainly will not allow you to look normal in Lusaka…

Walk to work with a coffee mug in hand.

I was running a little behind schedule in the morning, didn’t have time to drink my coffee at home, and so put it in a travel mug and headed out the door. I got comments from not one, not two, but THREE different people on the street as I passed them. The first person gave me a really huge smile and said “Tea?” The second person commented, while waiting to cross the street with me, on how a hot drink on a cold day (60 degrees) would be nice. And I didn’t catch what the third person said, but he was looking right at me as he and a friend passed.

When I worked in Chicago almost everyone on the street had their coffee mug, Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts coffee with them on the walk to work, and I guess I had never really thought how that may actually be an cultural trait. Or at the very least, it’s indicative of a few things that are point to some key characteristics of our culture. One, we need Caffeine, and lots of it, probably because we are sleep deprived. And two, we are busy…people are drinking on the way to work, not at their breakfast table relaxing with the paper. And three, we like coffee. Maybe it’s a luxury afforded to us by our wealth? Zambia apparently grows some pretty decent coffee beans. The other day I picked some up from the store, but have yet to open the bag. Zambian’s don’t drink coffee really. We have Nescafe in the office, and some of the staff drink it. If you want to go out to get coffee, you have to go somewhere that actually serves real coffee from beans, not instant.

I like real coffee, and I really like hitting the snooze button in the morning, so I will often not have time to drink my coffee at home before work. Should I go ahead and stick out—even more than I already do as a white guy—and take my coffee mug on my daily walk to work?

(For my friends who just finished the Law Review Comment, did you catch the em dashes???)

Vivid Dreams

2008-06-19T08:39:00.003+01:00

Wikipedia lists the following side effects for the malaria prophylaxis that I'm taking: "severe depression, anxiety, paranoia, aggression, nightmares, insomnia, seizures, peripheral motor-sensory neuropathy,^[2] vestibular (balance) damage and central nervous system problems."

So far I haven't had any of the more serious problems, but I've definitely had a vivid dream or two. I don't usually remember dreams at all, so it's actually sort of interesting to both be having them, and remembering them.

The strangest one so far happened a few nights ago. I had a dream that I was a reporter for National Geographic, and I was doing a big cover story on the "secret conflict for superiority between man and the animal kingdom." Somehow my work on the story turned into an investigation of a giant crocodile that was capturing humans. The really strange part though was that he wasn't eating them, but was lining them up like the Chinese Terracotta Army in the swamp. At one point in the dream I was down in the swamp and suddenly had to escape, and for some reason, my cousin Danny, and my friend Ryan Juskus had both previously been in the swamp and escaped, and told me how to do it too. I climbed up the branches of a tree into the sunlight and the dream was over.

It's crazy to try to figure out why any of those things or people would end up in a dream. But who am I to question the power for Mefloquine's chemical structure?

Too Long and Long Overdue

2008-06-18T16:17:00.000+01:00

In order to save a few hundred bucks, I booked my flight to Lusaka from New York, and then bought a cheap one way ticket from DC to NYC. I gave myself plenty of time in NYC to make sure that if a bag got lost I would have the chance to get it back before I checked into the international flight. Everything went smoothly though, so I had about 7 hours to sit at the airport before my flight to London. That time was nice though for catching up with friends and saying a few goodbyes before heading off to Africa.

American Airlines has an option to purchase a one day pass to their "Admiral's Club" lounge, I was pretty tempted to do that when I was waiting in NYC, because I could have used it there and in London, but after talking with my dad, I was persuaded to buy a nice meal and an economist instead. I had a great big ½ pound burger, medium rare, bought my economist, and headed for my gate.

Friends have told me that flying on Virgin can seem like flying for the very first time, every time, but my Virgin Atlantic flight was pretty nice, a new airplane, lots of entertainment options, and a decent dinner considering it was airplane food...I got a little bit of sleep, maybe 3 hours during the 7 hour flight. There was an Indian family a few rows in front of me with a small child who hollered most of the way across the Atlantic, so I didn't get too much rest.

I had hoped to be somewhat awake and take advantage of my 10 hour layover in London, maybe take the tube into the city and grab lunch, but I was so exhausted, I ended up crashing on an airport bench in Terminal 3 and sleeping for about 4 hours. My stomach woke me up and demanded some food. Quick to obey, but also mindful of my wallet's plea to live within my stipend for the summer, I looked around for a London equivalent of fast food. I didn't have the energy to explore beyond terminal 3 through, and I had heard horror stories of things getting lost in the new terminal 5, so my options were limited. There were some duty free stores, a few really nice restaurants, and one deli. I picked the deli with it's pre-made sandwiches. My options for a sandwich were, mozzarella with tomato, river crayfish with rocket, chicken and mango salad, and chicken with avocado. Always a sucker for avocado, that sandwich won out, and though I was in a tired daze, I remember it being one of the best sandwiches I've had for a long time. That is why I love Europe! But I already knew I loved Europe, so I boarded my plane to Africa!

It was a long flight, 11 hours from London to Johannesburg, but mercifully, there were no crying children on the flight and I managed to watch Juno, There Will Be Blood, have a nice diner, an "airplane sized" bottle of wine, and then a good five hours of sleep. It's winter down here in southern Africa, and Jo-burg was pretty cold and socked in with clouds. I couldn't even see the wing tips on the plane as we touched down, and the pilot announced—rather calmly I thought—that it was too foggy for him to fly, so the plane was going to land us completely on automatic pilot. We had a nice landing though, and I spent my three hour layover drinking a latte, reading and hoping the fog would clear. It was still pretty bad when my plane left for Lusaka though, and we ended up spending some time on the tarmac waiting to take off because there were so many airplanes circling above us in the fog.

My journey began in DC on Saturday morning, and I finally made it to Lusaka International Airport on Monday at 2:00 PM local time. (GMT +2). The office driver picked me up and took me to the office to say high to everyone, and then on to my apartment.

The first order of business for the afternoon was a shower. I'm not sure that I have ever smelled as bad in my life as when I arrived in Zambia: 35+ hours in the same clothes, sleeping in them for two nights, and no bathing of any kind. My feet were the worst of it. Both Virgin Atlantic and South African Airways gave us small traveler's kits on the plane. I noticed that the Virgin one had a pair of cheap cotton socks in it, which struck me as odd. But by the time I was on the South African Air flight...I KNEW WHY THEY GAVE ME SPARE SOCKS. I have been airing out my shoes for a few days on a window sill, and they are still not back to normal.

The apartment is great, it's about a 5 minute walk from my place to work, it's a two story, two bedroom flat on the second level of a small gated complex with a mix of expats and middle class Zambians living in it. I've got two roommates. Carla works as an intern at my office, and Jen is a Canadian masters degree student doing some research in public health in Zambia. She is currently giving the Zambian National Army swimming lessons.

Anyway, after my shower I tried my best to stay up until it was actually bed time so I could get over my jet lag quickly, but I succumbed to sleep by about 6:00 PM, and apparently when Jen and Carla got home later they tried knocking and calling after me very loudly to wake me for dinner, but I don't even remember hearing them! I was out. But I woke by about 3:00 AM feeling totally awake and ready to take on the world, or at least eat something. So I wandered to the kitchen, had a slice of bread with peanut butter, some milk, and a sleeping pill. That was my first sleeping pill, and it knocked me out cold, after going to bed again I didn't wake up until about 3:00 in the afternoon.

At that point I had been in country for well over 24 hours, but had not been able to call home or get access to email, so I decided to walk over to the office and see if I could get some communication in. But the internet and phone were both down, so I met some more office people instead, and then headed back home.

Wednesday was my first full day of work. I spent most of my time reading the Zambian property statutes and statutes on Testate and Intestate Succession (Chapter 59 and 60 of the Laws of Zambia—if you want to read them for yourself), and then sending e-mails to people letting them know I was alive. The office manager (boss) took me out to lunch to talk about the office and get to know me. We went to a local mall and had chicken salad wraps at a little restaurant that looked like it must be the nerve center of Zambia's expat community.

My first impressions of Lusaka are positive. It's pretty clean, decently well organized and after getting lunch out this afternoon, and going grocery shopping this evening, I think it's quit liveable. There's not much of a "downtown" and there isn't anything old or cultural to see that would make a trip to Lusaka worthwhile in-and-of-itself, but as far as a place to stay, it's pretty good.

Grocery shopping in a new culture is always a blast. It's so similar to home, but then also maddeningly different. The grocery store was laid out like a U.S. supermarket so it looked familiar but none of the food is exactly the same. The bananas are tiny, the tomatoes are huge, the milk is in a bag, the lunch meat is strange colors, the bread is white flour dyed brown if it's "natural." Depending on how hungry or curious you are feeling, it can either be a thrilling adventure, or a frustrating nightmare like experience. I enjoyed it this evening.

It looks like my work this summer will focus on two areas. I'm going to be involved more with several of the ongoing cases, trying my hand at some brief writing, researching, and general case management. My second task is going to be to assemble a "paralegal manual" to be used as training material for the office to teach private individuals how to act as advocates for themselves or others in property grabbing situations.

I had a rather packed full weekend, and will probably need the more relaxed schedule of the work week's 9-5 to recover. My roommates have both been here for about a year and have made a pretty wide group of friends here. Friday night Jen had a graduation party, followed by a birthday party for one of their friends, and then dancing at a club that was raising money for a group of Zambian school-kids to go to Europe for a dancing competition. That kept us out pretty late, but didn't stop us from getting up at 10:00 AM on Saturday to meet up with the peace-core crowd for ultimate frisbee at the American School. Then that evening there were two more birthday parties, one for a French expat thrown by his Ugandan wife and her two sisters, and then the other for a British girl who is here working at an orphanage.

Sunday was more relaxed though. I overslept my alarm and missed the 8:00 am service at the Anglican church down the block from me, but got up a bit later to go for a run. I'm located in more of an administrative neighborhood in Lusaka, with the embassies, courts, president's office and other such buildings. There's a broad boulevard, Independence Ave., sort of like the Mall in DC, that passes most of the government buildings, and has a nice tree lined median between the lanes that provided me with a good four of five kilometers of pleasant running space. I'm hoping to keep up the running outside, as I checked out the price for joining a gym, and it's really pricy. Alright...since this has already stretched on to three pages, I should probably call it quits, and commit to creating more frequent and shorter updates!

Jonathan

I'll try to get some pictures up soon as well.

Training Week

2008-06-03T01:23:00.003+01:00

I'm in DC now for training week. I want to write more, but I'm frantically trying to finish my law review comment in the evenings after training. Please be patient, I will be better at blogging more substantially soon!

No longer naked

2008-05-30T21:18:00.001+01:00

Hooray! My box of clothes turned up. UPS sent them to the wrong address and they sat in an office for a while before someone returned it to UPS and then it finally made it to me!

What I'm doing this summer

2008-05-27T22:07:00.001+01:00

Sorry to my friends on facebook, you may have already read this...

IJM's Zambia office works to protect and bring justice to victims of illegal property seizure, sexual violance, illegal detention and police brutality.

I will be working with their office through assisting with case work, doing legal research and provide any support that my one year of law school will allow. I am particularly interested in the work on illegal land seizure.

My motivation to go to law school in the first place was to gain legal skills for working in economic development through strengthening the property rights of the poor. Here is what IJM has to say about the importance of property for the poor and oppressed.

" Across Africa, after the death of her husband or father, a woman can lose her land, home and livelihood in rapid succession. In Uganda, for example, more than one in five widows and orphans loose all or part of their rightful inheritance though illegal property seizure by relatives. This injustice has ramifications far beyond the initial theft: frequently, children are forced to drop out of school to begin working in the aftermath of illegal property seizure, when their family's financial needs become so pressing that potential earnings outweigh the value of education. For many families, property can literally be the difference between life and death – it is the source of shelter, and, in many cases, livelihood and food."

For me it's really exciting get the opportunity to contribute to this work, and I hope that the things I learn will help shape my studies and my career as I learn just how to best help the poor and oppressed gain security through enabling them to keep the meager resources they do have.
Stay in touch for my next update, where I plan to discuss the importance of property ownership for economic development.

-Jonathan

My Summer!

2008-05-27T00:32:00.002+01:00

Dear Friends, Family, and Faithful readers,

I apologize for my lack of posting, and in particular for not posting about something as important as this. I'm going to Zambia this summer to intern with International Justice Mission. I'm totally excited for the opportunity and can't wait to get there. I'm going to be working in IJM's office in Lusaka as a legal intern. Most of their cases concern property rights and illegal land seizure cases, which is precisely what I want to do with my law degree, so it's a great opportunity to test the waters!

I am currently in Port Orchard with my family, but will be leaving for DC on June 1st for a week of training before catching a long series of plane rides to Lusaka. (33 hours of travel!!!) I'll be back in the states in August.

Life is absolutely crazy right now, so I will have to fill in more details when I get to Lusaka and have some more time. Right now, I'm trying to pack up for the trip, finish a paper so I can enter a law school competition to be on Law Review, get in some quality time with the family, and help them prepare for a major construction project they are about to launch on the house. And just to make things extra great, UPS seems to have lost a box of my clothing. It's not just any box, but happened to be a box containing all three of my suits, most of my dress shirts, and all my ties! I need all of that stuff for DC and Zambia, not to mention interviews in the fall, so I may have to scramble to find some new clothes before I leave on Saturday, which since I'm not getting paid for the IJM internship may significantly dent my already indebted pocketbook. Hooray for UPS!

More later.

-jonathan

In the News...sort of

2008-04-13T14:51:00.001+01:00

Article About Humanity In Action

For Whom My Vote Polls

2008-04-12T15:41:00.003+01:00

My choice this election season is somewhat irrational.

Listening to Obama last week may have solidified a nagging political doubt within me. Now, I want to have the freedom to revoke this statement in future, but, and here it is... I'm a Republican. Not a Neo-con, not a Bushite, but a classical republican. I think the federal government should do less, spend less, tax less, regulate less, and leave more freedom and power in the hands of the states to deal with our social problems. I'm not a libertarian though. I believe the current mortgage crisis is a great example of areas where federal regulation should and must play a part. But, I don't support the federal government bailing out banks and homeowners who have spent beyond their means and taken on risks that they should never have taken. (I think nationalized health care at a basic level may also make more sense in a federal setting if it is to be done at all...but I won't put out all my inconsistencies at here at once, and I think that one is more of a moral issue than a political one.)

Nonetheless, I am going to cast my vote for Obama. At his speech last Thursday he said some things that made me cringe. He dropped the word "NAFTA" like a four letter word, evoked wild cheers from the crowd by stating that our gas prices were too high, and blamed corporate executives for outsourcing quality American Jobs. (I say if someone overseas wants to sit at a desk and answer phones, or stand at a factory production line, great! We can find better jobs for the Americans who don't have to do that anymore!)

So why vote for Obama? Here's the irrational part. I just like him and I just don't trust that that McCain will bring our country anything significantly different than what we saw for the past 8 years under Bush. Our country desperately needs a fresh face, someone who is willing to approach foreign policy with a more nuanced hand, and someone who isn't tied to our military so closely, and someone who isn't yet deeply rooted in the Federal system. Maybe I'm deluded that Obama actually represents these things, but I'm willing to see.

Hopefully after this political season I will be able to cast a confident vote for a Republican president, but not this time.

Obama

2008-04-10T18:39:00.006+01:00

I went to a little political rally for Obama yesterday. It was a blast. I've never been to a small town political event like that before. After seeing him and hearing his speech, I have some general thoughts on his candidacy that I will try to unfold in the next few blog posts, but for now, here are some pictures. I was up really close to the podium in the standing room section, and had a decent view for most of the time. But toward the end the crowd shifted a little, and some unnaturally tall people ended up blocking my view. (I mean really unnaturally tall, like they must have been drinking a few gallons of cows' milk every day---the midwest...)

Anyway, here are the pictures that turned out! I didn't get one with me, but maybe some other day.

Locked out

2008-04-08T15:01:00.003+01:00

I have a habit of tying my house key into my shoelaces when I go running. Yesterday I forgot to take the key off my shoe, and only discovered the error when I returned home for dinner. My roommate wasn't around, but fortunately I had left my bedroom window open, and I was able to get the screen off and climb inside. Hopefully there weren't too many people in the neighboring apartments watching me break in.

On Tea and Law

2008-04-07T19:01:00.006+01:00

I ran across a statute today that gave me a good laugh. It's been repealed now, which is too bad, because I thought I had identified a new job for me. For over 90 years, Congress provided that no imported tea could enter the United States unless federal tea-tasters decided that it measured up to preselected standard samples. In fact it gave power to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to appoint a seven member board... "each of whom shall be an expert in teas, and who shall prepare and submit to him standard samples of tea." (21 U.S.C. Section 42.) You can read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Tea_Appeals

Maybe Congress should start worrying about this important stuff again, cause this seems more important than the housing crisis...

Two days of blogging in a row

2008-04-07T13:15:00.004+01:00

My Property Law class was unexpectedly canceled this morning. I'm going to take care of some e-mail and then take advantage of the morning sun and go for a run outside.

This past weekend I entered the 1L Moot Court competition. It's modeled to be like an argument before an appellate court. I approached it pretty casually, since the prize for first place was a spot in a class that I can't take next year, but I wanted to do well, and thought I would since I took first speaker position when presenting the same argument for one of my classes. My partner and I lost in the first round though. On the up side, I think we argued well, and the team we lost to went on to take second place overall.

I have put on some weight this year. Last semester I was really disciplined and stuck to a pretty good routine of lifting weights, and getting lots of healthy food. This semester I haven't been so good, but nonetheless, some of my clothes don't fit anymore! I took my first ever trip to a tailor to get the pants let out of my suit, and I just got it back in time to wear for the argument this weekend.

Suit Up to Argue:

Springtime for blogging

2008-04-06T18:12:00.004+01:00

Yesterday we had our first fully beautiful and springlike day here at Notre Dame. It has been a long winter, but somehow just one day of blue sky and warmth has almost erased the memory of cold. I got starbucks and then spent the afternoon reading in the quad with my back against a tree. (Sadly I was reading for school, not pleasure, but it was still great.)

The winter was not a good time for blogging. Fortunately I did not resolve to blog more at new years, so I have not broken a resolution, but nonetheless, I'm a little surprised that I totally forgot about this thing. Probably nobody will read it anymore.

The semester is coming to a rapid close though and then I have an exciting summer ahead of me. There will be many stories to tell, and I hope to start using this platform again on a regular basis.

Stay Tuned...

Here is a picture of what Notre Dame no longer looks like! Though it was Narnia-like, it's nice to have the sun back.

Blogging to distract

2008-01-19T19:35:00.000Z

Would anyone like to write a statement of purpose for me to use in a summer job application? I didn't think so, neither do I.

So to distract myself I will turn to blogging.

Upon returning to Notre Dame for the new semester I found that my "green medley" of discount plants ($2.99 from Aldi) had dried out. Its recovery is beyond my meager horticultural skills.

Sad.

Now my place looks even more like a hotel, and since my trusty Volvo station wagon, has rebelled against the bitter cold, I will have to live without plants for a while.

Lest the concerned reader try to read into this post more than he/she should... please rest assured that the imagery of wilting plants has nothing to do with my current emotional state, though it does bear some resemblance to my final grade in Torts...

A humble place of birth

2007-12-28T23:40:00.000Z

Bethlehem. Christ's birth there was a symbol of the Kingdom of God. Bethlehem was a humble town, a forgotten place on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The name probably means "a place with a mill." Christ's birth there was a affirmation that what he came to offer the world wasn't power, or earthly glory, but access to God, salvation and peace. If He were a political conquerer he would have been born in Jerusalem, or possible not born, but simply appeared, maybe on a holy day, and leading Israel's oppressed people against Rome.

Today Bethlehem still reminds us of Christ's humble connection to our lives.

I had an opportunity to see Bethlehem this past summer. I drove into the city from Jerusalem with two close friends from my Wheaton days. We left the security and sterile cleanliness of Israel, parked our car at the gate of Israel's massive "security fence" and entered a city of desperation and desolation. The wall that Israel has built to keep out terrorists has encircled Bethlehem, cut farmers off from their land, forced Palestinian laborers to wait for hours to leave the city to find work, cut tourism down to a trickle, and made the lives of those who can't leave a daily struggle.

After we cleared the security point and entered Bethlehem we were surrounded by hungry eyed taxi drivers dying to have have our business. We were the only tourists that we saw entering on foot. (Though there were a few tourist buses in the city center.)

Our time was limited, all we could do that day was see the church of the nativity and then head back to Jerusalem so I could catch an airplane. We managed to convince our taxi driver to take us straight to the church rather than having a full blown expensive tour of the full city and environs.

We got the city center at the manger square and headed toward one of Christianity's most holy sites. The Church of the Nativity, built over what is believed to be the cavern where Christ's manger was located, is the most underwhelming religious site I saw in Israel. For that matter, it's the most underwhelming religious site I have seen in my life. This, the birthplace of Christ, was and still is a small forgotten and humble place.

The church has simple undecorated columns in the nave leading to the alter. The floor is gray stone, with holes in some areas. The alter is old and dusty, and the cavern below the alter where the manger site is located, is crowded and dark.

It is not a place that inspires awe.

It is however a place to reflect on the wonder and beauty of God being mysteriously willing to join us in our small and frail humanity. That God would so love us, leave behind his glory, and join us in such a way brought me to a new and deeper realization of just how amazing a gift Christ is to us. Bethlehem past and present stands for the beautiful message that no matter how broken, sinful and small we are, Christ's arrival was for us.

I must add a caveat at the end: Although my experience of Bethlehem was profound. I do not think Christians should stand idle while the city is choked to death by the wall. We must speak out against the inhuman treatment of those who have no voice, and who's lives are being stifled and shrunk. Even those Christians who believe that modern day Israel is God's chosen nation must acknowledge that God's blessing on Israel always came when they were obeying his commands and seeking to serve him. The wall, and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians behind it surely must be far from the heart of God.

To all of you who think I'm crazy for going to law school

2007-12-15T20:56:00.000Z

I don't really know if you think I'm crazy. But if you do, I thought I would post this so you can confirm your suspicions. Below is a copy of a past exam that one of my professors gave for a torts class. This is the sort of thing I have spent three months preparing for. The Torts exam I took yesterday had 4 similar, but less complicate problems like this.

------------------------------------
Olaf sneaks onto Violet's property to steal her very valuable Van Gogh --worth $50 Million. Violet is not in her house; she is tooling around in a nuclear-powered submarine that she invented to be used in her private Lake Lachrymose, which lies entirely within the boundaries of her estate. Violet has stocked the lake with gentle manatees, her favorite mammal. She cruises among them in her submarine.

Olaf purloins the painting, and is sneaking off the property when he encounters Klaus. Klaus is Violet's friend whom she had invited over for the weekend. Klaus has decided to go for a walk while Violet was sailing beneath her lake.

In an unfortunate event for Klaus, Violet had also invented a sticky, fly-paper-like substance that she placed around much of the perimeter of her property in order to catch burglars and other undesirables. Because he has his nose in a book, Klaus is not paying attention and ends up stepping on the substance, about which Violet had not informed him. Klaus is trapped, unable to move.

Unable to resist a bit of thievery when it presents itself, Olaf carefully avoids the sticky substance, as he had on the way in, and sidles over the the helpless Klaus. "I'll help you get out of here," Olaf says, "but you need to make yourself a little lighter. Hand me your wallet and watch."

Doubting Olaf's good faith and motives, Klaus declines the "offer." Olaf then starts to lean over to take Klaus's wallet from him.

At that moment, another unfortunate event occurs: Violet's submarine overheats. Engine overheating is an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of small nuclear-powered submarines. In accordance with industry standard, Violet designed an emergency relief valve that quickly releases steam to cool down the engine and avoid a nuclear catastrophe. She pulls the lever to activate the valve. A gigantic cloud of highly pressurized steam begins to rise from the submarine into the water.

Just then a 2000 pound manatee is swimming above the submarine. The force of the steam catapults the manatee into the air. Both Olaf and Klaus turn when the hear the sudden noise, looking in horror as they realize the manatee is now arching through the air and is about to land right on them. Olaf reacts quickly, grabs the painting and holds it over his head like a shield.

"Give me that," yells Klaus, yanking the painting from Olaf's hands as the manatee descends.

The painting works as a perfect shield, keeping the manatee off of Klaus, who is fortunately uninjured. The same cannot be said for the painting, which is destroyed; for Olaf, who is crushed to death under the weight of the falling manatee; and for the new BMW of Sunny, a dentist who is Violet;s neighbor. The BMW is badly dented by the splatter of Olaf organs and manatee parts.
Under the law of torts, who is responsible to whom, and why, explain fully.

---------------------
Not bad!

In other news, I have two finals left to go! I felt great about my Torts one yesterday, but am less prepared for the next two.

2007-12-06T16:52:00.001Z

Finals are coming soon.

I have Torts on the 14th, Civil Procedure on the 17, and Criminal law on the 19th. (Please note, this is Torts as in "tort reform," not more exciting and delicious cooking class, as in "strawberry torts.") I hope that I will be prepared, I think I will, but this is the first time I am being graded in any of these classes, so it's a bit of a wild card on what to expect.

St. Thomas Aquinas has a beautiful prayer for before studying, I have been starting my work with this every morning, and for those of you who think of it, I would be encouraged by and certainly could use your prayer as well.

ineffable Creator . . .

You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
Refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
the goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May You
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.
You Who are true God and true Man,
Who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas

2007-12-03T22:44:00.000Z

My favorite Danish thinker:

His name is Church Garden. I was going to make a paper rubbing of his gravestone this summer when I visited Copenhagen. Sadly, it was always rainy, and I wasn't able to...

I wrote the entry below during my junior year at Wheaton. I have found Kierkegaard very influential in helping me think about what sincere and absolute faith is supposed to look like. Sadly, I can barely understand most of what I wrote anymore, It's an outline from my History of Philosophy class, so it's not meant to reflect my own reactions or be particularly well flushed out.
The passage uses the story of Abraham and Isaac as an illustration of how faith is not about rules, particularly not Kantian or Hegelian rules of duty, or strict ethical frameworks. Rather, true faith is about pursuing the will of God. Ultimately what that looks like is submission to Him, driven not by a sense of duty but by love, which Kierkegaard refers to as passion in the passage.
Ultimately he sets a pretty high standard. If you take him seriously, then loving God and following His will puts you in a place where your actions are to be governed by your pursuit of God, not by the expectations of your society or culture or morals. It is quite certain that this will put you at odds with the world and lead you to actions that can not be easily understood by others.

**********
Kierkegaard’s task in Fear and Trembling is to illuminate the nature of faith, overturning the Hegelian idea that the highest good it to submit to the universal. He establishes the ethical as universal. A singular individual has qualified immediacy, but their telos, or purpose, is in the universal. Sin is individual expression over the universal, and spiritual trials arise when the individual is tempted to sin.

Within this framework, however, Kierkegaard finds a problem. If the ethical is a universal, it is of the same nature as eternal salvation, which is one’s telos. If a situation is thought of where the ethical should be suspended, then it would be relinquished. Being a universal, this is absurd, therefore if such a situation is found, the ethical must not be the highest. Kierkegaard refers to such a situation as a teleological suspension of the ethical.

Kierkegaard suggests faith as higher than the ethical, faith being the paradox in which the individual is placed above the universal. Faith is above the universal ethic so it cannot be mediated; explaining an action of faith would require words grounded in the ethical which are unintelligible with the ethical suspended. In such a case one is in absolute relation to the absolute. This paradox of faith could be confused with spiritual trials; therefore, it is the task of those with faith to set forth the characteristics whereby actions of faith and trials may be distinguished.

The story of Abraham and Isaac offers a biblical example of a teleological suspension of the ethical. The act of sacrificing Isaac was one of faith. In being willing to kill his son, Abraham placed himself above the universal. Abraham acted for God’s sake and for his own, he was tempted by the ethical not to sacrifice his son, but his higher duty was to God. Duty is to act on God’s will, in Abraham’s case duty meant violating the ethic (killing his son). Abraham’s action cannot be mediated (no one would understand him).

Establishing Abraham’s story as a sufficient example of the teleological suspension of the ethical requires addressing the nature of tragic heros, and greatness. First, a tragic hero sacrifices for reasons of the ethic. As shown, Abraham is beyond the ethic. Second, greatness is determined by what one does, not by what happens to one, the world uses results for justification, but one can not know results before acting, therefore the act is higher than the end, and is the measure of greatness. Mary is another example: she is great, not for birthing Christ, but for submitting to God.

With these two concerns addressed, Kierkegaard has established the biblical account of Abraham’s faith as an instance where the ethic was suspended for something higher. This suspension shows faith as that which is higher. Faith is the narrow road, above the ethic, on this road there is no one to advise and no way to mediate ones actions. Faith however is open to all humans, faith is a passion, and passion unites all human life.

2007-11-10T17:28:00.000Z

One of my friends started posting occasional poems and thoughts from other people on her blog. Her idea was to honor the creativity and thoughtfulness of others. I think that's great, and want to do it too. It's probably a really good idea for me to do, because my creativity and thoughtfulness right now is mostly bent towards reading and writing legal stuff that none of you are probably interested in. And as I usually don't have much time to blog, this might take the pressure off a little.

So, I currently have little time to read other than for my classes, that means that most of the creativity I take is comes from music. I pulled out my old blindside CD's a few weeks ago and was struck by how raw and sincere their lyrics are. "Pitiful", posted below, particularly stuck at my heart. The tension between knowing Christ's persistent gaze into my life, and my own tendency to ignore Him or cordon off parts of me is powerfully captured in this song.

"Pitiful" by blindside.

As I recall with my stomach turning
I was hiding away from myself, away from you
Like nothing, though something was terribly wrong
And I admit that I was only waiting for the right time
Night time, the right moment for you to look away
Though you never did, I pretended for a while
So I could walk where I don't belong

And I remember every word you said
Come back in time, come back
And I remember I would soon be dead
Now so pitiful, so pitiful

But I know as I hammered those nails into your beautiful hands
Your eyes still try to search for mine, but I look away
Now your eyes are the only thing that can save me
I'm still afraid of them piercing
You're breaking into my prison
Just pretended for a while
My soul is dying
I won't look away

And I remember every word you said...

I'll remember every word you said
This time I won't look away

2007-10-20T05:09:00.000+01:00

I met Justice Scalia today. He was at the law school for a symposium on the constitutional separation of powers. I got a ticket to a little informal lunch that the law school hosted for the law students to meet him. It was actually pretty nice. He just wandered around and mingled with us for about an hour. I brought my pocket constitution, but when I asked him to sign it he declined on the basis that he would have to sign too many others as well. At least I tried!

I think he is probably on of the most famous people I have met so far in my life. It's always surprising how "human" famous people are. I was standing right next to him for a while talking and I noticed that he had uncontrollably bushy eyebrows. Not that I think a Supreme Court Justice should get his eyebrows plucked, rather it just reminded me that even if they are famous they still are individuals with quirks and bodies and have to live life just like the rest of us.

Sorry, I guess that's not too profound, but frankly, I just finished a really hard week of school and my mind is ever so slightly in need of a break.

I haven't posted a picture for a while. I will try to do that more often. So, here is one from a few weekends ago when I was in Chicago. I took my bike with me and joined a bunch of friends on a crazy bike ride called critical mass. There were thousands of other bikers, all riding to either raise awareness of bikes in Chicago, have an excuse to ride a bike, have an excuse to ride a bike and drink, or like me and my friends, just along for the spectacle of it all. Here it is in the loop:

2007-10-18T15:35:00.000+01:00

Can Jonathan finish his legal writing memo on time?
It's due Friday at 5, but he has to finish a draft by 1:00 this afternoon, and he has a lunch meeting at 12. This gives him about 1.5 hours, and he has approximately 5 pages or analysis to do. Can he do it?

2007-10-16T16:37:00.000+01:00

Gore for President? (a light hearted post)

"Winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace."

These words from Steven Colbert sum up perfectly why Gore should not run.

2007-10-14T18:48:00.000+01:00

Church and State version 1.2

Thanks for the few questions about the church and state post. I will get around to trying to answer them as soon as I can. I've got the busiest week of my law school career coming up, so please have patience with me and give me a week or two to get around to clarifying things.

Reading my post again makes me realize that I do need to work on the following issues:
-I didn't really explain the integrationist and separationist part well, but that has more to do with how a Christian interacts with the political sphere than with church and state separation.
-I need to clarify what religion and state entails, because it's not a model, but rather an acknowledgment of the influence that religion will have on people who are in government---which in a democracy is all of us.
-Lastly I am going to need to give some examples of what this means for the state, the church, secular, and religious people.

Hopefully I can tackle these one at a time, over the next few weeks.

2007-10-09T04:57:00.000+01:00

Religion and the State:
A rather interesting article in the NYT today got me thinking about America's inability to discuss "Church and State" within any sort of clear framework. This is a topic I have been reflecting on for some time. Here are the beginnings of my thoughts.

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The starting place for a discussion about religion and the state is a clarification of terms. The phrase “church and state” is commonly used in this debate; however, I want to use both this, the phrase “religion and state.” When “separation of church and state” was originally used in the U.S. context it meant that the structures or institutions of the church and state were not to become intertwined, thereby guaranteeing that the Church would not be unduly influenced by the state. Stephen Carter in his article, “The Single Sided Wall,” argues that this separation was originally a Protestant idea.

"...the idea was that God had created not one but two forms of authority, the spiritual and the temporal, each with its own sphere of legitimate power. The Reformers believed that God was sovereign over both and that both were required to exercise power in accordance with God’s law; nevertheless, their purposes were quite different, the one to prepare men’s souls for salvation, the other to maintain order in the material world."(Carter, pg.73)

Carter argues further, that “The religion clause of the First Amendment is designed to limit what the state can do, not what the church can do.”(Carter, pg.74) Today people assume the establishment clause is to protect the state from the church. This conception has roots, and some legitimacy, within the enlightenment project. At its peak of influence the Catholic Church was intricately tied to the political structures in Europe. Much of the purpose of the enlightenment was conceptualizing a way to move beyond the domination of the Church over political life. I would argue that this project has succeeded, and agree with Carter that today the danger is the state overstepping its bounds and influencing the church.

Differing from “church and state,” is “religion and state.” Religion is something that can not be separated out of one’s life. It should deeply affect ones actions and thoughts within every part of life, including the political. A democratic state, such as the U.S., is made of individuals, if those individuals are religious, their religion will affect the state. Therefore religion and state are intertwined.

It is helpful to think of both “church and state” and “religion and state”on a conceptual spectrum ranging from enlightenment separationist to pietistic separationist with integrationist in the middle:

On this spectrum, for “church and state,” I am a pietistic separationist leaning somewhat toward the integrationist center. This is because I believe the Church needs protection from the state in order to preserve religious freedom and in order to be an institution which can critique the things of this world without the fear of being crushed by the world when it is in opposition. However, for “religion and state,” I am an integrationist, leaning only slightly to the pietistic side. As I said earlier, religion can not be separated from ones being, and people will necessarily bring their religious convictions into the functioning of the state, whether they admit it or not.

There is an additional benefit from differentiating between church and religion on this spectrum. Traditionally, integrationists have held that the church and state can not be separated and are both held to a similar moral framework within natural law. I am very comfortable with natural law, and I do think that the state is accountable within its framework. By differentiating between church and religion, I can still hold the state to that standard without tying the church into the state, and I can also hope that with the integration of religion and state, the moral foundation of the state can be made stronger.

Quotes and some terminology come from the following sources:

Carter, Steven. God’s Name in Vain. (Chapter 5 “The Single Sided Wall.”) Basic Books. New York, NY. 2000.

Sider, Ronald J. Et Al. Toward an Evangelical Public Policy. Baker Books. Grand Rapids MI. 2005.

2007-09-26T15:25:00.000+01:00

Setting Up Camp:

Five weeks in, and I've mostly made my apartment feel like home. The kitchen finally has a microwave and toaster, and I got a few house plants to make the place feel less utilitarian. I also got my photography back from the frame shop. It turned out great, but now that I have it up, I wonder about the wisdom of displaying my own art. Is that a bit narcissistic?

Anyway, I have a few pictures of home:

If I'm not in the library studying, chances are you will find me here in the living room...studying.

Or, you might find me in my expansive and luxurious kitchen, making food. I find cooking is a great release from working and studying, but it takes so much time to make a good meal.

If I'm neither studying nor cooking, then I'm sleeping.

Or maybe pretending to be an adult and suiting up for something.

2007-09-23T18:42:00.000+01:00

Reading and Writing and Football:

My work load has gotten a little heavier. Today I am writing my first legal memo, and I spent most of last week reading so I could have time to write today.

Yesterday I watched my first ND football game. It would be just my luck to show up at Notre Dame for the one season in the history of the world when the football team was just terrible. It was still fun to watch though. The crowd here goes crazy, it's really a weekend long event. The game was yesterday at 3:30, and I got up at 9:00 to get some shopping done in town before campus filled up. Even that early, there were already crowds on campus, and the tailgaters had started drinking.

Can you see me? I'm in the middle of the picture, waving a white towel...

2007-09-13T22:35:00.000+01:00

More Catching up:

I traveled to Israel this summer, before doing my internship. I flew on El al, the Israeli national airline. I will tell that story later, it was a disaster, one of the worst experiences in my life. Anyway, I had heard that they will google your name prior to your flight with them, and it was suggested that you remove any content linking yourself in any way to countries that Israel has issues with. So following that advice, I deleted one of my postings, I have reposted it below, in the hopes that my friend in Qom may still occasionally read this. I have also put a few pics from my trip up, because as bad as El al was, the country was still beautiful.

To my friend in Qom:

I have this cool free program through google, called Analytics, that shows me statistics for people visiting my blog. It has a fascinating feature that actually tracks where people looking at the blog are from. (I guess is can recognize IP addresses from around the world???)

Anyway, I just wanted to give a little shout out the whoever lives in Qom, Iran and has read the blog. I hope you weren't too bored.

Pictures:

The Dome of the Rock.

Me surveying the Old City of Jerusalem from atop the wall.

2007-09-13T02:09:00.001+01:00

Catching up:

My post on September 10th was from earlier this summer when I was interning with Humanity In Action. Since I didn't get around to blogging at all the entire summer, I think now is as good a time as any to write a little about what I was up to.

Humanity in Action is a not-for-profit human rights advocacy and awareness group that brings American and European students together from June to July across Europe, in New York and in Washington D.C. The overall goal is to expose the students to the historical roots of human rights and to contemporary issues facing minority groups in Europe and the U.S. The European program, which I was a part of, runs in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, and Warsaw.

I participated in the Berlin trip during the summer after my junior year at Wheaton, and was asked to come back as the intern for this year's program in Copenhagen.

The summer program is in essence an intense lecture series combined with field trip, in which the students meet with academics, politicians, journalists, historians, and activists who all present on different aspects of minority issues in the country. So, for example, this year's program in Copenhagen had a strong focus on the issue of Muslim immigrants into Denmark. Denmark is a very homogeneous society and the influx of foreigners, who are badly needed for the economy and work force, is raising some serious issues in education, employment discrimination, religious freedom and terrorism. (You may have seen in the media over the past week that there has been a terrorist related bomb scare in Copenhagen, and a number of arrests have been made.)

The last ten days of the program saw the students pair up and do in depth research on any topic that captured their attention during the first part of the program. The paper will be published by HIA later this year.

My role as an intern was basically to participate as an uber-student, being actively involved in the group meetings and lectures and facilitation group activities. During the research period I provided support to the groups and then edited their papers.

Humanity In Action is not a religious group. They are very secular, and my first trip with them was a bit of a shock for a conservative, home-schooled, Wheaton boy, (some of the students actually drank alcohol on occasion...please read fake surprise here, humor is hard to imply in this type of format.) But it's a great program, they are really serious about caring for those who society traditionally ignores, and it was a pleasure to work with them.

2007-09-11T19:01:00.000+01:00

Reflections on 9:11

Six years ago I was sitting in a physics lab learning about the importance of mass in measurements of momentum. The lab was interrupted briefly by someone telling us that a plane had just crashed into the world trade center. I had never been to New York. I couldn't have picked out the towers on a picture of NYC's skyline, but six years on that event has had a profound impact on how I view the world.
It's strange to think about it like that, because I certainly don't look at the world in fear, I don't panic when I'm in tall buildings, and I don't think that Islamic terrorists are the world's biggest threat, but in more subtle ways, 9:11 has shaped how I think, what I care about and what I am doing now.
9:11 took the world of international relations and political science by storm. Does anyone remember that before the towers fell, the big story was whether the U.S. was going to have a show down with China over a spy plane? That's all gone now. Now the concern is that individuals, not nations, can determine and sway the course of world events. My studies in International Relations at Wheaton were so shaped by that realization.
We live in a world, especially those of us in the US, where we think of countries, nations and states at the prime movers. But the reality is that technology and globalization are making it easier and easier for one individual or group to effect the lives of thousands or millions of others.
9:11 was the most violent and dramatic display of that reality, but the same element is present in positive or benign ways as well. Think of facebook, one guy started it up in his dorm room, and now millions of people use it to interact with their friends on a 24/7 basis. That one guy has had a massive impact on college culture and interaction. Think of YouTube, started by a few guys in a basement. It's presence in the entertainment world is so strong that it is now surpasses MTV in viewership of music videos. Now, I didn't grow up with MTV, (thanks mom and dad, I owe you one for that) but I certainly new about it, and few would contradict me in saying that MTV was the dominant youth culture setter even as late as 6 years ago. Even the international political arena is seeing the emerging dominance of the individual. The Bush Administration's war on Iraq is a superb example. A small group of political leaders managed to take an entire nation to war, against the better judgment of most of the world, and many in this country.
Now, here's where 9:11 comes in. This development of the individuals supremacy is not new, and many would argue that it's always been there. But what 9:11 did was make us all aware of it again, to bring it to the foreground and highlight it's dangerous elements.
As we continue to mark the anniversaries of that dramatically sorrowful day, let us remember that the same developments that made 9:11 possible can also enrich our lives in beautiful ways. We can communicate with friends and relative across the globe, eat fresh strawberries all year round, and generally lead a life enriched by the diversity of culture that God has granted to us. So mark this day with sorrow and prayer for those who still hurt, and with prayer for those who now hurt because of our reaction. But remember that a world in which 9:11 wouldn't have happened, is a world in which the diversity and pleasures of the lives we now lead would be much diminished.

2007-09-11T03:36:00.001+01:00

Sometimes my mind needs a bit of a break from law, so I spent a little time synthesizing some things I picked up on in Denmark this summer. Below is a blog post I put together a while ago for Humanity In Action's Blog. I was responsible for detailing the day's speakers and events and what I have pasted below is that post. It gives a little glimpse into what the day to day of my internship was like.
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Religion, antisemitism, antiislamicism (permit me to make up a word) and integration were the topics of the day. They overlapped somewhat in the various presentations but each topic presents it’s own varied problems.

Our first speaker was Mr. Tim Jensen, a lecturer at the university of Copenhagen with a specialty in the history of religion. As an atheist he views himself to be in the religious minority in Denmark and it is from that context that he presented a challenging analysis of the majority Christian religion of Denmark. As a good historian he began with some background information, telling us that of Denmark’s 100 registered minority religions, 3/4 of them were Christian, and that of those who actually practice the religion they identify with, only a minuscule minority probably 1 or 2 percent or the population practice a non-Christian religion. Now this is certainly a surprising number considering the firestorm of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country, but to me the more shocking thing is that Denmark has “registered religions.”

The state here actually controls who can be a registered leader of a religious group and the state still funds the majority Lutheran/Peoples church. Additionally, the government has a minister of ecclesiastical affairs and levies taxes to pay for the church’s administration. How does this work? How is it that the overwhelmingly secular Danish society support this? Mr. Jensen’s answer is that the Danes have a special kind of religion, they actually are Christian, even if they don’t go to church, because they choose to pay taxes to support the church. In fact some 83 percent of the population are paying members of the People’s Church! Mr. Jensen assured us that the Danes like their money to be theirs, so for them to be willing to pay for the church means they actually support the church. He also offered an interesting view of liberal Christianity in the Danish context that helped explain this paradox further. Even though the Danes may not look like a Christian society by American standards, (i.e. they don’t go to church, profess faith, talk about God, believe Jesus is the son of God and so on...) they do think of themselves as more enlightened or refined Christians, their religion is private and dignified, so much so that they don’t even need to go to Church. So, in Mr. Jensen’s words, the Danes want the church to be on the hill or the corner, a familiar and comforting institution, but they don’t need to actually use the Church.

Mr. Jensen tried to explain this by saying that the Church has been present in Danish society for 1000 years, and has slowly brainwashed the population. My analysis is that if the Church is willing to be controlled by the state through approval of it’s clergy, and paid for by taxing a non-believing population, the Church itself has been secularized right along with Danish society.

The second speaker of the day was less challenging personally, but certainly quite interesting. Mrs. Cecilia Felicia Stockholm Banke, a journalist and academic who’s studies focused on anti-religious sentiment in Denmark and Europe, gave us a brief lecture on antisemitic and antimuslim attitudes in Denmark. Considering the Danes role in rescuing their Jewish populations in WWII, the recent emergence of antisemitic attitudes in Denmark is rather disturbing. Mrs. Banke helped us to grasp the complexity of the situation and fostered a good discussion among our group. Her work focused on elementary education on the Holocaust and it was through that lense that we analyzed antisemitism. It seems that among all Danes, including immigrants, there is an understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust, but when it comes to current views on Jews, there is an emerging antisemitism that seems to be tied to the State of Israel and the Palestinian conflict. Animosity and fear of the Israeli state has turned itself into extreme positions, typified by the famous denial of the Holocaust by the higher-ups in Iran, and also reflected to a lesser extent in some of Denmark’s immigrant school children. It would seem that antimuslim attitudes in the general population also lend fuel to the fire of antisemitism in some immigrants, as they blame a worldwide antimuslim attitude on the Bush administration, Isreal, and the UN who are all collaboration against Islamic states in the middle east.

This presentation in itself was interesting, but it was Mrs. Banke’s parting thought that gave me the most pause. She asked whether by giving the Jews a homeland in Palestine, Europe was simply washing its hands of its own antisemitic problems. There was enough guilt after WWII for the Eurpoean nations to want to do something for the Jews, but it was also convenient to get rid of them peacefully by giving them a state. If this is the case, the current animosity towards Muslim immigrants can be taken in a much more somber light, for the history of Eurpoe’s treatment of minorities in certainly not improved at all if the Jewish homeland is only a result of convenience and not of honest repentance and concern.

The days meetings took a on a less serious note as we headed to the Ministry of Integration. I had expected to have a challenging debate there, as the ministry is certainly at the center of many of Denmark’s more restrictive laws and immigration policies, but the head of the integration department conveniently couldn’t speak long enough for questions. He spoke to us briefly about unemployment among the immigrant populations, and then left, giving the floor to a team of ministry employees who are running a mentoring program for immigrant school children and youth. Neither of them could speak to any policy issues, so the chance for hard debate was lost.

We ended the day with a visit to a mosque and a talk on Islam by Mr. Abdul Wahid Pederson, a Danish convert to Islam. The most striking aspect of the visit was to see the building itself. The mosque is built in a refurbished warehouse, with really no marking on its exterior of what lies within. Inside, the building is quite nicely done, with careful tile work and very Islamic feeling art and architecture. This essentially hidden mosque portrayed powerfully to me the depth of antimuslim sentiment in this society. That this group could not build freely or even mark their building clearly is a strong indication of the fear that surrounds Islam here.

Sadly, this day did not offer much in the way of hope. If Mr. Jensen is right and 83 percent of the population considers themselves Christian and considers their kind of religion to be proper, this country will have an awfully hard time ever figuring out how to accept a minority in which many people take their faith seriously enough to interrupt their schedules 5 times a day to pray. All I can suggest is that this country institute a strict separation of church and state, thereby truly privatizing religion, and opening up the possibility of religious freedom for non-Christians and Christians alike.

-Jonathan Miner

2007-09-09T01:29:00.000+01:00

I am working on settling into my apartment. A good deal of my time for the past two weeks has been spent studying or in the library, so my place is still relatively barren. I got a few of my panoramas printed out though, and I went to get some of them framed today, they are going to be done in a week or so. I got my Machu Picchu shot printed at 12x45 inches, and two others of Chicago at 6x20 inches. Next I need to get some plants to make it feel less industrial/utilitarian. I will post some pictures when I have it feeling more like home.

2007-09-06T03:05:00.000+01:00

Week 2:

Law school is alright. I am still happy and not overwhelmed. My reading is manageable. My classes are enjoyable, and the library is feeling more comfortable.

Today I was elected the first year representative for the International Law Society. I was really surprised. The society has a big meeting, in which they served Chipotle burritos (thus drawing the big crowd), and about a third of my class showed up. One of the agenda items was to elect a class rep. About six of us were interested and we all gave really short impromptu speeches. I haven't done a really great job of socializing, and certainly am not too well know in my class, so I was flabbergasted to actually win. But international law is something i am really passionate about, so maybe this is the hand of God keeping me accountable for my interests.

Last week I worked ahead a few days and had a completely free weekend, which I spent in Chicago visiting my old roommates and good friends in the area. I love Chicago, what a city! Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the world, I had to work on Monday, no Labor Day for me. Notre Dame doesn't celebrate any Federal holidays, even the summer session has school on July 4th. Someone needs to take this up with the Pope.

2007-08-27T03:21:00.000+01:00

Law School Confidential***

Law school is easy. The stuff we are learning is not hard material, there is just lots of it. The key will be discipline, a set schedule and work, no really tough thinking. That's actually a bit disappointing to me. I will have to go out of my way to be intellectually challenged, but I think that will come later.

The first year schedule is pretty well set. I have criminal law, civil procedure, torts, legal research and writing. So does everyone else.

I like Notre Dame so far. The strong Catholic identity, adherence to social justice, and passion to see law as not a tool for wealth or power, but to servanthood, all make this an excellent place to be a Christian and student of the law. I believe I will have a very enjoyable three years ahead of me.

My classmates seem competitive. Compared to the faculty they are not too high powered. The faculty being graduates of Yale, Harvard, U of Chicago, Georgetown, NYU and so on, and the students, like me, being from mostly middle tier schools, but they appear bright, and excited to learn, so I think they will be good peers.

Grades here are completely based on a final exam, and each class is on a hard curve. C is average, meaning, that's what the most people get... I just hope I can manage to be a non-most-people.

*** Disclaimer, classes haven't started yet.

The Dome.

2007-08-26T04:17:00.000+01:00

Road Trip '07

As I turn new leaf and begin law school and in some ways start growing up a bit, I think it is a good time to renew my commitment to blogging. I am gratified to those of you who do read this, and I appreciate your comments as always. I know the crowd is small, and I am not going for numbers or notoriety here, but in the past, the act of blogging, sharing some of myself to a different audience, has been a good exercise in distilling what is happening to me in a little less narcissistic manner than a personal journal.

So, all that has little to do with my road trip '07, except that I am actually writing again. My brothers Javan and Joel joined me on a splendid road trip from Seattle to South Bend. We took a leisurely five days to cross the country, stopping in Yellowstone and the Badlands as we snaked through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinoisand Michigan. Thanks to the genius of the American Interstate system, we were able to stay on I-90, or 94 for all but a few miles of the trip.

I've spent a lot of time in Europe lately, and it's easy for me to idealize the beauty and richness of our friends across the pond. But really, as far as natural beauty, the U.S. has got them beat hands down. The splendor of the mountains, the diversity of the plains, the rolling hills, and even the beauty of 1000 unbroken miles of corn all helped remind me of what a beautiful land I have been blessed to be born a citizen of. Now, if only our politics and foreign policy could mirror our natural beauty, then we would be on to something...

I have some pictures from the trip: Enjoy them, and stay tuned for tomorrow's blog, where I will tell you some big secrets about law school.

The boys at our first night's camp spot.

The amazing hot springs in Yellowstone.

Old Faithful.

Some very bad lands.

The trusty Volvo, on a collision course.

The torrential rains caught us in Wisconsin.

I had to chase this guy out of my kitchen when I got to Notre Dame. Pesky vermin.

2007-08-14T02:46:00.000+01:00

The worst Blogger ever!

Since last writing, too much has happened: I have decided to go to Notre Dame for Law school. I depart in one week for Indiana. I have been in Europe for two months. One month in Copenhagen working for Humanity in Action and the rest of the time traveling, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. I also got to go to Israel and hang out college roommate and his wife and beautiful daughter, we took a side trip to the Sinai peninsula for a snorkeling adventure.

I also met an amazing girl in Chicago, about two weeks before I left for Europe. That's been an adventure! But I don't want to go into to much of that kind of thing on a blog that any random person can see. (sorry random person, it's not that I don't trust you, it's just that you don't need to know.)

With all this in the past three months, I feel sort of defeated about blogging. I journal faithfully, but doing this blog is somehow harder. I may try again when I start at ND.

2007-04-11T06:01:00.000+01:00

A General Update:

I have now heard from Yale and Harvard. Neither one could give me a spot in their Law School. I am accepted at Notre Dame, which is a great school and produces some very fine attorneys. However, I am considering re-applying to a few schools for next year and deferring enrollment at Notre Dame.

My rational is this: I am very interested in law, but not completely sold on being an attorney long term. I really want to have flexibility to move out of law and into other areas, particularly foreign policy and politics, and I am not sure that Notre Dame will afford me that option. As sad as it is, name recognition of the law school will play an important part in allowing me to be successful, even though I am confident that the training I would get at Notre Dame is as satisfactory as that which I would get at a place like Harvard.

I have been teaching and tutoring with Kaplan test prep for the past year, and I have taken a few full practice Law school test in the past week. It looks like I could take the test again and make some significant improvements to my score, such that I might have a better shot at a few top 10 schools.

Although admission is really a bit of a gamble no matter how great you are, I made some mistakes this year in my application process that could be fixed in a second round, and combining that with a higher score on the LSAT would probably position me well.

One of the only pieces that remains for me to figure out is what I would do in the coming year. I want to be intellectually stimulated and challenged. Although saving more for law school would be nice, my top priority would be to find something that offers me growth and new challenges. I am considering trying to find a Senate staffing job in DC, ideally with someone of the Foreign Relations Committee, and also talking to some of my old professors at Wheaton to see if I can be of use in any of their research.

Any advice???

2007-03-08T05:32:00.000Z

The Olympics in Chicago!!!

Hopefully they will come here in 2016 and then this picture I took from my balcony will be worth something. Then I will have to decide if I want to use the real shot, below on the left, or the photoshoped one on the right...

2007-02-27T23:45:00.000Z

Not my faith: or how scientific evangelicalism presents an untenable face to the secular world:

In the past few years I have had a number of opportunities to interact with non-Christian academic peers. My evangelical heritage has always been a puzzlement to many of these people, and discussions of how my faith informs my world view often come up. I have found the recent trend of evangelicals trying to use science in apologetics to be particularly problematic among this crowd. A recent New York Times article,"Believing Scripture but Playing by Science's Rules," highlighted this issue for me.

The article tells the story of a paleontologist PhD student who's dissertation chronicles the spread of a reptile from 65 million years ago, yet he is a "young earth creationist" who believes the earth is at most 10,00 years old. The article explores the obvious paradox of how someone with such a belief could do scientifically rigorous study. The student's response is that he is simply using different paradigms in his science and his faith, and he compares his work to that of a socialist doing economics work in neo-classical economics department.

The flaw in this analogy lies in the fact that his faith paradigm absolutely precludes the existence of any time 65 million years ago, which his scientific paradigm relies upon. A better economics analogy for his situation is that of an individual who does not believe in the existence of markets, producing economic research on how they function.

It is this sort of inconsistency that makes Evangelical Christianity untenable to so many of my intellectually oriented secular friends. It is not the idea of brotherly love, it is not difficult sexual standards, it is not even some of our more complicated theological ideas like the problem of evil or the Trinity that cause these people problems, it is our inconsistency in our faith and our approach to the rational scientific world that allows them to dismiss Christianity off hand.

A tangent on the young earth belief that so many of our brothers and sisters consider a pillar of biblical interpretation: Young earth ideas have never been a part of the Christian heritage and play no central role in any of the most important theological beliefs of Christianity. Although there have been some writers stemming back to early Judaism that have referred to Creation as being done in 6 solar days, most early Christian fathers did not hold this view. It's centrality in American Evangelicalism did not arise until the early 1900's when Ellen Gould White, a Seventh-day Adventist prophetess posited the literal six day interpretation and literal understanding Genesis timeliness as the final death knell to Darwinian evolution. I do not think most people who hold the young earth paradigm really understand where it came from. Wikipedia actually has a good history of it for those who are interested.

To get back on topic, if evangelicals want to be taken seriously in the secular world and present a tenable faith to intellectuals, we need to stop trying to reconcile perceived paradoxes between our faith and the reality of the world. We need to embrace the fact that our God is the creator of the world and the physical processes that shape it. If we desire to use science to help prove some Christian claim, go all the way, don't make contradictions through incomprehensible claims of "different paradigms." Believe that the rational ability that God has given us can be trusted. Properly tested scientific conclusions, and our God's creative impulses are not contrary to each other.

Now, if only Christian Science PhD students would read my blog...

2007-02-26T06:03:00.000Z

Up a creek without a paddle:

I have been working on a post about science and evangelicals. I haven't gotten it quite ready, so I will just post another picture for now. This one is from last weekend in Washington, kayaking the East Fork of the Satsop River with my family.

2007-02-24T23:58:00.000Z

Chicago:

I caught this shot of the Sears Tower a few days ago as I was walking to work. There was a dense fog over the city, and as the sun rose from the lake it caused the radio spires on top of the tower to cast a shadow back into the fog.

2007-02-13T05:16:00.000Z

Random happenings for February:

Today it was about 30 degrees outside, rather a balmy spell considering the past few weeks of sub zero wind chills. Spring is on the way??? I am filing my taxes and financial aid applications, while I wait to hear back from law schools.

I decided to join the ranks of the atomized citizenry and buy an iPod. (With a blog name like this, I must.) I got a shuffle and am very impressed with it's size and ease of use. Now I can listen to music at all times and ignore my surroundings with the greatest of ease.

Light writing with a flash light. It's easy to do with a long exposure shot in the dark, you just need to learn to write cursive backwards. To capture yourself in the background, I recommend setting a timer with a flash, stand in one place for the flash, and then do your writing before the timer runs out. Have fun!

2007-01-31T04:50:00.000Z

A Cleaning of my Right Ear:

I had never been told this before, but apparently I have a kind of earwax that has a penchant for being difficult to remove from the ear through the standard q-tip methods. I had a physical exam yesterday, my doctor told me, "you have a massive wax buildup around your right ear-drum."

He suggested I come back in today to get it cleaned out, something I readily agreed to, since a.) I have health insurance, and b.) I will gladly take an excuse to skip work.

The cleaning bit was strange. I don't know if any of you have had this experience, but it was new to me. The doctor asked me to hold a pan under my ear while he filled a massive syringe with warm water and hydrogen peroxide and then squirted it aggressively into me ear. Somehow this process loosened the wax ball. In my peripheral vision I watched the little orange chunks as they they flowed out of my ear and across the pan with the water.

I would love to report that somehow my life is better for this procedure, or that I was surprised to hear sounds I had never heard before, but alas, neither of those things is true. All I can do is rest secure in the knowledge that my right ear is cleaner today than it was yesterday.

A picture for you of what came out of my ear:

2007-01-26T06:26:00.000Z

A Name Change:

I have changed the name of my blog to iCommunicado. I guess I am trying to say that this electronic means of communication is somewhere between me actually talking with you and being fully incommunicado. I also thought about calling it Incommunicago sort of mixing up the fact that I live in Chicago with the idea of communicating, and thereby giving some sort of physical reference to this non-physical blog. But whatever, it doesn't really matter, this is better than the overly self referential "See my blog here" that I had before.

I should probably trademark the "iCommunicado" before Apple does. It would make a good name for their next phone.

And here's a picture:

This is from Christmas. My parents took the family to Mt. Bachelor in Central Oregon. This is a lucky shot I got from the chair lift as I approached the summit.