Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Hey, this is familiar!
The Cult of the Common Law is centered in that fusion of public and private law that seems so peculiar to persons trained in European legal systems. My suggestion is that the successes of Anglo- U.S. public law have given an aura to our courts and our legal system that protects the system whenever criticism is directed toward serious shortcomings in the procedures and institutions that handle routine matters of private law and criminal law. Implicit in the Cult of the Common Law is the contention that the legal system is an indivisible package ... and that any tampering with this complex structure risks the political liberties that have been historically associated with the Anglo-American legal systems. Expressed in this way, the Cult of the Common Law is profoundly chauvinistic and reactionary. It seizes upon the relatively precocious development of constitutionalism in the Anglo-American legal tradition, and uses that as a shield against criticism based on foreign example. Again and again in discussions about the shortcomings of the contemporary legal system I find that when I draw upon foreign example, that I am met with responses such as, “Before you go on telling me any more about the virtues of German civil procedure, please explain why they had Hitler and we did not.”
~ John H. Langbein
The Cult of the Common Law is centered in that fusion of public and private law that seems so peculiar to persons trained in European legal systems. My suggestion is that the successes of Anglo- U.S. public law have given an aura to our courts and our legal system that protects the system whenever criticism is directed toward serious shortcomings in the procedures and institutions that handle routine matters of private law and criminal law. Implicit in the Cult of the Common Law is the contention that the legal system is an indivisible package ... and that any tampering with this complex structure risks the political liberties that have been historically associated with the Anglo-American legal systems. Expressed in this way, the Cult of the Common Law is profoundly chauvinistic and reactionary. It seizes upon the relatively precocious development of constitutionalism in the Anglo-American legal tradition, and uses that as a shield against criticism based on foreign example. Again and again in discussions about the shortcomings of the contemporary legal system I find that when I draw upon foreign example, that I am met with responses such as, “Before you go on telling me any more about the virtues of German civil procedure, please explain why they had Hitler and we did not.”
~ John H. Langbein
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
My big issue is that I do not trust God's goodness. I trust that He is Good. I just don't know if I am comfortable with what goodness means. But I am paranoid. I have no reason to fear him for He has been nothing but good to me. Teach me!
Trust my justice, child. You cannot wield it. It is only your duty to forgive.
~God, in Persepolis
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Pools of un-understanding. Sometimes I just want to stand there and tell you that I don't know. And I really don't.
But for now, I can say that this is all very restful. Like a pendulum on the down swing, I'm coming back to real.
But for now, I can say that this is all very restful. Like a pendulum on the down swing, I'm coming back to real.
I don't care to say what
I failed to recognize
Every single day from the poker to the prize
Running out of Springfield
I worked for the Capitol Air, in the bags
Found a woman there who said
She had a mind to make
Me a messenger man
If my father took his life
For the national plan, I don't care
I'm not about to stick my grave with an
Apron and a bucket of plans, never ever
I can take the pillow cases
Off the yellow pillows
Make a property line from the bed
In the living room, the living room
The morning papers made the most
Out of nothing at all
So we took the room
With a view of the runaway
I took off my clothes
And she took it for a holiday
I was taken for all the things
That I never had before
Running out of Springfield
She left me with a note saying:
"Bobby, don't look back"
And if my wife took a bicycle ride
With a knife in her hand
I saw it coming
All the shadflies run at once
With a trumpet or a train
Oh, I'm running from it
Wait a minute, wait a minute
Give a minute, lady
I can explain the aftershave
Wait a minute, wait a minute
Give a minute
Bobby got a shadfly
Caught in his hair
I failed to recognize
Every single day from the poker to the prize
Running out of Springfield
I worked for the Capitol Air, in the bags
Found a woman there who said
She had a mind to make
Me a messenger man
If my father took his life
For the national plan, I don't care
I'm not about to stick my grave with an
Apron and a bucket of plans, never ever
I can take the pillow cases
Off the yellow pillows
Make a property line from the bed
In the living room, the living room
The morning papers made the most
Out of nothing at all
So we took the room
With a view of the runaway
I took off my clothes
And she took it for a holiday
I was taken for all the things
That I never had before
Running out of Springfield
She left me with a note saying:
"Bobby, don't look back"
And if my wife took a bicycle ride
With a knife in her hand
I saw it coming
All the shadflies run at once
With a trumpet or a train
Oh, I'm running from it
Wait a minute, wait a minute
Give a minute, lady
I can explain the aftershave
Wait a minute, wait a minute
Give a minute
Bobby got a shadfly
Caught in his hair
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Truth in Jest
[Talking about my Comparative Law class]:
Hannah: I just don't really talk... you know... Asianness
Glen: What? I thought one year of law school would have changed that
Hannah: what??? You think I'd lose my blood so easily? Or the colour of my eyes?
[Talking about my Comparative Law class]:
Hannah: I just don't really talk... you know... Asianness
Glen: What? I thought one year of law school would have changed that
Hannah: what??? You think I'd lose my blood so easily? Or the colour of my eyes?
Like how people return after 3 years of studying overseas with an 'accent' that they just can't get rid off. Seriously now. 3 years, up against the formative 18 years of your life. Seriously now. If anyone is speaking Ang Moh, it ought to be me. But it ain't! Besides we all share the same biology right? I haven't met a Single person from here, returning from exchange with a different accent. God.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Friggin Alberta calls at 6.50 am to tell me that my loan can't be processed because the post office I sent it through forgot to stamp the forms.
Here is when I start whining about incompetence.
Bleh.
**Update**
First caller give me the fax number - which I lost due to sleep disorientation
I call again - Second lady gives me fax number AND tells me my ID number that I need to put on my documents - Nice thing to know, first caller.
I got the wrong number - call again - third lady gives me the right fax number AND tells me that I also need to fax the document to the National loans center.
Thank god for MY incompetence. If not, I'd have to do this over and over again.
Two wrongs do make a right.
Here is when I start whining about incompetence.
Bleh.
**Update**
First caller give me the fax number - which I lost due to sleep disorientation
I call again - Second lady gives me fax number AND tells me my ID number that I need to put on my documents - Nice thing to know, first caller.
I got the wrong number - call again - third lady gives me the right fax number AND tells me that I also need to fax the document to the National loans center.
Thank god for MY incompetence. If not, I'd have to do this over and over again.
Two wrongs do make a right.
