Why Law

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

-- The Dalai Lama

Monday, December 12, 2005

I've Moved!

Why Law is officially retired! Please visit me over at my new blog: Charismatic Megafauna

I think it's fitting, and really fun, that I'm retiring this blog at the same time I would've been taking my first final...

The eighteen months that Why Law represents were some of the most devastating, and most joyous, times of my life. I kind of wanted to just change the name and continue posting here but changing the URL doesn't change the links to individual posts, and I didn't want people to end up on that annoying Blogger 404 page. So I've decided to leave Why Law where it is and start fresh with a new blog. I hope you'll visit me from time to time.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

That's It

So, I've left law school.

It was great going through this process, from the LSAT to first semester with all of you. I want to wish all of my blogger 1L buddies the best of luck on final exams.

As for this blog - I'm going to keep it up, after a brief hiatus, with a name change.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

War and the Environment

Today is the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. Such an important topic, and one that doesn't get nearly enough attention - at least until years after the "war or armed conflict" is over.

I was enrolled in a class called "War and the Environment" for one of my last semesters at undergrad. It was cancelled the first day of the term and I had to scramble around looking for another class that would satisfy my major requirement.

It turns out the teacher who was supposed to teach the class was being let go. This teacher was a favorite of many students and since we were living in the Ward Churchill era there were rumors flying about conspiracies. The most widely spread rumor (And who knows? Maybe it was true.) was the teacher was let go because she had done research on some large corporations' (read: major university benefactors) environmentally unsound business practices a little too well.

There were protests of course, but since there were just so many things to protest at the school at that time they were sort of lost in the crowd, I think. They did show up outside of my department's graduation ceremony with the prerequisite electrical tape covering their mouths and quarter page flyers demanding justice. I'm not sure what they thought the graduating parents were going to do with this information. Still - more power to 'em.

Anyway, had I actually taken the class I would probaby have a lot more specific things to say about the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. It's pretty obvious that the environment gets lost in the shuffle of the policies behind armed conflict - both those presented to the public and those that aren't. And since "the enemy" is usually so far away the environmental impacts of war are easy to overlook.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Fair and Balanced

I post a lot about what I don't like about law school, so in the interests of full disclosure, balanced Why Law reporting and making this blawg (are law students allowed to call them blawgs?) more positive I will tell you that I DO like the writing. I like the memo part of legal writing class, and I like writing out the answers to practice exam questions.

Speaking of, I got one of these practice exam questions returned this morning and it had some very nice things to say to me about my performance. This made me happy. Today I am glad I made it to November!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Since When Is This Okay?

In the past twelve hours or so I have heard (not read, but actually heard, in person) people make two sexist remarks, three racist remarks and one remark against homosexuals. The two sexist remarks were against women, the racist remarks were against Hispanics and Mexicans, and the homosexual remark was against gay men.

Since when is this behavior appropriate? Especially at school?

November!

I have almost quit law school 1,715 times in the last 2 months. Each time I decided to stay I told myself if I could just make it to November everything would be okay. Well, here it is November 1 and I'm still here, so I guess everything is going to be okay.

I've made my appointment with Career Services and I've been looking over the internship/summer study abroad research I've done in my "spare time." Thinking about summer possibilities makes the idea of finishing 1L much more bearable.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

A Little IP Action

Lewis and Clark's own Joe Miller has joined madisonian.net, a "blog about law, society and technology."

I came to madisonian.net for its "Get ready for law school" series of posts and stayed for the IP action. If you like IP law you'll probably like it over there. Check it out.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Any Takers?


My blog is worth $16,371.66.
How much is your blog worth?



(Thanks LawMom!)