Hunger: Motivation to Revolt?

Economics, I know not.  However, there are a few simple concepts that I think I understand.  The USDA released a report stating that the corn crop will fall by 4%.  As a result, the price of corn has surged in the last couple of days.  Cow and chickens eat corn, so meat will become more expensive.  High Fructose Corn Syrup is in darn near everything (sorry, Corn Sugar), the price of all those items may increase as well.  I think the only reason why we haven't revolted to date is because food in America is relatively affordable.  Therefore, we eat and remain fat, happy, lazy and passive.  Maybe this is the push that we need to fight for our futures.
Can anyone out there explain the impact of this? Am I exaggerating the potential effects?  Potato Famine anyone?

Pompous Shill/Professor Disses Angel!

A Presumptuous Professor commented on my last substantive posting.  After I read it, I pondered the many ways that I could counter this "argument."  First off, I'm not a failed adult.  I didn't even do badly in law school.  I go out of my way to say that TTT grads are not failed adults as well.  We're all among the most intelligent of Americans with a college education and graduate degree.  Also, he accused me of being hungry for power, but came off as self-proclaimed royalty.  My professor was in need of a lay--a common colloquialism thrown around by all of my classmates.  I tossed my arguments around and around in my mind and I decided that my readers will speak up on my behalf... and they certainly did.  Thank you!

Here's what the Professor wrote:
You chose law to get power.

Yet you revile those with power over you. You vibrate with resentment that your professors had the power to ignore you. You deserved their attention and regard--after all, you are so much better/Deeper than they!

You make up sexual fantasies about them when they thwarted your expectations, which brought your ego weaknesses to the fore--and the best you can come up with is calling them women's body parts.

Hm, your failures and resentments and "disenchantment" (as though life is supposed to be enchanting) couldn't have anything to do with YOU, now, could it?

Well, it will be interesting to read your blog, and find out what happens when an obviously failed adult fails at the admittedly failed institutions of law school and law. I'm afraid there are all too many such people, blaming the world for their own failures and seething in resentment and anger. Particularly in your generation, which was told by its parents that it farted rainbows and would save the world.

Maybe you could try trade school. Though I do realize that someone as Deep as you, and as Gifted, and Special, would have a hard time with the humbling experience of fixing what's broken rather than complaining about it and expecting a reward.

****

THEN....Manatee Joe found this article wherein Obama's feelings about law school were covered in an interview of  David Remnick, the author of The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama:

Then of course, you quote Obama as saying that he found the study of law “disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power!”

DR: At law school, some courses were dull; some had a sense of adventure that he appreciated. He studied with Roberto Unger who is a real radical. Obama took two courses with Unger, not one. This is a guy who is in the current Brazilian government and very much to the left. That’s not Obama’s politics, but he was certainly taken up with and fascinated by anything that was out of ordinary contracts and all the rest. Obviously constitutional law was where he lived.

FUNNY how our Nation's Leader was disappointed in law school as well.  It's not that interesting, it's not that intellectually challenging, it's not that impressive.  I stick by what I said.  Going to law school won't make your feel more enlightened, it will make you feel like you served prison time.  

Thanks Executive Gift Shoppe! (CLOSED)

As you probably know, one of the perks of having this blog is the product reviews.

Executive Gift Shoppe told me to take my pick of the various many professional looking gifts on the website.  I contemplated getting a business card holder or a travel alarm clock.  In the end, Executive Gift Shoppe sent me this beautiful leather padfolio that was engraved with my initials "AL."  I love it!  It's perfect for taking notes when I appear per diem for other attorneys or even when I go to court on my cases.  It has a little pocket for my business cards.  It even has a place to put my Mont Blanc pen, a graduation gift from dad.  The leather is really nice!  I got it in a dark brown and it's quality leather. It reminds me of my softball glove in high school.

Now, we're extending the gift to you.  Executive Gift Shoppe is going to give a lucky reader $50.00 towards the purchase of any gift on the site.  There are plenty of options under $50.00, so you should be able to find something really nice.   If you're a practicing lawyer or you'd like to give a gift to someone in the corporate environment, I can't think of a better website to shop.
Here's what you can do to win:
1.  Leave a comment stating what gift you would get with the $50.00 and why.
2.  Become a follower of this blog (1 additional entry)
3.  Like "Executive Gift Shoppe" on Facebook.

I will let you know if you won on October 25, 2010.  Good luck!

The Law School Experience: It's Miserable, Not Cerebral.

I've been in correspondence with a 1L that is having a miserable time in law school.  I promised him that I wouldn't post about his situation specifically, but I thought I should post about the law school experience because it doesn't come up often--since we focus on the end result and the lack of a return on the investment so much.  However, it should be noted that the law school experience ... leaves much to be desired.  Of course, that's the understatement of the century.
First, it's not a cerebral experience.  Having majored in political science, with a minor in History (worthless, I know), I hoped for a similar experience in law school. I too thought I "loved the law."  I guess I was slightly enamored with deep political discussions and somehow related that to the law and learning the law and the Socratic Method.  So, upon attending law school, I was deeply disappointed.  Deep discussions on Subject Matter Jurisdiction and Mens Rea weren't that interesting.  It wasn't actually interesting at all.  I felt like those topics weren't deep or significant enough to warrant the extensive discussions dedicated to them.  Other classes, like "Gifts and Stiffs" were too rule oriented and practical to be deep.  I guess my Professor didn't want to waste his time and ours on lofty discussions when it was a really practical class.  Never mind the fact that we never drafted a will--so it was practical and impractical all at once.  And don't get me started on Greenacre, Whiteacre and Blackacre.  The Rule Against Perpetuities wasted hours upon hours of my life.  In the end, we found out that most states abolished it.  All or most?  Who the fuck cares?  It never comes up, EVER.  What the hell was the point of that?
Then there is the "competitive" aspect.  Remember, I went to school pre-Internet.  As part of our Legal Research and Writing Class, we had to use a particular book in the library.   That book disappeared within an hour of class.  And it didn't show up again until after the assignment came due.  Then, there was the study guide debate.  Everyone in my school claimed to be creating their own outlines.  However, they all had hand picked the best study guide and secured the best outline from classes of yesteryear and squirreled them away.  So, if you ever asked which they would use, you'd be demeaned for wanting to use something so low as a study guide.  EVERYONE uses study guides.  Why would anyone lie to you about that? Oh yah, the bell curve.
Also, joining a study group was hellish.  I asked someone who was nice to me in class if I could join his.  He told me that he couldn't extend the invitation to me because the other members of his group wouldn't approve.  I felt like Elle from Legally Blonde. There are actually so many parallels between her and I that it's embarrassing--but I'm not Blonde, but I have a silly small dog.  The perceived "smart people study group" [hereinafter "SPSG"] pulled a stunt before finals that I'll never forget.  We all used to study at this big coffee shop near campus. It was two days before the final and the SPSG showed up to to the cafe with no books.  They ordered Lattes and sat down in the middle of the cafe yakking it up for a couple of hours while all the law students in the place were trying to study.  It was a clear attempt to tell us that they were confident and prepared and we were not.  If that's not low, tell me what is?

Lastly, having attended a large state school for undergrad, for my law school experience I longed for a small private school.  I thought that law professors in a small school would have liberal office hours and know you personally and be invested in your future.  WRONG.  I have never encountered such mean professors.  If you looked down the hall way with all of the Professors' offices, it was a line of closed doors.  And most of them didn't want to speak to you ever.  My Civ Pro professor set up 7 minute appointments with us before the final.  Yes, 7 minute increments.  My appointment was at 1:00 p.m. I knew I had to be early, cause she was a cunt badly in need of a good lay.  She was such a wound up person that she shook with the tension.  I was on way to school, and on target to arrive about 10 minutes early. On the way to school, someone rear ended me.  The police came immediately, and I drove my wrecked car on campus, parked and sprinted to my appointment. I arrived at 1:04.  She said, I'm late and I've waived my opportunity to speak with her and shut the door on my face even though I was waiving the accident report in front of it.
So, although I did fine, I hated the law school experience.  It was the most degrading and demeaning experience of my life.  I was a confident and intelligent person in college and I certainly am now.  But it took me more than few years to recover from the blow to my self-esteem that law school dealt me.  I left feeling like a shell of a person.

More Law Schools Should Do This

Many of the scambloggers have announced that they will be on hiatus while they try to get their lives in order and concentrate on the job search. I've been sporadically posting and plan to continue doing so because I'm too attached to this blog and my partnership with Angel to disappear entirely. But I guess there comes a point in time when things are so bad that you just don't give a #@*% anymore. I think I'm at that point. Maybe a lot of other Americans are at that point too which is why so many people have dropped out of the work force and stopped looking for a job entirely. Can't say I blame them when we're pretty much guaranteed a lost economic decade where millions of people will never find a full-time job again.

So, when I came across this story at William & Mary's website, I thought to myself, why the hell not? I mean, if your life and career are pretty much doomed, you might as well enjoy as much of what's left of your life before you're obligated to pay back that $150k loan.

Law School Class tours Colonial Williamsburg
by Sarah Seufer '13 | September 29, 2010

In the early evening of September 2, 2010, William & Mary Law School Class of 2013 enjoyed a guided tour of Colonial Williamsburg to learn about the history of the nation's first law school.

Students were led through the streets of Williamsburg, stopping at historic sites to hear about the town's rich history. After the tour, students gathered in the Wren Building, where Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas spoke about the citizen lawyer concept, an idea incorporated into the law school's founding mission by Thomas Jefferson. The night's events concluded with a reception, where students continued getting to know their classmates and traded stories about the first weeks of law school.

Tour leader Tom Patton, program coordinator for the Jamestown Historical Society, recounted the timeline of Williamsburg's roughly 300-year history, including details about the Law School and its relationship with the town.

"The history of law is thick here in Williamsburg," Patton said. "You're now living in the preeminent living history museum in the nation."

Students visited the house of George Wythe, the first law professor in the country. An historian in full colonial attire related stories from Wythe's life, including his tutelage of Jefferson and his role in the birth of William & Mary Law School.

More law schools should put some of that $50k yearly tuition to more historical trips like this one. Really. Especially TTT law schools. They need to just stop pretending that they are serious institutions and use the money their students are throwing down the drain to do something fun. At least then the students won't be too bitter when they are unemployed or working at a $15/hour shitlaw job to pay off their $150k Sallie Mae loan. They can look back and say, "Well, at least I got to go on a tour of colonial Williamsburg or go on that really nice all-inclusive weekend trip to Washington, DC. Maybe I'll never get a job nice enough to live in one of these places, but at least all that wasted money went toward a few nice vacations."

Circumventing Credit Reform on Campuses: The Student Loan Debit Card

What a scam, indeed, Manatee Joe!  We are all willing to admit that most of us were idiots when it comes to personal finance when we began college (and moreso when law school began).  When you're 18 and you pull out a loan to go to school, you understand that you have to pay it back, but you don't really understand what that means.  For example, most student don't realize how interest is calculated:


Loan Balance: $50,000.00
Adjusted Loan Balance: $50,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 6.80%
Loan Fees: 0.00%
Loan Term: 10 years
Minimum Payment: $50.00
Total Years in College: 4 years
Average Debt per Year: $12,500.00

Monthly Loan Payment: $575.40
Number of Payments: 120

Cumulative Payments: $69,048.28
Total Interest Paid: $19,048.28


Did you realize that when you were 18?  Did you know that interest would be be nearly half of the loan???  And that is if you pay the loan back in 10 years...

Another thing that you probably didn't understand when you were 18 is "credit."  Remember being stuck out in the rain and you'd see a tent set up in the Quad with umbrellas--like a reverse Oasis?  You'd approach the tent, and the hunky slightly older male with the Discover t-shirt tells you that you that you could have a super mega sized umbrella with your school's logo on it--if you fill out a form for a credit card.  He even throws in a bag of M&Ms--cause you flirted with him.  Then the credit card comes in the mail, and you may or may not know it's evil--but you charge $500 on it because it's so easy to use credit when you don't have cash on you.  And who has cash in college anyway?  And you are shocked and appalled when the balance is $500 a year later after you pay $100 every month?

Yes, in America, those in pursuit of higher education are often times most lacking in common cents.  Even though they are adults, having been insulated from the real world until college, they make stupid financial decisions that impact their entire adulthood.

Credit Reform has made it harder to market credit cards on college campus--but we all know that the financial institutions will not stop in their immoral and apathetic slaughter of students' lives for the $ake of the almighty dollar.

Here's the new plan, give students debit cards with the Mastercard logo on them, so they can more conveniently (read: easy and quickly) spend their student loan money:

Soon after they arrived on campus, more than a million college students across the country received a welcome letter and a plastic card bearing a MasterCard logo from a little-known company called Higher One:

"Meet your new best friend on campus," the letter reads. A school's emblem is featured in the letterhead - and even on the card - and students are urged to activate their accounts quickly.

But isn't this a credit card? How is this allowed post-Credit reforms?  No, because they are loan debit cards:

These cards, however, are not subject to the sweeping reforms that took effect this year and sought to curtail similar relationships between colleges and credit card issuers. Meanwhile, students complain that the loan cards are riddled with high fees, and they have organized protests at several campuses.

Pre-campus debit cards, the student loan payments would pay your tuition, then the remainder would be distributed to the students to put in a bank account and allocate as needed for living expenses.  Higher One takes the hassle out of this process by sending you a debit card which makes spending the money super easy.  They even encourage you to open up an account with Higher One for comfort and ease.    What's so wrong with that?

Well, the very practices that were banned are being circumvented with this new debit card:

Higher One charges students a $19 monthly penalty for accounts that aren't used for nine months, a practice now banned for credit cards. On its Web site, rival PNC Bank tells schools that setting up tables on campus to market its product to students may be required for a successful program - this is another tactic that was restricted under the credit card law. The legislation also requires colleges to submit their contracts with credit card companies to the Federal Reserve, which must issue a public report. Loan cards are not included.

Penalties for non-use?  This is arguably worse than a credit card that you sign up for and put away and forget about.  It's forcing you to spend your money.  I, for one, used to take the full amount that was left over and pre-pay my rent.  Then I would work for my spending money.  So, I would have been one of the people that was penalized for non-use of the debit/loan cards.  I have a feeling that this card will cause many students to zoom through their funds, since Mastercard is accepted everywhere, and run to the Financial Aid Office for emergency loans.

The business model has translated into booming sales for Connecticut-based Higher One. Its loan cards have yet to be widely adopted in the Washington area, but the company has signed up 675 colleges across the country. Higher One raised $124 million by selling stock publicly this summer, and sales in its most recent quarter reached $27 million, more than double from a year ago.

More than three-quarters of that money came from the fees it charges merchants and students. Higher One chief executive Dean Hatton told investors last month that the success of the business depends on signing up as many students as possible.

Blood money.  The young citizens of our country are dead before they hit the ground because of mounting debt.

When Corporate America dumped toxic chemicals into this nation's rivers for the sake of saving a few dollars, we cried foul.  Corporate America was the direct cause of irreversible environmental damage and still makes cost/benefit decisions that hurt Americans in the long run.  We asked and we still ask that Corporations be responsible for the damage that they cause.  Do we have to wait until the day that we walk over young, able bodied, educated people sleeping on the street before someone asks Corporate America to take responsibility for financial destruction of countless people?

The Indentured Educated Servant Class of St. John's University: Driving Dean Chang

Remember Dr. Chang?  She was the St. John's University Fundraiser that raised funds to gamble, shop and put her son through law school.  She was charged with grand larceny and forgery, consequently.

Well, she's baaaaaaaaaack and the story has become so much juicier.  We are all "educated indentured servants"--"They are trapped, and their choices are restricted by debt. Many recent graduates feel that they lack the freedom to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors, start families, stay at home with children, or choose lower paying jobs that may be a better fit. Financially, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage." Sound like you?  It should, because it's you and every other person browsing this article right now.

But, for Dr. Chang, some of the students at St. John's were actual servants--maids, cooks and chauffeurs.  Believe it or not, students that were on scholarship at St. John's were told that they had to complete work-study programs at Dr. Chang's home or they would lose their scholarships:

Many of those tasks were to help with Taiwanese dignitaries visiting Ms. Chang’s house, where she frequently entertained out-of-town guests for fund-raising purposes, Mr. Rubenstein [Dr. Chang's defense counsel] said.

“The fact that this is even a crime is shocking,” he said outside court. “Cooking a meal doesn’t sound at first blush like work-study, but wait till the trial. I’m not going to give you the defense now.”

According to the complaint, one student, identified only as CI1, “drove Chang to the hair salon, to restaurants and to the airport.”

“As a driver,” it adds, “CI1 was also responsible for taking out the garbage and shoveling snow at Chang’s residence.” 

This is our future folks.  Dr. Chang cut out the middle man, but we all wipe Sallie's ass every month.  She said, forget Sallie, come over and cook me dinner or you're screwed.

Sign of things to come? Maybe not, but is this story would be the first in Angel's Fables: Stories Designed to Teach the Educated a Lesson in Life.  Truth is much stranger than conjecture and hyperbole.

Okay, this video is not entirely related, but someone needs to go Taxi
Driver on Sallie's Ass.