Core Truths

I spent the summer as a judicial intern in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse. I really couldn't have had a better time, and I now feel much more confident that I can competently approach problems in a lawyerly manner.

As I wind up my summer at the Court, I find a quote attributed to Senator Moynihan rolling around in my mind:

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.

The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Dear John & Patty Ramsey,

Sorry for really, really, really not believing you.

This case will do to cast doubt onto clouds of suspicion in the same way that Kitty Genovese cast doubt on the idea that someone else will call the police.

Update (8/28): I'll take my boiled crow with a nice bearnaise sauce, if you please.

Cameraphone in the Law Library

They could have called it Admiralty Law or Maritime Law, but they had a different title in mind.

What Heat?

Forecasters seem to think that New York City will fail to eclipse its hottest recorded temperature today (they seem to think La Guardia Airport will reach 102 degrees but go no higher). The bar was set at 106 degrees on July 9, 1936.

For what it's worth, the hottest recorded surface temperature on this planet is 136.4 (or 135.9, depending on whom you ask) degrees, measured at Al Àziziyah, Libya on Sept. 13, 1922.

So Thaaaaaat's What Rear Admirals Do

It's all starting to make sense now.