SwanBlog

• Change, Adjustment, and New Beginnings Please see...

  Change, Adjustment, and New Beginnings
  
  Please see our posts over at SwanBlog version 2.0. I promise it won't be like New Coke.
  
  The address is http://swanblog2.blogspot.com. Please update your links!' [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2007, 12:12am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (7-6-07) Open Thread...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (7-6-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday. You choose the topic.
  
  One possible topic is your favorite song with a Bo Diddley Beat. Scott Johnson of Powerline chose "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" by the Byrds. I listened to it yesterday and it is quite good.[...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2007, 10:09am EDT
  by Peter

• Brownstone, Cross, and Cleavage Today we will hav...

  Brownstone, Cross, and Cleavage
  
  Today we will have a couple of quick takes for this post-holiday Thursday.
  
  First, I discovered another song with the Bo Diddley beat, "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns 'n Roses.
  
  Secondly, both Daniel Pipes and Powerline complain about top female presidential' [...]
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  Posted: July 05, 2007, 8:28am EDT
  by Peter

• Bars, Blind, and GPS New invention uses GPS to he...

  Bars, Blind, and GPS
  
  New invention uses GPS to help blind people navigate.
  
  For the record, I already invented this in a bar in Excelsior, Minnesota (should have been "Eureka, MN") six months ago. And I have witnesses. [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2007, 2:03pm EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-29-07) Open Threa...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-29-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday! [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2007, 9:41am EDT
  by Peter

• Valentines, Winter Games, and Protests In respons...

  Valentines, Winter Games, and Protests
  
  In response to this post, I was asked whether the Winter Games were ever reinstated. Well, the problem was that the principal conflated two things. For years, the choir nerds (including yours truly for a couple years) would go around on Valentine's Day' [...]
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  Posted: June 28, 2007, 7:38am EDT
  by Peter

• Banners, Bongs, and Books The Supreme Court has n...

  Banners, Bongs, and Books
  
  The Supreme Court has now ruled in the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case. I have no legal insights, just a couple memories from my youth.
  
  There was one guy in my high school (now a lawyer) who wore a shirt that proclaimed, "Fighting" [...]
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  Posted: June 27, 2007, 8:21am EDT
  by Peter

• Water, Stem Cells, and San Francisco In the debat...

  Water, Stem Cells, and San Francisco
  
  In the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, individuals sometimes wrongly refer to a "ban" on such research. Actually, it is a ban on federal funding of stem cell lines created after a certain date in 2001.
  
  To be [...]
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  Posted: June 26, 2007, 7:14am EDT
  by Peter

• Adult, Embryonic, and Stealth Take a look at this...

  Adult, Embryonic, and Stealth
  
  Take a look at this editorial excerpt from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about funding for cord blood initiatives:
  
  Now the issue is how to expand inventories of frozen cord blood so that enough units will be available for all who need treatment. Congress can [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2007, 9:05am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-22-07) Open Threa...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-22-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday! [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2007, 10:47am EDT
  by Peter

• Separate, Equal, and Reserved A case referenced i...

  Separate, Equal, and Reserved
  
  A case referenced in the Minnesota Lawyer weblog could have a profound impact on Indian reservations.
  
  A woman objects to receiving social services from her tribe, rather than from the county in which she lives. The dissent by Judge Randall calls into question [...]
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  Posted: June 21, 2007, 7:40am EDT
  by Peter

• Immersion, Increase, and Decrease I have two poin...

  Immersion, Increase, and Decrease
  
  I have two points to make about this story concerning "Hmong flight" away from Minneapolis North High School.
  
  Let's begin with a quote:
  
  Safety isn't the only problem. Wa Chora Yang also worried that his children weren't making sufficient progress speaking English' [...]
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  Posted: June 20, 2007, 7:39am EDT
  by Peter

• Promises, Promises, and Stewart I have been meani...

  Promises, Promises, and Stewart
  
  I have been meaning to say something about the on-air love-fest between Bill Moyers and Jon Stewart here, here, and here. For that matter, I promised a long time ago that I would write a review after watching a week of The [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2007, 7:33am EDT
  by Peter

• Race, Poverty, and Statistics Regarding the recen...

  Race, Poverty, and Statistics
  
  Regarding the recent editorial on the racial "gap" in Minnesota graduation rates, I am of two minds. I agree with the call for educational reform. However, it is difficult to get past the sloppy and/or sneaky way they interpret the data from Education [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2007, 7:46am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-15-07) Open Threa...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (6-15-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday. Random thoughts are welcome. [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2007, 9:08am EDT
  by Peter

• First Amendment, Logical Fallacies, and More Stuff...

  First Amendment, Logical Fallacies, and More Stuff
  
  Good stuff over at Marty Andrade's blog, including the ever-popular logical fallacy.
  
  Also, Derek Jensen writes to point out that the NCAA revoking press credentials from its baseball championship for live-blogging is probably not a First Amendment violation. It' [...]
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  Posted: June 14, 2007, 7:18am EDT
  by Peter

• Beach Balls, Bubbles, and Diplomas I must admit b...

  Beach Balls, Bubbles, and Diplomas
  
  I must admit being conflicted about this Steve Chapman piece on rowdy graduations. In my three graduations (high school, college, and law school), I put a message on my mortarboard every time. I also wore shorts to every ceremony. To my delight at [...]
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  Posted: June 13, 2007, 7:03am EDT
  by Peter

• Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and So On Speaking of gangste...

  Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and So On
  
  Speaking of gangster movies, check out the Minnesota Lawyer blog posting on The Untouchables baseball scene, including comments by yours truly. [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2007, 8:11am EDT
  by Peter

• Tony, Paulie, and Meadow **SPOILER ALERT** Is t...

  Tony, Paulie, and Meadow
  
  
  **SPOILER ALERT**
  
  Is there any series finale that measures up to the series itself? I would argue that last night's final episode of The Sopranos did just that.
  
  Just as The Godfather novel/movies were as much about the World War II post-immigrant' [...]
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  Posted: June 11, 2007, 7:22am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-31-07) Open Threa...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-31-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday. Enter comments below. [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2007, 1:29am EDT
  by Peter

• Grow, Growth, and Cohen News Flash: Dan Cohen pr...

  Grow, Growth, and Cohen
  
  News Flash: Dan Cohen protests the buyout of Doug Grow from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Recall that Grow was directly responsible for getting Cohen fired from a job where he had just landed on his feet. Cohen apologized to the former lieutenant governor whose [...]
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  Posted: May 30, 2007, 11:07pm EDT
  by Peter

• Cabs, Cartels, and Catchy Phrases The Minnesota L...

  Cabs, Cartels, and Catchy Phrases
  
  The Minnesota Lawyer blog makes reference to a George Will column and suggests that Mr. Will needed to be prompted to use a "catchy phrase" in reference to the artificial limitation on taxicab licenses in Minneapolis. So, is the word "cartel" so obscure [...]
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  Posted: May 30, 2007, 8:28am EDT
  by Peter

• Odds, Ends, and SwanBlog Welcome to Powerline rea...

  Odds, Ends, and SwanBlog
  
  Welcome to Powerline readers! Here is a link to the Dogpile.com tribute to Memorial Day referenced in the Powerline post.
  
  In other news, I owe a belated link to Captain Capitalism. Be sure to go there for all your [...]
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  Posted: May 29, 2007, 5:59am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-25-07) Open Threa...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-25-07)
  
  Open Thread Friday. What's on your mind?' [...]
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  Posted: May 25, 2007, 8:37am EDT
  by Peter

• Plaintiff, Defendant, and Insurance Company Take ...

  Plaintiff, Defendant, and Insurance Company
  
  Take a look at my comment on a Minnesota Lawyer weblog post concerning a beef from the trial lawyers.
  
  

  Peter said... Um, did you interview anyone who was _opposed_ to the legislation?
  May 22, 2007 6:55 PM
  
  Anonymous said... The ads [...]

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  Posted: May 23, 2007, 10:31am EDT
  by Peter

• Lawyers, Journalists, and Slaves There is somethi...

  Lawyers, Journalists, and Slaves
  
  There is something seriously wrong when a story about slavery, prostitution, and human trafficking arises, and you have certain journalists who choose to focus on their favorite topics of the U.S. Attorney controversy and immigration. See here and here. [...]
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  Posted: May 23, 2007, 8:29am EDT
  by Peter

• Gold, Silver, and Webb Submitted for your approva...

  Gold, Silver, and Webb
  
  Submitted for your approval. A man steals silver from his employer, bit by bit. When he was caught, the story takes a familiar twist.
  
  

  When police asked Sessing where all the money had come from, he told them he had done work for [...]

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  Posted: May 22, 2007, 6:07am EDT
  by Peter

• Bedrest, Aspirin, and Politics How dare he! Then...

  Bedrest, Aspirin, and Politics
  
  How dare he! Then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales visited a seriously ill John Ashcroft (then the attorney general) to try to get Ashcroft to overrule the acting AG, James Comey on a point of legal disagreement.
  
  First of all, I think we should [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2007, 8:36am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-18-07) You know t...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-18-07)
  
  You know the deal. It's Open Thread Friday! [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2007, 10:52am EDT
  by Peter

• Lurking, Legislating and Safety II To continue ye...

  Lurking, Legislating and Safety II
  
  To continue yesterday's discussion of anti-lurking laws, I should point out one area of disagreement that I have with the Minnesota Lawyer blog post on this subject (I say this as a fan of the post's author, Barbara Jones, and of the [...]
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  Posted: May 17, 2007, 8:05am EDT
  by Peter

• Lurking, Legislating, and Safety Here is the sequ...

  Lurking, Legislating, and Safety
  
  Here is the sequence of events:
  
  1. May 7 - Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on opposition to the ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul that prohibit "lurking."
  
  2. May 8 - The Minnesota Lawyer weblog strongly opposes the lurking ordinances in [...]
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  Posted: May 16, 2007, 8:20am EDT
  by Peter

• Christians, Disabilities, and Power News Flash. ...

  Christians, Disabilities, and Power
  
  News Flash. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Doug Grow, it is OK to ridicule Christians, because Christians "represent power."
  
  

  Well, sometimes BNW has a pretty good idea what will offend. For example, it's had productions with such titles as "Ripped Off the [...]

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  Posted: May 15, 2007, 7:18am EDT
  by Peter

• Secrets, Security, and Soft Targets I have little...

  Secrets, Security, and Soft Targets
  
  I have little insight to add in the way of specifics to the foiled Fort Dix terror plot. To paraphrase Woody Allen, we should not ask why it almost happened, we should ask why it does not happen more often.
  
  There is [...]
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  Posted: May 14, 2007, 7:12am EDT
  by Peter

• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-17-07) It's Open ...

  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (5-17-07)
  
  It's Open Thread Friday again. Your thoughts are welcome in the comment block below. [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2007, 7:43am EDT
  by Peter

• America, Somalia, and Africa I meant to have some...

  America, Somalia, and Africa
  
  I meant to have some fun with the use of the term "African American," but not applying it to Somalis. Which continent is Somalia located in, anyway? What color are Somalis?
  
  The first reference is in my post on the Hopkins School District [...]
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  Posted: May 10, 2007, 8:33am EDT
  by Peter