FEMA's Latest Faux Pas

When all else fails, have a fake press conference! I don't have all the facts (OK, blame it on law school head) but I have heard enough--that for some reason FEMA held a fake press conference. (I did look it up later, and apparently FEMA wanted to show that they had things more together this time--after the California fires--than they did after Katrina. So they had staff members act like they were reporters asking questions.)

Oh yeah, that is smart!

I know it was the idea of some dumb PR flack. But wait a minute-some PR flacks would know better!

Oh yeah, but this is one who was appointed by the Bush administration. What more can you say.
As a former reporter, I can tell you this will ruin what little credibility with the press they had left.

Hey, FEMA PR guy--you messed up! You breached the public's trust. And you got what you deserved--no job.

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I am so excited that my blog now has a page ranking of 3! I have only been doing this since July, so this makes me very happy. Thanks to all who have been reading my blog. Uncork the champagne!

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I was really disappointed at work today. My relative boss is reluctant to offer disability insurance and some other types of insurance, despite the fact that it would not cost him or the company anything. I asked him about this today and got pretty upset when again he seemed unconcerned. We are not an insurance agency, he said. Well, duh. But companies offer benefits. I am so disappointed. I am hoping it is not because he is selfish and unconcerned. Since he is over 65, he would not qualify for these benefits. But what about the rest of us? I dont' understand your reluctance, I told him. It would cost you nothing, and it would be such a good thing. Do you understand that under certain circumstances, if someone was hurt or ill for a length of time, that an employee, including me, could lose everything? His response was only one of non response. Very disappointing.

Good Golly! You Can Marry Your Cousin!

Well, at least you can in Tennessee. Yes, the jokes have some merit. As I study for my domestic relations final, I am learning, among other things, the prohibited degrees of relationship, as detailed in Tenn. Code Annotated 36-3-101.

Under this statute, you cannot marry
1) a lineal ancestor or descendant
2) a lineal ancestor or descendant of a parent
3) a child of a grandparent
4) a lineal descendant of husband or wife
5) a husband or wife of a parent or lineal descendant
(child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, uncle/aunt, sibling, stepchild, stepparent, adopted, son/daughter-in-law).

These requirements in Tennessee cannot be waived!

I started wondering if Woody Allen had lived in Tennessee, would he have been able to marry Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn? I think he could have because Allen never married Farrow, so Soon-Yi was not a stepchild of his. Well, that is a load off my mind.

But you can marry your cousin! Who would have thought.

It's Been One of Those Days

I had today off from work, and it should have been a good day. But instead I felt like hell most of the day.

Why? Maybe it is that I am just exhausted. I only got about 4 hours of sleep again last night. Maybe that is the root of the problem. I hope it is--that would be an easy answer.

I have been alternatively sad and edgy all day. I was signed up to an all day research project--I had to be downtown by 7 a.m., a whole hour earlier than I normally have to be at work. I was excited about being part of a focus group, but then I got down there and was informed the computer didn't choose me. They sent me home with $50. I was glad to have the $50, but I felt like I had been rejected. I was dejected. How dumb is that?

Rather than go back to work, I decided to catch up in one of my law classes that I am really behind in. I had a pretty good day doing that, but all day I felt lonely, anxious, you name it, that I would never find love. What is the deal with that?

I was reading my statute book, and it was interesting to a point. But the problem with statutes is that the comments sections go on forever. The comments and notes are helpful to understanding the statutes, but they just go on and on.......

Basic bottom line is that I just felt very, very alone all day, which is wierd. I really wanted to enjoy my day off and make it productive. OK, it was productive, but my feelings were out of control.

On top of that tonight, I have felt sad. I never watch Fox News, but I was watching Bill O'Reilly tonight and saw the report about the 8 year old boy in Vancouver WA, who called 911 about his mother who was drunk and tryng to drive the car. The mother kept hitting the boy's hands so he wouldn't be able to talk on the phone, but he was able to get his message through and the police arrested his mother. He and his sibling are now staying with a family friend. How distressing it was to hear this story. That brave, poor little boy. I had some upheaval in my childhood--not like this--and know how scary and upsetting it can be when parents get mad and selfish and irrational. He is between a rock and a hard place--his mother has been arrested, and he may have to go into foster care. It just makes me want to cry.

A Convenient Truth

I am watching a documentary on CNN about Al Gore's book,
An Inconvenient Truth, and his recent Nobel Peace Prize, and I find myself again annoyed. Not at CNN. They are doing their job at examining an issue. But people keep pooh-poohing Al Gore and his environmental work.

This just boggles my mind. So far they have interviewed several scientists who say global warming is not happening. Why are they not interviewing those scientists who say it is?

But what really boggles my mind is people's disregard for the environment. OK, so maybe you don't believe or accept the evidence about global warming, or maybe you are just so selfish you don't give a shit.

But even if that is the case, why can't you appreciate the environment and want to protect it?

After all, if you don't care about the environment and work to save it, you are saying you dont' care about your children's or grandchildren's future. You are saying their future is not worth anything.

Is that what you really want to say? Really think about it!

Wake up now and help the situation, or you are part of the problem.

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Congrats to the people at my school who graduated last May and passed the bar. I checked the published list yesterday and saw a few of my friends. I didn't recognize many of the names, highlighting the fact that I didn't know as many members of the class above me as I thought. We will not find out the percent of those from our school who passed for a few days yet. Our school tends to have a lesser percentage who pass, because we are a night school, and people work full time in addition to going to school. I'll cross my fingers our stats are good!

Tomorrow is D Day for Recent Bar Takers

Tomorrow at high noon, the July bar takers will find out if they passed or not. At least in Tennessee that is the situation. Tomorrow at high noon hundreds of people in TN will be hitting the Website at one time to see if their name is there. No name, no passee. I think on Saturday, the names will be published en banc in the newspaper.

I don't know why the bar examiners do it this way, in so public a fashion. Why not have everyone make their own account, log in, and see if they passed, in the privacy of their home or office. Why make it so public? Maybe that is just part of the deal????

I know that everyone hopes that high noon will result in everyone being OK in the OK Corral. I don't even take the bar until next summer and I am nervous to see the results tomorrow. I didn't know many people in the two classes above mine. But I knew quite a few in this 2007 class. I wish them the best. Here's to you! Fingers crossed.

In Praise of the Environment

I was going to research some topic, but didn't have time. This will be short and simple. I used to be really good about recycling but I have fallen off. So my contribution to this event today is to rededicate myself as someone interested in recycling and the environment.

I am so excited that Al Gore won that Nobel Prize. I agree that he has done more than anyone to bring attention to global warming and environmental concerns. Maybe we can all learn from him and use him as an example.

What's the Big Idea, Ann Coulter?

I don't know where to begin to talk about Ann Coulter. I have never agreed with her. Too conservative, too outspoken, too sarcastic. Many of her ideas are wacky or hateful. But at one point I thought she was funny. She used to appear on Bill Maher's show. Again--I never agreed with her, but thought she had the gift of the one-liner. Some of her comments were sort of witty.

But lately, it almost seems as if she is losing it. She's not funny anymore, or even very relevant. But she is mean spirited. Like when she slammed the 911 widows. Maybe she was tired of being shushed, or whatever it was when she wanted to complain about them, but she could have found a better way to complain than to say that the widows were having a good time exploiting their dead husbands, or something similar to that. Unbelievable!

She spoke a couple of years ago at Vanderbilt University. I would have liked to have been there, but had something else to do that night. But she didn't disappoint--she of course was tacky and saracastic and inappropriate as usual. Then getting into it with Elizabeth Edwards--how smart is that?

The latest is her appearance on Donny Deutsch's show, The Big Idea. I only caught part of it, but did hear the part where she was talking about how Jews needed to be perfected. Again, she caused a stir over something she didn't even need to bring up. And now she is claiming to be such a Christian? Sorry Ann, I don't see it. Maybe try acting like a Christian????

It seems like she is losing her fan base. At this point, I don't know whether to feel sorry for her (as in she is digging herself into a hole that it will be hard to climb out of) or to chuckle and just think she did it to herself.

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I have been trying to read constitutional law tonight. I have to say it is the hardest textbook I have had (except for maybe taxation last year). The editor is not very good. Other textbooks we have used in our other classes have been easier to read, and had better editors, I think.

Moot Court Blues--Episode 1

We have actually had a few meetings of moot court--this entry will talk about some of the things we have experienced so far.

We have gotten our teams and our trial dates, and unfortunately, our date is right between two final exam and the week after I go out of town for homecoming! Ugh! The good news is that we also got our trial assignment today, and it looks fairly easy. It is a criminal case. We had one last year too and were hoping to get another one. There are less things to do in a criminal case. Also, one of our team members is a police officer, so he knows some of the things that need to be done!

Things had been swimming along in moot court until today. The teacher had been calling on volunteers to get up everyweek to teach a certain subject to the class. The last several weeks, he had no problem getting a volunteer, but today no one raised their hands. He then called on one person, who wasn't prepared (which he has told us gets a black mark), then called on a couple who weren't there, and called on another person who was not prepared to talk, and than on another student who wasn't there. He was getting agitated by the second. I knew it--he then called on me! Luckily I had read the assignment about 10 minutes before walking into class. I did not prepare an outline of the subject (and told him so) but said I did read it and could talk about it.

I stood behind the podium with my book, and probably read more out of the book than he would have liked, but again I did not have an outline. I finished and sat down. He said nothing! Nothing! I couldn't believe it! I can remember what he said after the others had finished. But he said nothing after I talked. I think he should have thanked me, because at least I was ready and willing to take on the task!

Speechless in the Workplace

I am late writing this entry. If I had written this last night like I intended, I would have been encouraging you to attend the Nashville's Southern Festival of Books this weekend and catch Bruce Barry's session on his new book, Speechless: The Erosion of Free Speech in the American Workplace.

But since I missed that opportunity, I'll instead encourage you to buy his book. Barry is both a management and sociology professor at Vanderbilt University, and also president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, and brings a unique voice to management literature.

In the book, he reminds that there is no freedom of speech at work in private employment settings, and only sometimes protected in government workplaces. Most employment is of the at-will variety, and employers can let you go for a good reason, bad reason, or no reason, including the fact that they don't like your speech. This has become increasingly problemmatic he says, as the line between a worker's working and personal life becomes more blurred, and workers become more fearful of job loss.

Barry makes mention of a worker who gets fired for having a John Kerry sticker on her car. I wonder what my conservative relative boss will think or do when I put a Hillary Clinton sticker on my car????

Overheating at the Chicago Marathon

I was dismayed to hear the news of the death of one runner and the distress of many other runners at the Chicago Marathon yesterday. (It has been reported that the man died as a result of a heart condition, not the heat, but I don't see how the heat would have helped the situation.)

The weather which was supposed to be around 66 degrees F, was in the high 80s, and some even said in the 90s. And apparently the water stations were not stocked well, and they were out of water very early in the race.

I have done several marathons, including the Chicago one. I am a walker, not a runner, and I walked the marathon there. (They have since closed the marathon to walkers, because they don't want the streets closed for that long.)

I enjoyed all three marathons, but Chicago was my favorite. The crowd support is fabulous for the race. You wind around through a lot of different ethnic neighborhoods, and all the way people line the street to cheer you on.

The year I did it, they started the walkers out 2 hours before the runners. That meant our starting time was 5:30. I am not a morning person, but I bounded out of bed, so excited to get to the starting line. There was a full moon, and walking through the downtown area with the full moon to guide us was magical to say the least.

That year, the weather was cool. I get dehyrdated easily, so I took my own water. My experience is that there is never enough water at the water stations, so I didn't want to risk overheating. Since it was cool, I didn't feel the need to drink often, but I made myself. Despite that, at the end of the 26.2 miles, I limped back to my hotel, which was downtown and close to the race site, and climbed into bed. I shook under the covers for close to two hours, scaring my roommate. I am not sure what was wrong with me, but I think I was still dehydrated. I told my roommate, who had also done the marathon, that I thought I would be OK, all the while shaking as if I had a fever and the flu. Sure enough, several hours later, even though I was not OK enough to go dancing with the rest of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Team in Training runners and walkers, I was sure OK enough to go out and have dinner.

(It did occur to me later that maybe I wasn't dehyrated but too hyrdated. Since the marathon, I have read that marathoners can drink too much water, leading to a whole set of problems. How to strike the balance, I am not sure.)

I also did marathons in Alaska and San Diego, and felt sick after both. After Alaska, a friend said I was babbling and insisted I go to the first aid tent. They said I was dehyrated. I laid down for a while and was fine. In San Diego, the temperature was 10 degrees hotter than they expected that day, and we had some overheating problems too, but nothing that seemed to rise to the level of the problems in Chicago this year. I did fine, and helped someone else who was ill get on the shuttle bus back to the hotel.

But later that night, it hit me and I felt light headed, so much so I wasn't sure I should go out to dinner. Near the elevator, I was so lightheaded, I had to lay down on the floor. A man getting off the elevator didn't have a clue and said "Nice place to take a nap!" Later I felt fine and enjoyed dinner and cocktails. A member of our team wasn't so lucky though--she had such bad diarrhea and nausea, she had to go to the hospital. The epidsode pushed her into being borderline diabetic.

So marathons are not for the timid. It takes a lot of training and willpower. And like other things, the best laid plans can go awry. You may feel sick for some reason or other.

But what I can't understand is how a race course wouldn't have enough water or Gatorade, and even food along the way. One of the races I did had advertised they would have food at rest stations, and all they had were orange slices. I don't count that as "food." When you are running a race, you may not need food, but when you are walking the course and are out there between 6 and 9 hours, you really need some food! Luckily, again I took some snacks--ranging from granola bars to a bagel with peanut butter.

Marathons are great, and I wish everyone would try it at least once. You feel a sense of accomplishment and meet some great people. For the marathoners this year in Chicago, the great people included those lining the street, who filled the gap yesterday by offering runners bottles of water and cold drinks.

WSJ's Article on Law's Bleak Career Outlook

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html?dlbk

When I worked at an elite law school a few years back, one of the concerns among the administration, which extended to other private law schools, was the increasing cost of tuition, which then triggered the enormous starting salaries at the biggest law firms. To the top students, it was exciting to get that big salary in recognition of a job well done in law school and of a promising future.

But it wouldn't take long to realize the strings attached. The law firms were more than willing to pay exuberant salaries, but in exchange they expected the newly minted lawyers to work unbelievable hours to earn their keep. The sad result would be that many lawyers would be burned out within five years. They just couldn't keep the pace. Understandably they wanted a life.

That was the impetus for many of these schools to ramp up their philanthropy. If they could get a lot of scholarship money, they could offer it to the students, who then wouldn't be so saddled with debt.

The Wall Street Journal article, titled "Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers," tells me the situation hasn't improved much since I left my job. Top law students still garner top wages, which now hover around $160,000 for new positions, but I bet they still have to work those unbelievable hours.

But what sounds worse are the job prospects for the lesser ranked students or students at lower tiered schools. Some of them are graduating with that same amount of debt but don't have the salaries to offset it. The article points out that many students are upset at what they consider to be misleading law school marketing claims as to graduates' job offers and salaries. It seems it just boils down to there are too many lawyers for the good jobs available.

I am sure law school deans and administrations and the ABA are concerned and working to help alleviate the problem in whatever way they can. Maybe they need to enroll fewer law students??? That would not be a popular solution, but it would help with the supply and demand situation.

My situation is that I am ranked in the middle of my class and am not at a top school. I have the beautiful situation in that I am not going to be looking for a law job, however, and will at some point be heading my family's company. My plans right now is to use my law degree in connection with the company and in volunteer work.

But reading this article makes me think how I would be feeling if I didn't have these opportunities. People still tend to think that a law degree is a license to make a lot of money, and apparently that is not necessarily true anymore. If I didn't already have my career plans, I am sure I would be worried. I have no doubt I would find a job, but it might not be one that paid well.

One thing I do have to say though is that I didn't really enter into law school to get rich (even though the idea of being better off certainly entered my mind) but entered school because I felt like law was a calling of some sort. If you enter law school for that reason, you won't be sorry. You might just have to hustle a little more in the job arena.

Age Discrimination Suit Against U.S. Attorney's Office Settled

First, I have to apologize that this is old news--stemming from July in fact. I am still catching up on my reading, but thought this was worth mentioning, even this at this late date.

Not all had been right with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. Reports filed in various local newspapers here and there had indicated that Jim Vines, former head of the office, might have been engaging in age discrimination, trying to rid the office of older lawyers to make room for younger ones. One of his targets seemed to be former prosecutor Larry Moon, in his 60s. Tactics reported included giving Moon unreasonable workloads and haranguing him when he couldn't meet the unrealistic goals.

Moon filed an age discrimination case in 2005, and as it turns out, he received more than $330,000 this summer in exchange for dropping the suit, according to the Nashville Scene. Apparently, many fellow lawyers and judges defended Moon, whom they called "a zealous and knowledgable prosecutor," the paper said.

Not surprising, Vines, who had no prosecutorial experience before this stint, has gone back into private practice.

Of course, in settling the case, the government admits no fault. But I am surprised that a lawyer working in such an office with a bunch of lawyers wouldn't know better?

Office Politics--Good for You?

I clicked on a link on Yahoo Finance last week to read an article about critics and how to know when a critic is worth listening to. I think that is an interesting topic--everyone can have something to say about what you do or how you live your life, but when should you listen and when should you ignore such a critic? I am not sure the author Penelope Trunk really answered that question, but raising the question was worthwhile.

After reading it, I scrolled down to the bottom, where people left comments on the article. I couldn't believe it--at the time there were about 250 comments, at least 99 percent of them very negative about her and her advice. Mostly they were saying that she was way off base on her advice and that no wonder, since she had never worked in an office.

Intrigued, I clicked on a link for another of her articles, one on Office Politics. titled "Avoid Office Politics at Your Peril." In the article she listed five reasons that office politics can help you meet your goals while adhering to your values:

1. Office politics reward people who are genuinely kind.
2. Office politics reward good time-managers.
3. Office politics is the answer to burnout.
4. Office politics is a road to self-knowledge.
5. Office politics is about honesty.

I won't go into details of each of the five points--you can read her article in her column, "Brazen Careerist" on Yahoo Finance.

But just take my word for it that people had another bad reaction to this column of hers too. Her main point is that being good at office politics is about being able to get along with anyone.

umm, Penelope, where did you learn your definition of office politics?

One commenter said that maybe she really means teamwork. Her five points seem to match the definition of teamwork rather than office politics. After all, said several commenters, office politics is really more about being competitive and doing someone in to get ahead yourself.

I have to agree with this person's comment. I have managed to pretty well avoid office politics in the various jobs I have had. I just try to do the best job I can. That doesn't mean that I can't laugh and have fun along the way, but I don't think it means that I should plot and try to do someone in. The people I have worked with in the past who were involved in office politics did not seem benign, in fact they were very toxic and would spread rumors and such about people. I agree with the commenters that Ms. Trunk needs to get a reality check. But it does make for some interesting reading.