Lexpat Unlimited

Ladies love them some new dads . . .

2011-10-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

In less than 48 Hrs I Will Hold My Boy

2011-07-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

T-Minus Three Days . . . So here's the rest of June

2011-07-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

June So Far

2011-06-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Link to the June Sketchbook here . . .

Warning: Design Conscious Future Parents Approaching

2011-06-14T04:21:00.000-07:00

As always, a link to the full May album is on the right.

I Seriously Considered How to Fit a Crib in a Closet . . .

2011-06-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, fine, I admit that I tried to shrug off everyone's warnings about New York apartment hunting. SF has its own freakshow circuit for that . . . but I was proven wrong. It's not just the size . . .

Yes, this happened many times.

It's the damn brokers. They're like secret Soviet Aparatchiks working away in the global heart of capitalism.

And then there's the simple time issue; work + apartment hunting + planning for the baby.

And, let's be honest, you're not always filled with unalloyed joy at the thought of parenthood.

But eventually I found us a great place -- though it does not look like this:

Full April slide-show on the right.

What if my kid LARPs?

2011-05-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

Or, for you gamers, what if my kid doesn't LARP?

What if he's somewhere in between?

And now that he's gonna be a New Yorker . . .

I got other problems.

Like hair styles

Full slideshow for March on the right.

Visits from Beyond the Womb

2011-05-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

More from the backlog of my pregnancy sketchbook -- you can now see a slideshow for February on the right.

The Lizard Brain of Impending Parenthood

2011-04-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

So the idea was (not mine) to do a drawing every day from Jan. 11 until the Little Samosa gets dropped off by the Baby Industrial Complex. In the spirit of tapping into the lizard brain of impending parenthood, I don't edit these or censor myself or erase. So they're pretty rough. Below are a couple more from January. A link to the full January gallery is on the left. February to follow. Click to expand, as always.

I will delve deeply into this beautiful conversation soon.

Yeah, So . . . We're having a baby

2011-04-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a drawings a day about being pregnant since Jan. 11. Here's a sample. I'll be posting a slide show with more later today and then updating as we go.

Exciting New Project: Filibustery from Newsbound

2011-01-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

Filibustery: Episode One from Newsbound on Vimeo.

Filibustery is the first endeavor of Newsbound, a new voice in the news media environment that wants to slow down and take a deeper look into the issues behind the headlines. Filibustery is a series of short video presentations examining the US Senate's filibuster, its history and its current abuse. I provided the original illustrations for the video.

The inaugural episode is up and running now. Stay tuned for further updates and new episodes exploring the filibuster in great detail and other issues in the news.

You can subscribe directly to the Filibustery site, follow it on Twitter and Facebook, and sign-up on Newsbound for updates.

What is this "Standing" Business?

2010-12-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal heard oral arguments in the Prop. 8 case yesterday. If you heard or read any of the news reports, you likely heard about the issue of "standing." In a case that raises big meaty constitutional, philosophical, and moral issues surrounding marriage--same-sex marriage in particular--you might be surprised that the key issue appears to be basically procedural.

So what is this whole "standing" thing, anyway? Basically, "standing" means that a party to a law suit actually has an interest in the controversy; i.e. they actually suffered an injury because of another party's action. It's not enough to simply not like something, or to simply be offended by something someone else does. You have to actually be injured in some way.

Why does this matter? At the top, it's about practicality. Lawsuits consume a lot of time, energy, and money--none of which are limitless--so the legal system has to create some method of limiting the number of potential lawsuits. If we could all sue anyone simply because we didn't like what they were doing, the courts would be even more backlogged than they already are. The important cases would get lost in the mess; collective injustice being the result because the courts' ability to redress genuine wrongs would be essentially nonexistent.

That would be bad enough on its own, but there is a deeper issue at work as well. Standing is also about liberty. If everyone could sue without showing standing--proving they suffered a real injury--then no one could live freely. Your personal liberty should not be curtailed unless the exercise of that liberty harms others.

Consider the standing issue in the Prop. 8 appeal. Supporters of Prop. 8 brought suit to keep same-sex couples from marrying. The court wants to know how same sex marriage actually harms anyone? Clearly, if there is a fundamental right to marry that the people of California cannot deny same-sex couples, those same-sex couples are injured by Prop. 8's enforcement. The same cannot be said of people who oppose same-sex marriage. Sure, they may not approve but that is thin ice in terms of injury. Essentially, the court is asking Prop. 8 defenders, "where's the beef?"

A Big Belly Rub to Start the Day

2010-12-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

Saw this guy on my corner this morning, just standing in the sunlight rubbing his big belly.

Sell-Out Tuesday

2010-11-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

The California Bar Exam is a Monster . . .

2010-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

. . . and I killed it.

A Beer Snob Is As A Beer Snob Does

2010-11-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

Economic Propaganda in Comics!

2010-11-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

The good folks at Planet Money inform me that the Federal Reserve published a comic book about monetary policy.

Contrary to legend, the X-Men don't spend all their time battling Magneto.

There's also this 1945 "comic" (really just illustrated bullet points) about how war time economic policy can lead to facism, courtesy of General Motors.

Or maybe you join the party for their artificial elbow implants.

In the spirit of equal time, here's another "comic" about the "Money Myth." It's long and, well, stupid, but worth checking out if you like your fools raw and unfiltered.

The Evil Banker Oliver Demands Repayment.

A Bike Mechanic's Best Friend

2010-11-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

3 A.M. is for Brooding

2010-11-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Torture? What Torture?

2010-11-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

Watching the Giants in the Mission

2010-10-28T05:52:00.001-07:00

I Don't Really Feel Old Enough for This . . .

2010-10-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

Taking the parents to Napa and Sonoma today.

The Handshake

2010-10-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hipsters Anonymous

2010-10-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the Mission or Williamsburg . . .

Rich Iott: Idiot

2010-10-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

Rich Iott is running for congress in Ohio's 9th District on the GOP ticket. Iott was recently exposed as a happy member of the Wikings, a WWII reenactment group that spends long weekends dressing up as Nazi soldiers and playing with guns in the woods. Iott is clearly an idiot.

Good to know that conservative family values are still intact -- that's right, Glenn Beck thinks it'd be fun to play Nazi with your son.

Folsom Street Fair: Pluralism Baby

2010-10-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair. For the uninitiated, Folsom is a celebration of the leather arts.

My wife and I were on our way to the East Bay during the Fair and passed this Auntie buying fruit while some fair-goers waited for the walk signal. Two guys in assless chaps and leather cod-pieces didn't faze her at all. I love San Francisco.

Jury Duty Pt. 2: Criminal Court Brings Out the Characters

2010-09-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

Lexpat Unlimited now has an RSS feed! Click on the "Subscribe" button on the right.

Jury duty rolls on (though I think I may be done sooner than anticipated). Like I said before, no talking about the case. But the Hall of Justice has some serious characters in its halls.

I've seen this guy several times waiting on one of the benches outside the courtroom. With hair like this, I can only guess he's a defense attorney.

This guy was shaving in the bathroom one morning. His friend was telling him about how he'd gotten rid of things when the cops came.

Jury Duty Pt. 1

2010-09-24T09:16:00.002-07:00

I am currently a proud member of a California Superior Court jury! Jury selection actually took three days and, since I was the very first person called, I had the privilege of sitting through every single question asked of every single potential juror.

Portrait of the Artist Over Three Days of Jury Selection

Of course, since I can't discuss the case, I won't be able to post anything about the trial itself. But I am in the criminal court building all day, so there's plenty of other material to come.

The Guard: Chapter 2

2010-09-15T13:16:00.002-07:00

Chapter One is Here; click to expand . . .

to be continued . . .

Motown Philly

2010-09-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

This morning I was listening to some Boyz II Men. First, I remembered couples skate at the roller rink, trying to make my hands stop sweating while wishing I could look as cool as the older guys who worked there and never laced up their skates. Then I remembered that I used to try and convince my mom to buy me some of the clothes Boyz II Men and BBD wore in their videos.

I probably would have looked even worse.

Around the same time, I also had a very long conversation/debate with my barber about why he could not or would not give me a high-top fade. Hector was a wise man.

The Castro Safeway

2010-09-14T14:39:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I was standing outside the Castro Safeway. I was wearing a tie for no particular reason. This guy walks up to me, stares at me for twenty seconds and says: "I lika da tie!"

I thanked him but he just stood there. "I lika da tie!" he said again. Then: "But-a maybeh too formal for Satuhrday! But I lika da tie! You look good!" I'm not exaggerating his accent. He sounded like this.

Then he walked away.

Welcome Back to Fog City

2010-09-09T18:11:00.001-07:00

First sign that I was coming home after two weeks of genuine summer weather in the City of Broad Shoulders -- the connecting flight from San Diego to SFO was delayed for an hour because of fog.

Second sign -- and the real confirmation -- was this hipster I passed on my way from BART to my house:

No one told me about the Russel Brand Look-Alike Contest

Hoosier Mama Pies

2010-09-05T07:36:00.001-07:00

The very, very cheerful woman who worked the front counter at Chicago's Hoosier Mama Pie Company.

The Dosa Man

2010-09-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

My wife's parents threw an amazing party the other night, complete with freshly made dosa. The man behind the dosa had this great touch where he'd use the little bowl to ladle the batter onto the griddle then smack it a few times and use the flat back of the little bowl to spread the batter, like a crepe paddle.

That was a party.

One of My Neighbors: The Cigarette Man

2010-08-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Travelling in Chicago right now - so no access to my scanner, just photos of sketches.

Another one of my neighbors - he asks everyone for a cigarette. No matter how many times you've told him you don't smoke, he'll always ask you then just keep walking.

The Tea Party

2010-08-22T09:21:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin

2010-08-19T10:22:00.002-07:00

One of My Neighbors: The Paperback Reader

2010-08-18T10:25:00.001-07:00

He stands on our street, leans against a parked car and reads a paperback everyday. As the sun moves across the sky, he relocates to stay in the sunshine.

Bar Exam Highlights

2010-08-17T13:22:00.001-07:00

The California Bar exam is three days long, six hours each day. It brings out some characters . . .

His hair was like a halo around his head, every day.

Some people found it very important to be as comfortable as possible.

Other people did not. This woman wore stripper heels every single day.

The Guard: Chapter 1

2010-08-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

Now for something a little different . . . (click to expand)

to be continued . . .

Superfans - US Soccer Fan Fails Part 1

2010-06-14T21:33:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, his outfit is the least of his problems.

Happy as I am that the US managed a tie against England on Saturday, it makes me a bit worried. There was a certain type of US soccer fan that was bad enough before. Now? I'm getting worried.

It can only get worse from here. Superfans were bad enough when the US never won anything important. No matter how tiny and inept the other team was, these guys would celebrate like we won the World Cup itself. If you didn't get excited that we outscored Guam, they'd accuse you of personally holding back the American soccer program.

The worst was that they'd always get excited that we qualified for the Cup. We play in CONCACAF, guys. Mexico is good but the rest? Not so much. It's like bragging about how you were first in your class in kindergarten. Nicely done; everyone else was eating paste.

If the US manages to make it into the next round, it's all over.

California and Arizona's Laws Compared

2010-06-13T23:14:00.001-07:00

It was pointed out to me that California has a law on its books similar to Arizona's new immigration statute. This was pretty surprising, so I looked it up. Well . . . they're similar, but only in the broadest sense.

Yeah, both statutes deal with law enforcement investigating a person's citizenship status. But the California law is far more limited than Arizona's. It comes nowhere close to handing the state carte blanche to demand documentation, which is the reason Arizona's law is a bad law.

The California law is Cal. Penal Code 834b. It requires state and local law enforcement agencies to help the INS when a person is arrested. 834b(b)(1) states that "assistance" includes, among other things, demanding documentation of an arrested person's citizenship status if the agency has a reasonable suspicion that the person may be in the US illegally.

Arizona's law is SB1070. It requires state and local law enforcement to investigate a person's citizenship status when they have come into "lawful contact" with the authorities and the official has a "reasonable suspicion" that the person is violating federal immigration law.

The key is that California's law only applies to people already arrested. Arizona only -- "only" just doesn't apply here -- it applies any time there is "legal contact."

Gotta hand it to the Arizona legislators -- that is some artful craftsmanship. "Lawful contact?" What is not lawful contact? We've got enough problems with cops harassing people when the law sets a real standard for them to meet--like a public arrest, which requires probable cause. This isn't even a standard. This is just open season.

Are You an Imperialist?

2010-06-02T16:00:00.012-07:00

I got called an agent of capitalist imperialism the other day. This wasn't the first time. It's probably my own fault.

Business Law Journal staff photo.

It begs the question, though: why do I care about corporate law reform in other countries? Am I just acting out a sublimated desire for Anglo-American legal hegemony on the rest of the world?

There's no shortage of examples of how law can be just another tool in the imperialist box. Even the best intentions can wreak havoc when coupled with a bracing shot of hubris (see Russia's adoption of US-style corporate law). It pays to ask yourself this question. Then ask it again, and again, and again.

What are you here for, Imperialist?

But imperialism is all about international trade and corporate law reform isn't really about that. Most countries' economies are profoundly domestic. The benefits of good reform tend to stay there. That's exactly the point. You want laws that enable economic growth by spreading and generating new wealth, not transfer it into the hands of foreign corporations or home-grown cleptocrats.

This country ain't ready for reform!

Are there paths to sustainable economic growth other than some form of liberal capitalism? Maybe, but the alternatives haven't done very well so far. Foreign meddling and the lingering effects of colonialism don't fully explain the development gap either. We may not have the full picture (and anyone who claims they do is a fool or worse) but we do know that some combination of robust institutions and simple corporation law are keys to economic growth. A very cursory glance at international indices of development and the ease of starting, running, and regulating businesses supports that conclusion. More detailed analysis supports it even better.

Even if the poor countries convinced the wealthy countries to leave them alone, they would still have to convince their poor neighbors to keep their hands to themselves. No problem there.

Some people actually call the Second Congo War the "African World War" - no joke.

Not even islands are islands, really (the OG Polynesians were some bad-ass expansionists). So it's probably a good idea to get your country stable and capable of defending itself. How do you do that? Again, we don't really know but a healthy economy (contra Greece to bring it closer to home) that distributes wealth relatively broadly is your best bet.

If the main beneficiaries of corporate law reform are the citizens of the reforming country, and you have to play with your neighbors whether you like it or not, and you don't really like knowing that somewhere on the other side of the world are millions of people suffering unimaginable brutality because of intractable political and economic instability, the real question is "why wouldn't you care about corporate law in other countries?"

Just Say No

2010-05-06T09:58:00.004-07:00

I'm in the throes of studying for my Anti-Trust final. As I go back over my notes, outline, and the cases in the book, I can't help but be struck by the government's tenacity in enforcing the law. The DOJ can't just smack a company for violating the anti-trust laws. It has to prove the allegations in court and the judicial branch isn't shy about restraining the executive. But the DOJ and FTC just keep coming back for more.

Why didn't I think of that?

This may seem normal to us but it's a hard balance to strike. One of the hardest challenges facing poor countries is how to create institutions that will enforce the law and not just cater to the whims of whoever's in power. When you don't have "robust" institutions, you have a lot of corruption and exploitation. How do you create a group of people who are more-or-less incorruptible when the entire environment is rife with corruption?

Studying

2010-04-26T07:29:00.004-07:00

The funny looking diagram on the right is a flow-chart I made studying for my securities regulation exam. I do get to take this into the test itself but keep a couple things in mind:

This chart only covers a little under half the material that will be on the exam;
I won't really have time to read this during the test, so I memorize it as I make it;
This is only a very rough map of the law we're being tested on - it doesn't include many of the cases or the actual text of the codes.

This is my version of an outline. Some people write more traditional looking outlines (I., A., B., etc.) but I'm pretty visual so this works better for me.

"Lost", Fu Manchu, and Corporate Governance

2010-04-06T05:30:00.004-07:00

I'm one of those "Lost" fans that can't help themselves. The writers keep throwing out so-called explanations that just make less sense than the original nonsense but persist. I just want some closure.

Since I'm not a complete idiot, I realize the "Lost" writers will deny me that basic human need. So I'm forced to find meaning in my addiction through alternate means.

In the most recent episode, "Lost" reminded me of a bit of comparative corporate governance insight buried in the show's convoluted storylines. If you think this is a stretch, bear with me for just one second.

"Comparative corporate governance" is the study of how corporations are controlled in different legal systems. There are two major ways this is done; the Anglo-American and the German/Japanese models. In the Anglo-American model, corporations are owned by a large number of small shareholders (diverse ownership). In the German/Japanese model, a small number of large shareholders (particularly big banks) own the majority of shares in a public company.

These aren't the only ways to structure corporate ownership, they are simply the most common. There is a third model, though, that is particularly common in Asia; the Family ownership system. In the Family model, a small handful of family members own nearly all a corporation's stock. Not surprisingly, there's very little management oversight in this arrangement.

Now, back to "Lost." The two characters at the heart of the most recent episode are Sun and Jin. Sun and Jin are a South Korean couple. Critically, Sun's father is a shadowy Korean tycoon and Jin's boss. Jin's job is basically an enforcer for Daddy Tycoon and the stress of beating up Dad's rivals and underlings nearly destroyed the couple's marriage.

What do we make of Sun's nefarious pater familias? The easy answer is that he's just one more in the long line of stoic Asian criminal masterminds. That's one durable stereotype there.

But there is an interesting parallel between Sun's iron-fisted pops and South Korean corporate governance. As this article from the LA Times explains, there is a fine tradition of South Korean executives abusing the law with near immunity. Like the execs in the article, Sun's dad heads a giant and powerful conglomerate and wields serious influence even outside his corporation. Also, there is something of a cult of personality present in the South Korean corporate structure that mimics the fear Jin elicits as a known representative of his boss.

Are the "Lost" writers aware of corporate structure in South Korean companies? Do they realize that less-melodramatic versions of Sun's dad do exist for reasons peculiar to South Korean history? These companies, chaebols, that "thrived on their ties to South Korea's corrupt military governments in the 1960s, and . . . clung to power even after the country turned to democracy in 1987" are governed by boards "dominated by family members who are treated as near royalty." I doubt it. First, I doubt that the folks at the writers' table read papers like this. Second, they tend to make their other writing decisions by throwing darts, so work harder here?

Optimism & Jugaad

2010-03-31T18:11:00.005-07:00

A newly released pole quantifies the optimism I mentioned in my earlier post on India. The Mint has a basic recap here. For a full copy of the survey conducted by London's Legatum Group, look here.

The Mint piece mentions jugaad, which is a Hindi word meaning basically "a quick and dirty fix." It's analogous to our "Yankee ingenuity" or the "can-do spirit" but implies a bit more in the way of obstacles.

I heard about jugaad from a number of people while I was in India. Its implication can vary widely. Some people use it positively, like Yankee Ingenuity. It can also be sardonic as hell.

Hopefully, the optimists win out. The Legatum survey suggests that entrepreneurs are nearly unanimous in wanting a more responsive and less corrupt government. As this constituency becomes more powerful, that may well come to pass.

Also, IBM is extending its start-up partnership program to India. That should give India start-ups some necessary infrastructural support and access to clients they currently lack.

European Disunion

2010-03-25T08:46:00.003-07:00

Only a few weeks ago it seemed like Greece's EU friends would take care of it. That idea fell through, though, and now Germany and France are squabbling over whether to bring the IMF in to deal with the problem. As if things weren't bad enough on the Continent, Portugal's debt was downgraded with exquisite timing.

Germany's reluctance to bankroll a Grecian bailout is pretty understandable. Athens routinely cooked their books when times were good, and the Greek public is throwing fits over cuts to a posh welfare state they couldn't afford to begin with. Add to the Greeks' own bad behavior the fact that Germany is essentially the keystone for all of Europe's economy these days and you can comprehend why Germans might be getting a little frustrated.

These troubles highlight just how weak the EU is as a political institution. EU member states must beg their sister states for help--the equivalent of Florida having to go directly to New York every time it wanted to repair hurricane damage. Despite all the regulations coming out of Brussels, the EU is still more of a confederation than a real union. During the EU elections last year, I kept hearing a weary sort of optimism from Europeans about the future strength of the EU. The Grecian Dilemma (sounds like a Ludlum story about hair dye) casts more cold water on that dream.

Links

2010-03-24T05:53:00.005-07:00

There was a very good article in yesterday'sNY Times about the testing culture in India's middle class, focusing on the need for more good colleges and universities to handle the country's huge young population. Random impressive statistic: 320,000 students applied for I.I.T.'s 8,000 open spots.

The university overcrowding was behind the Cabinet's recent decision to open up higher education to foreign universities--three cheers for another protectionist barrier falling!

To drive home the connection between university quality and development, here's an article from the January Economist about the "Engineering Gap" between the U.S. and India.

But that is not just an issue for outsourced jobs--the Indian tech sector still lags behind in creating new technologies despite its huge domestic market.

Red Tape Indian-Style

2010-03-15T13:25:00.009-07:00

Certain times in history belong to specific places. Chicago in the 1890s, New York in the '50's, Paris in the '20s; where all the varied currents in the world seem to come together in one spot and define a moment. Right now the moment belongs to the BRICs; Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

To visit India now is heady stuff. In Mumbai they are repaving the airport's runway with a gang of women using hand tools and baskets full of gravel on their heads. But the airport is busy with new low-fare airlines, and increased middle class air travel is pushing that expansion. An Indian wine industry is gaining real traction.

Our generation is the last to know a pre-reform India--a country that derided its own stagnant economy as the "Hindu rate of growth." There was nothing inherently Indian about the poverty, though. It was the country's forty-year experiment in socialism that held it back. Rampant protectionism, planned economies, and a self-propagating bureaucracy strangled an economy that, at independence in 1947, was one of the developing world's most vibrant and industrialized. Now the restraints are falling away.

Not that there aren't still problems--poverty and inefficiency being the most visible--but it seems that the tide has turned. Venture capital is germinating. Listing rules for public companies have been revised to try and break the tradition of poor corporate governance. And the generation that came of age after Singh's 1991 reforms wants even more liberalization.

For everyone, the lesson is clear. Poor economic development is not the result of innate characteristics. You cannot look at a poor country and say, "They don't know how to do business." Everyone knows how to do business. The question is one of barriers, of laws. In much of the world, it is prohibitively expensive and difficult to form a corporation (the Middle East is notorious for this). That obstacle means only the elite enjoy the benefits of limited liability; lower capital costs, increased ability to take risks, etc. When those barriers are removed, and the market is opened in a way that is responsive to local culture and traditions, the game is changed.

Bikes & Rules of Recognition

2009-09-14T14:25:00.006-07:00

Apparently there is a big split among bike commuting advocates about traffic laws. While everyone agrees that the current rules of the road in most cities are designed to benefit drivers at everyone else's expense, one group claims bikers should follow the current rules while another holds that to do that adds up to treason against the entire bicycle community.

The dissenters' argument boils down to this: bikes are different than cars and need their own, bike-specific traffic laws; since they don't have those, the current laws are invalid; since the current laws are invalid, cyclists shouldn't follow them. Well, that sounds fine at first - especially because it rips off some old fashioned American political rhetoric - but there's a big difference between "invalid" laws that are unjust (e.g. segregation) and those that are invalid merely because they could be better.

The really bad principle behind the argument that bikers shouldn't follow the traffic laws is that only cyclists are considered capable of determining whether traffic laws are valid. No dice, friends. If you don't like the current rules, agitate to change them - but I missed the memo giving Critical Mass a veto over traffic laws.

Real Americans

2009-08-03T15:37:00.002-07:00

Frank Rich's editorial in the Sunday Times was one of the better bits so far about the recent torrent of race baiting from GOP barkers. The upshot of Rich's thinking is that righty-whitey accusations and rants indicate deep anxiety about their soon-to-be minority status.

There's a lot more to it than that, of course. Sure, some people are surely struggling with Big Questions about What Their Country Means; experiences other than Mayberry-certified stories now carry the President's and the Supreme Court's stamp of authority. But some of the vitriol seems motivated by a pure instinct that white folk must not cede their place at the top of the pack.

Thankfully, most of the country isn't listening. The GOP positive numbers are very bad. Even quite a few of the people answering on the positive side must be doing so in spite of the Party leadership's failure to denounce the villains among them. That's some comfort but hardly enough. The emotions mined by candidates appealing to the "Real America" have caused quite a lot of blood-letting in the past. There is no valid reason for a major political party to condone it at all - especially when done in that party's name.

There is no reason for a genteel response to this low-rent blathering. It is not a political position to be respected or accomodated. It is intolerance. Malcolm Gladwell's newest essay lays bare how morally thin that sort of response is, both in fiction and reality. The Jim Crow South is not a role-model.

In Other News

2009-08-03T11:55:00.004-07:00

Japan is starting jury trials. More accurately, a current case is the first jury trial in Japan in over sixty years but they are conducting mock trials to work the system out. The usual warring theories abound: jurors can't make good decisions, judge only courts lack transparency, etc.

The current system involves three judge panels. This first jury case involves both six jurors and three judges. Curiously (at least from a UK/US point of view) at least one of the judges has to agree with the jury's verdict.

The article mentions a few other interesting details. First, Japan boasts a 99% conviction rate. I have a hunch that the Japanese police are not 99% good. Second, Japan had a jury system from the mid-1920s until 1943. It seems like an odd exception to the US-designed political overhaul after the War to leave out a jury system.

As an added historical tid-bit: Japan actually adopted the German Civil Code not longer after the Buergerliches Gesetz Buch was adopted, during the Meiji period when Japan was busily modernizing everything.

Cobbles are for Suckers

2009-08-02T13:09:00.006-07:00

If there is one word for biking around Munich, it is "civilized." This works on a couple levels. First, there's no antagonism between bikes and cars - they actually give you the right of way and pay attention - making it a lot safer (hardly anyone wears a helmet). Which means, second, that there's no dumb bike culture. Which means, third, you can ride grandad bikes without feeling like a middle-aged guy whose mom packs his lunch.

These are the only bikes you can actually ride while wearing a suit and there aren't many things to make you feel more civilized than biking in a suit. Until you reach the cobble stones. They are uncivilized. They are dumb. It was fine when they were the only sensible alternative to mud and dung but they are officially well past their sell-by date. Hours after a long ride today and my ass still hurts.

There's a batch of urban planners that advocate for reviving cobble stones in the States, claiming they do everything from reduce pedestrian injuries (slower car speeds) to emanate somethingorother that will magically undo all the real and imagined damages the car has wreaked on American community. These people are charlatans.

Michael Jackson, Iran, and Anticipation

2009-06-26T11:33:00.003-07:00

I know it's a big deal that Michael Jackson died, and it's a big deal in Germany too (they love him here), and that Iran is holding the world on edge, but I only care about one thing right now.

Counting the Days

2009-06-24T13:59:00.003-07:00

Sunday is almsot here . . .

Public Service Announcement

2009-06-23T17:24:00.003-07:00

Americans do not watch class action suits like they are the Roman games.
That woman burned by the McDonald's coffee? She was disfigured for life in some very sad, personal ways, and this had happened to more than McD's customer before. The jury smacked McDonald's because McDonald's was negligent and callous and disregarded basic standards of human decency.
We have a more or less non-existent social welfare system. When we get hurt and lose our jobs, we don't still get to take our two week national naptime (I'm looking at you, Holland).
Some of us have actually heard of your country and do know where to find it on the map.
You need immigrants, you idiots. Shut up and let them make money.
Seriously, guy - I know more about your country than you know about mine. Cut me some slack. I really like it here. I happily disfigure your language all the time. I even made a joke in German today. That's the second this week. Yes, dammit - I play soccer all the time . . . and, yes, I understand offsides.

German Legal Term of the Day

2009-06-23T11:43:00.003-07:00

"Quotenkonsolidierungsverfahren" = pro rata consolidation procedure.

This is a very specific phrase/word having to do with consolidation of interests in banking. (Here's an old report discussing different views on the subject . . . if you're really that interested, the mention of pro-rata is at the very end.) In some ways, like with some of the other words I've shared, it's no different than shoving an entire English phrase into a single word. But in other ways, it sums up the German approach in one ten-syllable shot.

Despite the fact that German attorneys have all these long words, they use American nicknames for corporate take-overs. And they like them because they make it sound cool; poison pill, saturday night special, white night, black night, green mail, squeeze-out, etc. They make long words, we try and sound like gangsters.

Photo Album Updated

2009-06-23T10:58:00.001-07:00

I fixed the problem with the photo links to the right. They're updated now with a lot more shots.

Feed the Birds

2009-06-22T15:37:00.008-07:00

Went to London for the weekend. Three observations. First, Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is really a bus station with planes.

Second, if the coffee costs only 70p - don't buy it.

Third, when I woke up in the bus on the way back into town yesterday I actually saw the skyline and thought, "nice to be home."

The European Disunion

2009-06-13T12:47:00.005-07:00

I haven't written about the recent EU elections yet (which wrapped up on Sunday after four days of voting) because, frankly, nobody was talking about it. There were articles in the papers but they were stuffed by news of the iminent (and now effective) insolvency of Anachron, the Opel deal, and the Air France search. Last week, one of the Frankfurt papers ran a double-spread about the European Parliament but it's tone was almost like a travelogue, a peek into a far-off alien world.

The poll numbers bore this out. Turn-out was the lowest in the history of Europe-wide elections, despite being the election itself being the largest ever. Not to mention that the world is in the grips of a massive and ever-more complicated economic crisis and the EU, as a genuine governmental body, is in the middle of everything.

And who won? The lunatics. The "center"-right did well in every country. Anti-immigrant groups did very well. What they call "Euro-skeptics" also did well. It was not a good day for the EU.

I asked my friend Daniel about it the other night, on our way home from drinking a pitchel of

Ebbelwoi (it's an apple cider, not a lost Ewok). Daniel was sincerely sad about the election. I believe in Europe, he said. "We should be one. But I don't think this will happen for a long time."

As much as I understand it, the inability of many Europeans to recognize how long it took the US to become a genuinely unified nation often frustrates me. But listening to Daniel the other night, my heart went out to him. In spite of its bureaucratic lust, the EU really is an idea that can be killed any day. If the elections keep going this way, that might happen sooner than later.

The Hearings That Weren't

2009-06-11T16:05:00.006-07:00

If you haven't heard any of This American Life's coverage of the financial crisis, check it out. Teaming up with the folks from Planet Money, TAL does a great job. Their most recent broadcast deals with the government regulators and the credit rating companies. Both function - or are supposed to function - as gatekeepers. During the last decade or so, they did anything but.

If the latest episode doesn't clarify why some level of legal literacy is important in a democracy, I don't know what will. For years, under Democratic and Republican administrations and Congresses, American kept saying they wanted less regulation. Based on their anger these days, it doesn't seem like they knew what they were asking for. But they got it, in spades.

I do need to say one thing before you listen to the first act. They talk about AIG's collapse and the regulatory failures that enabled it. There is some naive amazement at how AIG was structured, with different subsidiaries spread out around the world, each legally separate. First, this is nothing special. Second, I don't think TAL makes a clear enough point that even with this structure, the real regulatory failure was not that AIG could structure itself this way. The failure was in failing to regulate it. This should not be heard as an argument against corporations. Be careful with your pitchforks - the anti-regulation pitchforks have made enough trouble already.

German Legal Term of the Day

2009-06-09T03:04:00.003-07:00

Hypothekenschuldverschreibung = "collateral mortgage bond"

I share my office with two other "trainees," Daniel and Nafissatou. Daniel is German and Nafissatou is Nigerien by way of France (that's Nigerien, not Nigerian - from Niger). Nafissa doesn't share my love of long German legal terms. She just shakes her head at them. Daniel is amused. As proud of the Bundesgesetz as German lawyers are, they have a very good sense of humor about some of its tics.

My boss once said he thought the only [European] language with longer words was Finnish. But then "you have no vowells." It's the tiny victories.

Sounds of Frankfurt

2009-06-08T16:50:00.004-07:00

Also: more photos of Mainz and Frankfurt (including new graf) in the slide show on the right.

Me, Mainz, and I

2009-06-08T15:20:00.006-07:00

Mainz is a small city not far west of Frankfurt, sitting at the point where the River Main flows into the Rhein. The Rhein is one of Europe's major rivers, and always has been, so Mainz has hosted some illustrious guests; the Romans, Seubi, Alans, Belgae, Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, every Holy Roman Emperor, Guttenburg, Napolean, Nazis, Patton, and Patrick.

I took the trian over to Mainz on Saturday. It was raining, and cold, and majestic in its own way. The cathedral is a towering heap of red stone hulking the middle of another recreated Altstadt. It is not a charming building. It is enormous and dark and full of great tombstones erected by the important that are covered with dancing skeletons. But the other buildings run right up into it, right against the outside walls so that the entire place feels crowded in and it would seem perfectly reasonable if some 18th century prince turned the corner and looked down his inbred nose at you.

Up on the hill, above the cathedral is a citadel built during the mid-1600s. It sits above the ruins of a Roman amphitheater, once the largest north of the alps (no, I have no idea if that's impressive - it looked small). The entire citadel is preserved and you're free to wander the ramparts and look down at the Rhein, keeping an eye out for the Hessians (you could also walk over to the other side and watch out for Bonnie).

All this was great, despite the rain, but the actual reason I was there was the Roman fort. There was - supposedly - a tower built by the Romans in the first century. I walked around Mainz for three hours in the rain, asking docents and strangers and any one else if they knew where the Roman tower was. No one knew. Mainz has some great parks, by the way.

And there is a Roman tower, part of a fort built in the first century. It is inside the citadel, in the southwest corner behind the old canteen. The Romans built it as part of their attempt to link the Rhein and the Danube and keep all the Germans out of Gaul. They weren't succesful.

You can keep your Franks, Carolingians, and all the rest. Just trying to keep the tribes straight (why were the Belgae so far south, anyway?) is impossible. Their names all sound familiar but none of the history makes any sense with everyone running back and forth across the river and moving from Poland to Spain and back again. And here is this little tower, not much to look at, but still standing almost intact after two thousand years. Good builders, the Romans.

I Miss You

2009-06-08T15:14:00.002-07:00

School Daze

2009-06-04T16:26:00.003-07:00

I was talking to some co-workers about the different European law school systems this afternoon, and after getting a handle on how the schools work (in France you declare a "major" in high school), I thought to ask how hard it is to get into law school. They looked at me like that was a strange question.

Heidelberg, one of the world's oldest universities, is apparently pretty tough to get into because it's famous. But my co-worker couldn't honestly tell me if it's a very good law school or not. What's the best law school in Germany? No real answer. In France? Doesn't really matter where you go, so long as it's in Paris.

Ask any US law student what the best law school in the country is and they know. They know the top 5, top 10 and probably top 14 off the top of their head. We know, and never stop talking about, how this affects hiring later on, market-rate first year salaries in the top five markets, your chances of being on the Supreme Court or teaching, etc. It drives our friends and family nuts.

Of course, when you're spending/borrowing a small fortune to do something, you tend to get well acquainted with it. But French law students also recently got pretty upset about their tuition, too. Not long ago, final year's tuition shot up to 900 Euros.

German Legal Term of the Day

2009-06-04T16:18:00.003-07:00

"Steuerhinterziebungsbekampfungsgesetz" = Act to Combat Tax Evasion

This is the name of an actual German law - very well known to tax attorneys here - designed to limit off-shore tax shelters such as Jersey or Malta. Not only is the word seriously impressive when spit out quickly by a co-worker, along with a "you don't know this?" tone, you have to hand it to the German Parliament for sticking to a simple, if long, name. If this were the product of our Washington Lovlies, it would have been named the Federal Defense of Apple Pie Freedom and Baseball Freedom Liberty Defense Act.

Or, to put it another way . . . "Bundeswacheäpfelkuchefreiheitundbaseballfreiheitunamhängingkeitwachegesetz."

Any Day Now

2009-06-01T08:52:00.003-07:00

Any day now, Baby G, you're going to have a new baby brother! You and your mom will both be big sisters. I can't wait to meet the little guy when I see you again. Your godfather misses you every day, Gabs. I love you, your mom and dad and your little brother.

Love,

Uncle Patrick

Happy Birthday Zahra!

2009-05-31T03:50:00.004-07:00

Happy Birthday, Zahra! I miss you very much and hope you have an amazing day! Give your Mom, Dad, Natasha and Saif big hugs for me.

Love, Uncle Patrick

Bi-Lingual Credit Agreements

2009-05-31T03:04:00.004-07:00

Friday was the first big translation exercise of my summer. A US corporation is purchasing a German company and we're handling the credit side of things with the foreign bank. Because the subsidiary, and a bunch of other holding companies are all registered in Germany, German corporate law applies. But US law also applies to all the contracts. So the credit agreement and all its parts have to be in step in two jurisdictions at once.

The hard thing about this is that you can't simply translate the documents. In this case, I was translating from German to English. The translation had to be effective in the US and also Germany. So all the key legal concepts had to be recognizable to a German regulator and an American lawyer.

This is a lot easier said than done. I thought it would take about an hour. It took four.

The Botanical Gardens

2009-05-30T12:46:00.002-07:00

German Legal Term of the Day

2009-05-30T12:39:00.003-07:00

"Akkreditivwaehrungsdeckungskonto" = foreign currency credit cover account.

I think the printers used a small size font to keep this one on a single line. Again, there's not really any shorter way to say this in English - not an official term, anyway.

Dear Germany . . .

2009-05-28T16:17:00.002-07:00

Screens would keep the moths out of my room at night. The moths are very large and aggressive. Screens are also very cheap. You are a wealthy nation capable of building electronic signs that tell me exactly how many available parking spots exist in multiple parking garages at once. Screens, Germany. Window screens.

The German Legacy

2009-05-27T15:25:00.003-07:00

A little background's in order. You may have heard the phrases "civil law" and "common law." The UK, much of the Commonwealth, and the US are common law jurisdictions. Continental Europe and the rest of the world? They're civil law systems. What's the difference?

Without getting into a ton of historical detail, the big difference is that civil law systems don't care about precedent. In the US and the UK, precedent is huge. The bulk of American law isn't what a statute says you can or can't do, it's in judicial decisions that build on previous decisions that build on previous decisions that build on previous decisions. Most of your first year in law school is really spent just trying to learn how to focus on the legal conclusion (the "holding") and ignoring the rest (dicta). Then you spend a lot more time figuring out when the nonsense isn't nonsense and when the official decision isn't really the official decision. This is also the perpetual employment system for law professors.

In the rest of the world, the law in the statute book is actually the law. When a judge hears a case, she doesn't care what Buzzy, J. said the week before or anything else. What she cares about is the words in the code. If a code isn't very applicable, it can be amended or tossed out, but the judges (in theory) just apply it regardless.

There are pros and cons to both systems, but at the heart is a very different idea of the law. The civil code imagines the law as the idealized product of rational analysis before the fact. Germans, no surprise here, really like this idea. It's very thorough and exacting. So when they published their Bunderliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Code) in 1896, it was the most modern legal document in the world. It became the model for legal reform around the world. Japan adopted the code almost whole-hog during the Meiji, and this is still the basis for Japanese law today.

Even the US felt and feels the influence of Germany's civil code. A progressive minded guy in New York campaigned for a civil code in the Empire State and almost suceeded. His brother, also enamored by the code, took a copy with him when he went west to California. Where his brother failed, the man who went west suceeded. California adopted a German-style civil code that remains in place today. But a California legal scholar was not entirely sold on the civil approach and wrote an influential treatise about how interpret the new law. Yes, it was a code but judges and lawyers should interpret it in a common-law style. This guy's name was Hastings, my law school's namesake.

There's one more enormous German influence on US law. The bulk of modern commercial law, especially the UCC, was stolen from Germany by a Columbia law professor named Llewellyn.

German Legal Term of the Day

2009-05-27T10:04:00.003-07:00

Einlagsmeldungschwelle: earnings report threshold - the percentage of total shares in a company requiring reporting to the German securities regulator.

Yes, German legal terms are very long. For those of you keeping score at home, the English phrase is 23 letters to the German's 22. In theory, it makes no difference whether twenty-odd letters are slammed together or spaced out but, in reality, that solid block of consonants is like reading bricks. Your eyes just stop and all you see is letters, not words.

Most of the project I'm working on right now is in English, but many of the notes are written in German, so I keep three books at my elbow - a two volume German-English/English-German financial dictionary and a GE/EG bank law dictionary. I'm on the hunt for a German word that actually takes up more than one line.

Expat Whiplash

2009-05-26T15:43:00.004-07:00

Succesfully navigate local German bureaucracy without a word of English spoken? Feel on top of the world. Then you head back to work . . .

Flying Solo

2009-05-24T05:43:00.007-07:00

I definitely prefer travelling with others but flying solo has its benefits. Your schedule is yours to make, if you dislike a place there's no chance you'll need to stick around, and there is never any debate about seeing anything. Those are the good parts. The bad part is that you are alone, forced to initiate every conversation you want to have with anyone other than a waiter or store clerk.

This never bothered me much when I was younger. And it hasn't bothered me too much this time around except for last night, at about 10:45 when I walked into a bar in Sachsenhausen for soul night, found it empty, and sat by myself in the corner for twenty minutes while I finished my beer.

Normally, I would have gone over and talked to the DJ, but I was already in a state. Sachsenhausen is a big neighborhood on the south side of Frankfurt's river. Along its main drag, the Schweizerstrasse, are big Apfelwein halls. Apfelwein is a type of hard apple cider. People drink it in groups, getting very loud and singing. Looks like a great time. Since the bar hosting the soul night was in the neighborhood, it seemed like a perfect time to try some apfelwein.

I realize that I could have worked my way into some group of Germans singing soccer songs - which I don't know and couldn't understand through their slurring - but it was the type of night when I didn't want to be with strangers. I missed my wife.

So I went from apfelwein hall to apfelwein hall, looking for some open-looking group of people. None to be found. I decided to skip it and head to the bar for soul night.

Turns out that the bar was right next to part of Sachsenhausen called the Apfelwein Viertel (Applewine Quarter). This is noted on my map by an odd-shaped orange area but the name is so small I didn't see it till I was on my way home. The Viertel is a pedestrian zone, about five or six small blocks packed with people drinking and singing and busting the myth of uptight Germans.

Sometimes you're up for the introductory conversations - "where are you from?"; "yes, we can speak German," etc. - and sometimes you're not. I was not in the mood for it last night.

That's when I reached the bar. I'd expected a bar full of young people dancing but found a room with quiet speakers and one other guy who left two minutes after I got there. I felt sorry for the DJ - you'd have no idea there was any kind of music in that bar if you didn't walk in and look around. But after wandering around among happy, soccer song-singing Germans for an hour, I couldn't deal with it anymore.

Work starts tomorrow. Finally.

Every Expat an Ambassador

2009-05-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

God and the U-Bahn

2009-05-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

On my way into the city right after landing, I asked this guy if I had the right ticket for the subway. He told me I did, then went on to ask me about God. Who says Europeans aren't religious anymore?

Some Frankfurt Street Art

2009-05-22T12:03:00.001-07:00

Found this ghost on my way from Nordend to Bornheim.

Code of the Streets

2009-05-22T11:55:00.001-07:00

That's a piece of an Olde-E box underneath the shorts (click to enlarge). There are also a few Welch's cans and A&W, Canada Dry, Chips Ahoy, Arizona Ice-T and Ben & Jerry's. The name of the store is "Roots." I'm not kidding.

Underneath the tank-top is an ad for the coffee that's on display in the lower right-hand corner. It's named Gorrilla. Again, not kidding.

More Photos

2009-05-21T13:02:00.001-07:00

Here are some more photos from my first day.

The First Day

2009-05-21T11:49:00.001-07:00

The terminal buildings at Frankfurt airport feature huge signs in multiple languages saying, "Hesse - You can't go around it." Hesse is the name of Frankfurt's state and while I understand that Frankfurt is a huge transportation hub on the continent and beyond it seems a bit belligerant for a regional motto.

My flat is in a neighborhood called Nordend - North End - just north of the old city center. That old city center was bombed flat in World War II. The current buildings are almost entirely post-war. The olde tyme buildings in the photo above are post-war reconstructions, part of a city effort to rebuild a small portion of its old center. The reconstructed area is pretty small and would never trick you into thinking it is anything but an ersatz Old Town but it does make the rest of the center's decidedly mid-century bent even more striking.

My neighborhood, on the other hand, is mostly older buildings on tree lined streets with a lot of little shops, cafes and bars.

The Final Countdown

2009-05-14T16:57:00.001-07:00

The last exam is always hard to concentrate on. This year is even worse. Not only did I have five finals, but my flight to Germany leaves next Wednesday. Only five days between my last exam and Deutschland. Normally during finals, my mind wanders to the usual things - my wife, friends, and evenings with no law reading or studying. This semester, it wanders to figuring out how to fit all those things into only five days.