Like all great historical moments, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood got hold of the recent the victory of the George Washington Law School’s Torts versus Contracts Paintball battle and turned it into a movie. The trailer has just come out that the work of director Josh Hall raises obvious comparisons to “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Longest Day.” Obviously, people back “in the world” will never quite understand the emotions and trauma and fellowship that emerged in the epic two and a half hour battle, but Hall’s masterpiece captures the sounds and views of the running battle with the help of his helmet cam.
Category: Academia
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
The following link was sent to me by Otteray Scribe, who is among the most erudite and respected people among those who frequently comment on this blog. He is an extremely well educated man, with masterful writing ability and a creatively active mind. The title of his E mail to me and the other guest bloggers was WTF? and this is what he wrote:
“This is beyond strange. Horace Boothroyd III is disabled and apparently has nothing to do but sit at his computer. He monitors everything going on regarding OWS and police misconduct. I won’t try to describe this, but it is more than passing strange. Might be worth following up.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/03/1088516/-Occupy-Minnesota-WTF-Cops-picking-up-sober-Occupiers-and-Drugging-them-for-Training-
When someone who I like and respect as much as I do Otteray Scribe, is at a loss for words to describe something, I take notice. When I clicked the link and read this story from Daily Kos, my own reaction mirrored his: WTF? It took me more than twelve hours to respond to his E mail because I needed to let it gestate in my own mind and figure out just what to write about.
Rather than me regurgitating the story I think it is an important one for the readers to view for themselves and present their own take on the why, wherefore and implications inherent in the story.
While allowing you make your own judgments, let me give my bottom line opinion on all of the issues and questions the story raises and let’s see what you the reader makes of it on your own. I believe that the actions detailed in this story are indicative of our beloved America fast moving towards becoming a police state, in the same manner that the USSR, its successor Russia and China are police states. That is that all protest against the status quo is to be repressed. The police/security/intelligence/military forces are not only to act as agents of this repression, in many instances on their own volition without sanction, but also are taking part in the use of counter-insurgency techniques towards those elements within the society deemed dangerous to the status quo. In the minds of those in power openly and behind the scenes the question of what is threatening to the country is in most instances a self-serving rationale for what is politically/economically threatening to them. We must ask ourselves are we to be mere observers meekly silent for fear of our own security, or will we act openly to oppose the destruction of the Constitution of the United States and with it our rights and freedoms?
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
As people here no doubt know I am quite opinionated and rather definite in my views, perhaps to a fault some might say. In this piece though I must admit that I have mixed feelings as to what is right and what is wrong, in the issue I write about. The recent thread on this blog: Trophy Terrorist: Obama Suggests Romney Would Not Have Ordered the Killing of Osama Bin Laden: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/04/30/obama-suggests-romney-would-not-have-killed-osama/ engendered a lively debate on the propriety of summarily executing a purported mass murderer. In my mind as I viewed the back and forth of the thread, including my own comments, I began to think of the trial of Anders Behring Breivik in Norway for killing 77 people, the fact that he was using his trial for publicity to advance his racist cause in Norway and that at worst he was facing only twenty-one years, though it “might” be extended for life.
Had Osama Bin Laden been captured and stood trial it would have created a worldwide sensation. It would have had to have been televised, since the clamor for an “open” trial would have been deafening and I would have added my small voice to the clamor. The necessity of fairness to the defense would have followed the same dictum, since a publicly perceived unfairness would result in a U.S. public relations disaster, for obvious reasons. Therefore, this trial could have been used as a stage for stirring up the “terrorist” pot and perhaps as a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. My question is: faced with such potentially explosive results from a trial, is the government justified in simply killing to preclude a greater evil? To be honest I’m not completely certain where the equities of these situations lie as I’ll explain. Continue reading “When Mass Murder is Political”
The epic battle is over. Our Torts Team (composed of myself, Jonathan Foster, Jeff Gilson, David Glanton, and Josh Hall) returned from the hills of Virginia victorious over the Contracts Team led by Professor Gregory Maggs.
Not since the Battle of Thermopylae has the world witnessed a more inspiring sight than these young men of Torts standing before their contracts rivals.
Continue reading “GW Torts Paintball Team Defeats The Contracts Team 9-1”
This morning the George Washington Torts Team sets out for the Virginia countryside to face our eternal enemy, the hordes of contracts law and its sinister leader, Professor Greg Maggs.
Continue reading “The GW Torts Paintball Team Set To Take To The Field In Epic Battle”
George Washington Law School was rocked this afternoon by allegations of threats and ethnic profiling after Contracts Law Professor and former acting Dean Gregory Maggs received fish wrapped in a newspaper with a note of cut out newspaper print reading: “Its Curtains For You. Sign a Donor Card.” With the much heralded Torts versus Contracts Paintball competition scheduled for Friday, accusing fingers have been pointed at me based on the most flimsy circumstantial evidence and obvious suspicion raised by my Italian heritage.
Continue reading “GW Law School Rocked After Professor Receives Dead Fish and Threatening Note”
Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is under increasing criticism over her listing herself as a Native American as a law professor — a status reported by Harvard Law School in counting Continue reading “Elizabeth Warren Under Fire For Listing Herself As Minority On Harvard Law Faculty”
We are now just 24 hours away from the greatest contest known in the Western jurisprudential world. On Friday, I will lead four brave torts students to a Virginia paintball field where we will battle Professor Gregory Maggs and four contracts students. Professor Maggs and I auctioned off the opportunity in the George Washington Law School public interest auction — raising almost $3000 to support public interest work by our students. Of course, that worthy purpose pales in comparison with the final showdown between contracts and torts.
Continue reading “Introducing The 2012 Torts Paintball Team”
We recently saw how a new species of frog was found in New York City. However, that pales in comparison to the latest new species found in the Big City — a new bee that lives off the sweat of humans. Now if we can only show him flipping off other bees during rush hour, it is the final proof of how a particular environment will lead to perfect adaptation through evolution.
Continue reading “Sweat Equity: Newbie New Bee Lives Off New York’s Nectar”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
On September 16, 1962 Edward R. Murrow, who was the greatest TV Journalist and a particular hero of mine http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=murrowedwar, premiered the opening of Public Television on Channel 13 in New York City. You can watch that very short broadcast in this link so you can understand the mission of this station at its beginnings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gr-QxU1Sz0
At the age of 17, I watched Mr. Murrow enthralled as he laid out the defined purpose of this station, which was to provide educational, non-commercial television, that would innovate new programming to educate/inform and amuse its’ listeners. This opening occurred two weeks after the death of my mother. My father (who would die a year later) and I watched this show together, bonded by the sorrow we shared and by the fact that Ed Murrow had been someone whose news shows we three had watched together for a decade. Given that he was a ninth grade dropout, my father was a man of intellectual depth who read Camus, Sartre and was a devotee of avante garde cinema. He passed his tastes on to me. So for us, this was a momentous event, given the inanity that characterized much of commercial TV with its’ intellectual paucity. This beginning initiated an emotional link with me to the concept of public TV that has lasted ever since.
In the years that followed Channel 13 would become an anchoring member of the Public Broadcasting System. I was a dedicated viewer and modest financial contributor via yearly membership. I could go into a litany of the presentations that informed me, moved me and entertained me through the years, but that is not my purpose here. Somewhere along the way from the beginning of non-commercial television until today, I became skeptical about contributing to it, while still availing myself of it’s’ services. I write about why this skepticism developed and why it remains. Continue reading “PBS: Why I Watch, But Don’t Contribute”
We have been discussing the increasing disciplining of students and teachers for comments and photos on social media sites. Just yesterday in a story out of Indiana, we saw students expelled for comments viewed as bullying. Now, Georgia legislators are moving to make this controversial trend an actual law for schools to discipline students for mean comments on sites like Facebook. This comes at the same time that a lawsuit shows how the common law can serve as an adequate protection for victims, in my view.
Do you remember HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) in 2001 Space Odyssey, the super intelligent computer? Well, meet Quantum the new crystal-based computer. In Nature Magazine, scientists have announced that they have a crystal that will allow the creation of a quantum computer that would take a computer the size of the known universe to match it. To those scientists at the University of Sydney, just be careful when Quantum says “I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.” If you hear that, run for the airlock.
We have another case of school kids being punished for statements made outside of school on a social media site. I have previously criticized this trend where both students and teachers are being denied free speech rights as schools extend their reach into homes and private lives. In this case, you have three Grade 8 girls from Griffith Middle School on Facebook dishing about how they would love to kill. It is in my view clearly a basis for the girls to be called into the office with their parents. However, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has sued a Northern Indiana school over the disciplining of the girls.
Continue reading “Unfriended: Three Indiana Teens Expelled Over Facebook Banter”
I have previously discussed the collision between anti-discrimination laws and free exercise of religion. Now, Vanderbilt University has stripped a Christian student organization of official recognition (and presumably funding) because it requires its members to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.
Recent Cooley Law School grad Aminur Khan did not take long in locating a client: himself. Khan is suing a Michigan photography studio, Call Photography, for using his photo without permission to advertise its ability to retouch blemishes — showing Khan in before and after photos where his skin blemishes were removed.