My four year old niece caught a pigeon in Bryant Park last week. Does anyone know of anyone who has ever captured a pigeon? Witness Auntie Rubi described it thus:

"She refused to let the pigeon go, claiming she won it, she was the fastest, it was too slow and as she had been chasing birds for years this one was her prize to keep. Any attempts to ply her with ice cream and carousel rides, or to appeal to her sense of humanity wouldn’t get her to release the struggling bird from her tiny glorious fist. Threat of bird poop, however, was enough to get her to unhand her victory."

Race humor: Stuff White People Like: Bumper Stickers. Grammar. The Wire. The Ivy League.

 

I'm taking a summer class at QUSL called The American Legal History of Race Relations, taught by CT Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens.

 

This past week, we discussed how the Founding Fathers not just acknowledged but perpetuated and sanctioned slavery with Constitutional protections at the founding of the nation.

 

The first week, we talked about racism. When the political debate in America focuses on racism, it often means many different things to many different people. But if we all agreed on the definition, perhaps we could move forward with the issue.

 

For the record, Random House Unabridged:

Racism: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

Why am I in law school? Not just because I like learning, but because years ago, I and many others foresaw doom in the newspaper industry. I heard at the CT Society of Professional Journalists' annual dinner the other night that people lamented a downturn in submissions for awards. Geez? I wonder why.

 

Paper Cuts is a handy map of the United States, showing what newspapers are responsible for what portions of the more than 3,000 journos who lost their jobs this year. It might help explain the problem for SPJ. (Note: it does not count the exit from the news industry of one very heroic friend who walked out of his job at the Hartford Courant because management gave him an ultimatum.)

 

Thus, real reporting is now done online. For instance, Andy Thibault at the Cool Justice Report continues to make life difficult for the Douchebags at Lewis Mills High School who dared mess with the free speech rights of Avery Doninger.

 

This round, Thibault won a Freedom of Information Act complaint, and he now has the right to see how much money the school system and the taxpayers are shelling out for lawyers to defend the administrators.

 

And Lucky me, I am down in Guilford today, enjoying the great weather and the beach.

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