October 2005

This is probably the worst reason to go to law school I’ve ever seen. Yours truly, Mr. X …heh…

In an unsurprising move, Bush nominated Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court this morning. There will be a fight, what with Alito having dissented in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 947 F.2d 682 (3d Cir. 1991) reversed and remanded by Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), but after

What sort of bizzaro world do the remaining members of the Board of Trustees live in that they think they can give Ben ‘I Spend Your Tuition on Private Parties to Build a Community and You Should Thank Me For It’ Ladner a fat severance deal and have the campus accept it? As noted today

The AU Board of Trustees (what’s left of it after the good ones have resigned, e.g. Leslie Bains, Paul Wolff, Michael Capellas, Leonard Jaskol, and George Collins) has accepted Ben Ladner’s resignation in exchange for a $3.7 million package ($2.75 million in deferred compensation and $950,000 in severance). The $2.75 million includes just over $1

Today’s quote from Thus Spoke Epictetus is a very powerful one: “Once you allow outward things to dominate what is your own, you had better become a slave and have done with it. Don’t be drawn this way and that, wishing to be a slave one moment and free another, but be this or that

I’ve avoided the Miers nomination like the plague, mostly because I don’t care. However, this cartoon makes a pretty succinct argument. Also, the VC’s Jim Lindgren has a good post about her lack of writing ability. Since writing is what Justices do, this is a hefty weight against her. Yours truly, Mr. X …still doesn’t

Bill Queen spent two years infiltrating the Mongols motorcycle club for the ATF. As a story in this morning’s WaPo points out, bikers like publicity, even if it involves them going to jail. While his former Mongol associates were still in prison, Queen retired from the ATF and published a book about his adventures called

The Post has a new profile piece on Ladner and his contradictions, in which they try to show the human face of the man they helped oust. Before the audit, before the no-confidence votes, before trustees removed him as president of American University, Benjamin Ladner taught ethics. That’s the heart of his now contradictory story: