My dear law students, I know that the events in Brisbane are at the top of your minds, so I will jump on the bandwagon and talk about one aspect of this wonderful test series that appealed to me. Right through the series, we have seen the role of fortune in a player’s success.

Rishabh Pant escaped a stumping before he went on to win the game for India in Brisbane. In Melbourne, Ajinkya Rahane was dropped before he went on to make a hundred. But is it not the case that we give these players credit for their achievements despite their fortune?

We also hold these players responsible even if what happened was their misfortune. India’s 36 in Adelaide was a collective failure no doubt but it was also a perfect cocktail of bad luck-pitch, conditions, and all the Australian bowlers managing to get their line & length right.

That’s test cricket, but we might say that’s life in general. Luck, good and bad, plays an important role in how the world judges us. We might go further and say that the law reflects life in this respect.

When I look at the way the law apportions responsibility, I am amazed that there is widespread acceptance of the system. Take the law of negligence that all of you study in the first year. The law of negligence establishes an objective standard of care.

@ThyConsigliori

This is not in response to your work, Pat  but...

this is well, ummm

MY FIRST THREAD😳

I am posting  what I sent to my Reps in D.C., in hopes that others will follow. The time is now or never to say HEAR ME!

(1)To: (my reps),

It is your duty to stand and represent, as our reps, to not only vote to elect Trump, but also with your objections to electors that are falsely claimed for Biden. 

You are bound by the constitution to uphold what the maj. of YOUR constituents

2. believe to be true.

(A)That Donald J. Trump won this election in a grand way and should be inaugurated on Jan. 20. 2021. 

(B)That Biden electors in certain states are falsely claimed by the use of lawlessness and deception.

(3) As a public servant it is your duty, first and foremost, to represent your constituents. You are our voice in Washington and our voice needs to be heard. We know much about what happened in this election, and on what we don't know, there are very strong

(4) suggestions and unexplained anomalies. If you don't stand up to fight for America herself today, to fight for the truth to be uncovered, then you will never have this chance again. Even if you have been "promised" a "bright future". To surrender today only means one thing.

Eye Candy: Some of @MBuhari's Administration’s Laudable Projects.

We at #IPAN thought we should remind you, refresh your memories, educate, and most importantly, brighten your day with these photos.

If this thread spoils your day, we’re very sorry. It’s never our intention.

Modern Medical Diagnostic Centre at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia (FMCU), Abia State.

The 17-storey headquarters building of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), located at Swali, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum (contract originally awarded in 1996, abandoned at various times, Buhari Administration revived the project in 2016, and completed it in 2018)

Rehabilitation, repair, and expansion of the runway of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, Enugu State.

This isn't what I normally post, but it's a summary of some morning reflections since Monday is the anniversary of @aaronsw's death.

He had a big impact on the world (and me). He's someone you should know.

Here's a tribute.

Aaron was "one of those kids" - he was part of the working group on early RSS at 14, dropped out of Stanford, was in @ycombinator's first summer class, and was part of the early @reddit team.

His life's work was focused on the accessibility and dissemination of knowledge.

Aaron believed public information, scientific research, and the Internet as a whole should be open and accessible to all.

Here's the preamble to his "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto".

He was the definition of mission, even if it meant flying in the grey areas of hactivism.

In 2008 he went after PACER, a database of public court documents that charged per page of access even though the documents were public (they made $100M+ per year).

Through a library loophole he downloaded 2.7 million documents and released them to the world.

The FBI investigated, but since they were public documents and he used the free library trial, nothing illegal took place.

PACER still charges to my knowledge, but @binarybits continued the mission with a browser extension that gives free access through the @FreeLawProject

After a zoom meeting ended and the 'boss' people had left, the subordinates lingered back for a little casual banter. Nothing much, the same old "how-we-miss-office-and-how-the-old-normal-should-return" stuff. (1/10)

The most bubbly lady was uncharacteristically silent. She got talking after a little prodding.

"My kids have rebelled. I had introduced this idea of a reward system. We would never step out with the kids in the lockdown earlier. Now that things are getting better... (2/10)

… I promised them weekly longdrives if they behaved, cleaned up their rooms and did their homework. I also thought I could increase their pocketmoney, that there are no major expenditures since lockdown."

"Wow, that's good!" (3/10)

"The kids don't think. They've vetoed the whole idea and are raking more fights. They said they always deserved more pocketmoney!"

"They're right!" Said a perpetually single colleague in his late twenties. (4/10)

"No! Pocketmoney is based on how they behave. How regular they are with their homework, or how do they do household chores!"

"So, you paid them less for the same chores earlier?"

"Doing homework is their duty, chores are a way of roleplaying adulthood!" (5/10)

1) 💥THREAD ON ANTONY GREEN💥

Antony “Deep State” Green ...

... is very famous in Australia.

👉

Christmas Eve does not feel to me like the ideal time to be trashing Ravi Zacharias. But neither should RZIM control the story line over the holiday. I offer these thoughts on their admission yesterday that Ravi “engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years.”

First, the worst of Ravi is yet to come. RZIM law firm said in a letter to their client “Some of that misconduct is consistent with and corroborative of that which is reported in the news recently, and some of the conduct we have uncovered is MORE SERIOUS.” (my CAPS). Stay tuned.

Second, I was wrong when I publicly stated that the RZIM investigation would be a whitewash. Clearly the ministry has committed to letting at least *some* of the ugly truth about Ravi Zacharias be known.
This is a dramatic and welcome change from the very recent past.

That said, I do not trust RZIM any more than I did the day before yesterday. $40,000,000 in annual donations is at stake, not to mention the personal reputations of Ravi’s loyal and long-term enablers, who remain in power at RZIM. Their game continues.

Yesterday RZIM said “Unfortunately, Ravi had died several months before we first learned of these allegations, so we were unable to explore them with him directly.” Are we to believe that nobody in RZIM leadership had any idea that Ravi was a serial sex abuser?

"I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears, except coronavirus. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed, though they shall be covered.” Psalm 34:4–5. COVID trans.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, except coronavirus, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me, and thy mask protects me.” Psalm 23:4, COVID trans.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The maskless. The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Those without masks.” Psalm 27:1, COVID trans.

"For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you, but only if you wear a mask.” Isaiah 41:13, COVID trans.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid, except about the coronavirus, which can kill you.” Luke 14:27, COVID trans.

You know how occasionally you get glimpses of just how casually racist the world we grew up in really was & you get like a vertiginous lurch in your stomach? Heads up, this thread does need a content warning.

Background, I worship The Kinks & rate Ray Davies as one of THE great songwriters, but they're ruined for me by one song - 'Apeman' - a cod calypso in a comedy Caribbean accent with the chorus "wanna live like an apeman" & I thought it was about the most racist pop hit ever >

Well last night I happened upon a 1971 song by Harry Nilsson, a white man from New York, called 'Coconut,' which is another cod calypso etc in an even more offensive comedy accent ("put me lime in de coconut" etc.) I was appalled enough by it, but then >

I looked it up on Youtube & there's an old promo performance video of him doing the song. And it's just him and a guitarist and they are wearing actual monkey suits. I'm not going to paste the vid here because it is genuinely horrible.

But the moral of the story is, people my age (54) & older, we grew up SWIMMING in this stuff. Surrounded by it. People talk about the horrors of the Black & White Minstrel show as if it was in isolation. The truth is our culture, from films & TV, drama to sitcom >

In todays @Telegraph @CitySamuel write about Brexit and the difference between the purchase of vaccines in the EU and the U.K. Thread 1/

First point of importance.
All U.K. purchases and approval of vaccines actually happened under EU rules. Until the end of 2020 the U.K. was bound by EU rules and the U.K. was part of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 2/

The U.K. approved the use of vaccines faster than EU countries. That is because the U.K. used a procedure under the EU-rules that allow for national emergency approval under certain circumstances. EU countries could have done the same but decided not to 3/

The decision not to do emergency approval was a political choice. One of the reasons is the question of liability.
In the case of emergency approval the liability for the product lies with the country allowing the emergency approval. 4/

When a vaccine is given marketing approval following the normal procedure liability is with the producer.
There are EU rules on that laid down in the EU product liability directive and there are also rulings by the Europan court of Justice on vaccines and liability 5/

A Black couple put in $400k in home renovations, but their home appraisal barely budged.

When a white friend posed as the homeowner for a new appraisal, the home appraisal went up by $500k!

This is outrageous but unsurprising. Let me explain. /1/

Home ownership is *the* single biggest wealth generator for most families. It builds your retirement nest eggs, allows a family to pass on generational wealth, and you can borrow against a home to pay for big expenses, e.g., children’s college education. /2/

Yet, home ownership is out of reach for many Black people for many reasons. First, discrimination in lending makes it difficult for Black borrowers to obtain a mortgage. Black borrowers are denied mortgages at DOUBLE the rate as white borrowers. /3/

Second, less generational wealth for Black borrowers means they don’t get help from parents and grandparents who can you pay the outrageous down payment that most borrowers need to secure a mortgage. /4/

Finally, Black borrowers on average owe about DOUBLE the amount in student loan debt than white borrowers, and owe more than when they started college(!), which means the dream of home ownership is delayed if not denied. /5/

Like @ezraklein I was born and raised in OC and educated at a UC. He is right to point to some of CA's problems. But they aren't a sign "progressivism cannot work here". It's a sign corporate/right-wing power hasn't been sufficiently broken.

In the late 1970s an alliance of suburbanites, corporations, and right-wingers rigged state government to make it nearly impossible to use CA's power to meet the full scope of human needs, from housing to schools to jobs.

Over the last 40+ years progressives have had growing success chipping away at that edifice. But it's a struggle. Props 15 and 22 demonstrate the obstacles that remain.

(Rather, the failure of Prop 15.)

If someone’s an asshole to you, it’s your right to decide not to work w/them. Right?

If someone’s an asshole to your friend/mom/kid/neighbor, etc., it’s still your right to decide not to work w/ them. Right?

So...

If someone’s an asshole to people you don’t know personally, but you disapprove of the assholery... it’s still your right to decide not to work w/them.

It’s not a blacklist if people choose not to work with you b/c your views make them or others feel unsafe.

At a certain point, conservatives are going to have to recognize that “views” are not academic when they have real-world effects and consequences for other people.

Like, “X got fired for being conservative!” implies those conservative views exist in a vacuum and are purely thought experiments, whereas in actuality those views are likely affecting other people quite fundamentally.

If you insist that people who cut ties w/ bigots are doing it just because of pressure from “cancel culture,” you’re basically saying they can’t tell the difference between which values matter to them and which don’t. That’s pretty patronizing.

Beginning to learn and understand that my "inner critic" - the voice that harshly criticizes and shames me - is only and has always only been attempting to protect me, to act to curtail or stop behavior that in the past has gotten us harmed - has made dealing w/it much easier.

Not "easy" or "pleasant," because the inner critic still shows up only when it wants to yell that we need to stop doing something immediately b/c of how we have previously been hurt. As a protector it still attempts to mostly communicate with goads of fear and shaming.

But understanding the roots of that fear and shaming, that self-policing behavior, has allowed me to respond to it with compassion, and that has been transformative. Being able to hear and endure the shaming as what it is - a protective reflex born from a child's fear & pain;

has enabled me to view it in that proper context, the same way I would view a child screaming in fear, and receive it gently and warmly, thank it for trying to protect me, and attempt to de-escalate the fearful predictions of catastrophe.

Not having to receive these still-aversive messages from a place of anger and hurt - from a place of "why is this voice saying such terrible things, I am so angry at this piece of myself that wants to protect me," has reduced the stress of inner critic interruptions considerably.

.
"AOC proposes funding to deprogram white supremacists"

The problem is: ANY expression of #WhiteIdentity, on which America was originally founded, is equated with #WhiteSupremacy.

There is a coup in progress, initiated long ago, by #BigBrother & #TheMatrix of state capital.

America's founding fathers knew it would be difficult enough forging a nation from different European peoples (English, French, German, Dutch, etc.) of the SAME race, & impossible to include other races, which is why the 1790 Nationalisation Act restricted citizenship to Whites.

By modern standards, the founders were indeed White supremacists, but also had enough sense to know that multi-racial nationhood could never work. And so it has proven.

America never became a genuine nation, but just a bigger, more powerful, mercenary #PatronState than Britain.

This is profoundly important to understand.

America's #FoundingMistake was to equate state & nation.

It is by deceitfully posing as our nation that the state tricks us into loving #BigBrother.

The famous line from Lincoln's #GettysburgAddress, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" was Orwellian newspeak (long before Orwell was born) for "Government of the elites, by the elites, for the elites.

Lincoln, remember, was a lawyer & one of the elite.

Cliff breakdown.
🇺🇸

@LordBryant454 @TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 This grew out of control but here it is...

I grew up with a fundamental Christian mother and a "Catholic" father who didn't practice. We rarely went to church except for a couple of years when I was 10-14. During that time I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior (11) at a
/1

@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 Baptist Church. For a couple years I was a "good" christian and read my Bible and went to Sunday school. Then when I was 15ish we didn't go much anymore and I was what is known as a "luke warm" Christian until I got to College experimented with alcohol, drugs and girls a lot.
/2

@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 I college I learned a lot of science including evolution. After a couple of years of that I found a nice girl and started to practice my own fundamental Christian beliefs separate from any organization. This was when I was the most emersed in my faith. I didn't listen to
/3

@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 secular music. I read my Bible with some help of fundamental websites to get through the tough parts but never gave up my scientific knowledge. After a divorce and a career change to pharmacy school, a new wife and job my faith faded again.
/4

@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 One day at work (emergency department). We had a 3 month old come in, cardiac arrest. We did everything we could for an hour but there was no getting them back. It wasn't the first or last time I've had a child die at work but this was different for me.
/5