CNN reports that some Congressmen are attacking baseball's antitrust exemption - at the same time the Department of Justice is relaxing its enforcement of the antitrust laws against Microsoft. I'd prefer a crackdown on Microsoft, myself.

20/20's report on foreign student visas accurately identified problems in the system but failed miserably in its search for a solution. It gave way too much credit to "FAIR", the Federation for Immigration Reform, for proposing a new student I.D. card, and blamed the universities for standing in the way of the cards. This reality was addressed in the show but glazed over: the INS has a grossly inadequate number of personnel to enforce the immigration laws. No matter who is required to carry some "new" I.D., the INS still won't be able to do anything with the visa violators until it has the manpower to physically visit the visa violator and deport him. The whole tone of the report was hogwash, perpetrated by disingenuous, indignant journalists.

PUBLIC INTEREST SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPANISH-SPEAKING LAW STUDENTS

November 5, 2001 Letter from Ralph Nader and James Love to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly regarding the USDOJ/Microsoft proposed settlement

Tennessee State Quarter Design

Interesting: Jobs said last year that Apple was going for a 10 percent market share by 2005. There's been no talk of that in the recent Apple-speak about having only 5 percent of the market now and going after the other 95.

Ihnatko marvels at the Cube, speculates that Apple will (in January '01) come out with a "dazzling new consumer device" in "an entire[ly] new exciting product category."

Prediction: the Cube will sell like hotcakes -Dennis Sellers

I am writing this from inside the Apple Store in Germantown, TN! Cool!

My secretary says I'm the most curious person she knows.

The Air War
The war has pushed Bill O'Reilly into saying something my Republican peers had previously considered unfathomable, even sinful: profits and pure capitalism are not the only goals of a corporation, and the greater good is a more important "bottom line."

In the article linked above, O'Reilly advocates that airlines exercise corporate restraint in layoffs, initiate increased customer service hirings even if it hurts profitability, and implement cuts in executive bonuses.

I wonder if the pundits on the Republican airwaves will denounce Mr. O'Reilly or try to smooth the cognitive dissonance between his current and their long-standing positions by arguing that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. If it's the latter, at least they'll admit that it's not a matter of principle, but a matter of degree.

Is It Time To Rethink American Immigration Policy?
Linda Chavez seems to think that increased tracking of aliens is what we need in this country to make it safer from terrorist attacks. But who says that will work? They wouldn't have helped against Timothy McVeigh. They wouldn't have helped against the terrorists who had not registered on the FBI's or CIA's radar previously. There will always be ways for sophisticated, well-coordinated aliens or even citizens to slip under the radar. Even without all the security controls that Chavez advocates, the terrorists had to implement advanced planning strategies to pull off the attacks on September 11. Implementing drastic controls will just force terrorists to find another weakness in the system.

21st century skyscrapers / Engineers say materials exist to build high-rises resistant to assault

Out of the ashes

Subway by Trade Center to Take Years to Rebuild

ABCNEWS.com : The Future of Ground Zero

CNN.com - San Francisco bans Internet filters at public libraries - October 3, 2001
I don't think the free speech issue is that important when it comes to surfing the Internet at a public library. So what if filters are imperfect? Full access to the Internet is not a right, and partial access to the Internet is better than no access at all, which would not be so odd when the Library is only recently a source of printed material.

Diane Sawyer marked the one-week mark from last week's tragedy with this comment: "Last week at this hour, we were discussing... God knows what trivial thing we were discussing before..."

Diane, you should not condemn the triviality, for you and all your peers will quickly be focused on it again. In some sense, there is still triviality in your words, for it is evident that while the facts have changed, no broadcasting paradigm has.

One of the blessings of last weekend was the paucity of sports games blaring through the airwaves.

The only thing that would prevent a World Trade Center-type attack from happening again and simultaneously prevent the shooting-down of planes is to have some sort of mechanism to disable everyone on the plane and put the plane into autopilot until it can be brought to the ground remotely. But even then, the attackers could learn how to circumvent whatever was designed to disable them and also circumvent the autopilot system. It goes back to the modern adage that you can't thwart a thief who's dead-set on taking something from you.

I need to focus in one practice area at work. Maybe bankruptcy and, for variety, immigration. They're both form-intensive, and I can streamline the firm's form system in both areas. They're also code-intensive, which I like.

We don't need to change the world's tenor; we don't need to declare war. Say instead, "We are at peace, and those who violate that peace will be punished."

We need starships. Tractor beams, sensors, transporters. Let's invent them right away and deal with the terrorists once and for all. (If only we could keep the same technology out of their hands, too...)

Lessons from Star Trek 6:

Secrecy is the terrorist's greatest asset. We should arm ourselves with the same weapon, refusing to release information which is not relevant to the American public's daily life but can be used against us in times like last Tuesday. We should step up our law enforcement but not detail how we plan to do it. We should randomize our measures, as well, eliminating predictability which is as informative as a press release. We should defend ourselves not just with force, but with strategy, as well.

I got this e-mail from the litigation team leaders at my firm:

We want to let everyone know that R____ has announced her decision to resign from B___ and accept an offer to join the law firm of D___ . R____'s last day with us will be September 28, 2001.

Since joining B___ three years ago, R____ became one of our rising stars, and we are extremely sorry to see her go. R____ is a talented lawyer and quickly became an integral part of the litigation team. R____ has handled many cases on her own, has worked closely with nearly every member of our team on a wide variety of cases, has worked with many of you on other practice teams, and has been an invaluable resource and teacher for our newer associates. R____ has gained the respect of the judges before whom she has appeared and opposing counsel against whom she has litigated. R____ has always enthusiastically participated in the firm's recruiting and summer associate programs. We sincerely appreciate all of R____ contributions to the firm.

R____ is a friend and colleague to many of us. We will miss working with her, but look forward to maintaining our friendship with her both in and outside the courtroom. Please join us in wishing R____ all the best as she pursues her new opportunity.

I wish that could be said about me.

Q: Doesn't the bombing shake your faith?

A: Yes. But despite the loss of others' lives, I am for some reason still here, and I can tell that my faith, though shaken, is not gone. I read that this test of my faith will work to produce perseverance in me, and for that I am to be joyful. But clearly it is also appropriate to mourn in sorrow and humility. That is the dichotomy of these tragic days.

from the Bible, James 4
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag.

It seems every time I've turned to the Bible the past few days, the text is acutely relevant.

Q: The main argument goes like this (taken from The New York Times):
"Microsoft just rolled out the final Window XP code to computer manufacturers. Some critics have charged that the rollout is evidence that the company continues to use its dominance to muscle into new markets. Windows XP includes many new features that are currently standalone products made by competitors, including a program for storing digital photos and an instant messaging system."

My question to you is: why do competitors have the right to cry about microsoft including these things (eg, instant messaging) in their package? I am not as a consumer "forced" to use them. i can choose to ignore them and use the competitors product if i so choose. how is microsoft "monopolizing"?

A: It has to do with tying. Once you're a monopolist (and being a monopolist is legal), you're not allowed to do the same things you did when you weren't a monopolist. One of those prohibited activities is tying, which I would call bundling. When you have a monopoly in one product, you can't use your monopoly to gain ground in other products. That's tying, or bundling. In this case, Microsoft has an OS monopoly (that's one of the court rulings that hasn't been overturned), and it's tying to/bundling with its OS the standalone products like imaging and messaging tools. The law does not require a showing that the tying will actually cause consumers to drift toward the monopolist's tied products. The idea is to prohibit a monopolist from using a monopoly in one area to compete in other areas. Otherwise, the monopolist would have an advantage in a market when he hasn't done anything in the market to deserve an advantage, and the competitors wouldn't be able to manufacture that kind of advantage for themselves except by obtaining their own monopoly in some other market. In the eyes of current U.S. antitrust law, that's not what free market competition is all about.

This is the end of the age of Aquarius...

The Reform Party recently voted to put a 10-year ban on legal immigration. This is the same crowd that argues against tougher gun control restrictions because enforcement of the existing laws will do the trick.

n o celebrity

don't strive for something "important" by others' definitions; don't heed their urgings to do those things

listen to your self - do what you need to do

don't work to survive; earn what you need to survive, then work at something to make a life

"You got the hootch, baby, you got the only sweetest thing in the world." Those aren't the real lyrics, are they? Well, they're in my head, and it's a good as lyric as any to start out this web log a/k/a blog.

Work is killing me tonight. Either I have to concentrate or I have to stop. And when I'm not working, I need to actually relax. I need to find things that nourish my soul instead of tide it over. Read books, not magazines, newspapers, or the web. Pray. Journal.

The role of this blog itself may even be in jeopardy.