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On Monday, January 9th, we posted a wonderful article. Yasmine El-Rashidi, in Ahram On-Line, had an amazing story of Muslims protecting Coptic Christians in Egypt, in the wake of a church bombing. The movement for religious tolerance in Egypt that has inspired millions, rallies to the phrase, “Egypt for All.” David Warren hopes that this story will move Canadians to stand against religious persecution in Canada.
…The recent bomb blast in Alexandria was hardly an isolated event, and well before that happened, Islamist websites were posting the names, faces, and home addresses of leading Copts in Ottawa, as well as elsewhere, with instructions to kill them; and addresses of churches with instructions to bomb them. Direct threats have been received by many Copts. And even here — in a free country, where the liberty of worship is supposedly guaranteed — they may be privately advised to keep their heads down, and not make their memorials to the dead, or their celebration of Christmas, too conspicuous.
This is not as it should be. Freedom — including especially freedom of belief and worship, at the heart of all other freedoms — has always required courage. It requires the refusal to be intimidated, and that in turn demands the solidarity of the whole society against those who would intimidate.
…Canadians, too, must learn to perform such spontaneous acts of solidarity when our neighbours are threatened. We must not think, “the police will take care of it,” for the police follow orders, only. We must have the courage to give the orders, and when necessary, risk our own necks. …
In the NY Times, David Segal looks at the bleak future of law school graduates, and how law schools are lying with statistics. Segal also touches on a theme we see in the housing crash: how government interference has created distorted market incentives.
…In reality, and based on every other source of information, …a generation of J.D.’s face the grimmest job market in decades. Since 2008, some 15,000 attorney and legal-staff jobs at large firms have vanished, according to a Northwestern Law study. Associates have been laid off, partners nudged out the door and recruitment programs have been scaled back or eliminated.
…But improbably enough, law schools have concluded that life for newly minted grads is getting sweeter, at least by one crucial measure. In 1997, when U.S. News first published a statistic called “graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation,” law schools reported an average employment rate of 84 percent. In the most recent U.S. News rankings, 93 percent of grads were working — nearly a 10-point jump.
…How do law schools depict a feast amid so much famine?
“Enron-type accounting standards have become the norm,” says William Henderson of Indiana University, one of many exasperated law professors who are asking the American Bar Association to overhaul the way law schools assess themselves. “Every time I look at this data, I feel dirty.” …
…A law grad, for instance, counts as “employed after nine months” even if he or she has a job that doesn’t require a law degree. Waiting tables at Applebee’s? You’re employed. Stocking aisles at Home Depot? You’re working, too.
… Job openings for lawyers have plunged, but law schools are not dialing back enrollment. About 43,000 J.D.’s were handed out in 2009, 11 percent more than a decade earlier, and the number of law schools keeps rising — nine new ones in the last 10 years, and five more seeking approval to open in the future.
Apparently, there is no shortage of 22-year-olds who think that law school is the perfect place to wait out a lousy economy and the gasoline that fuels this system — federally backed student loans — is still widely available. But the legal market has always been obsessed with academic credentials, and today, few students except those with strong grade-point averages at top national and regional schools can expect a come-hither from a deep-pocketed firm. Nearly everyone else is in for a struggle. Which is why many law school professors privately are appalled by what they describe as a huge and continuing transfer of wealth, from students short on cash to richly salaried academics. Or perhaps this is more like a game of three-card monte, with law schools flipping the aces and a long line of eager players, most wagering borrowed cash, in a contest that few of them can win.
And all those losers can remain cash-poor for a long time. “I think the student loans that kids leave law school with are more scandalous than payday loans,” says Andrew Morriss, a law professor at the University of Alabama. “And because it’s so easy to get a student loan, law school tuition has grossly outpaced the rate of inflation for the last 20 years. It’s now astonishingly high.” …
In the Telegraph Blogs, UK, Toby Harnden wonders if Obama will underestimate the new House Speaker.
…Boehner has no aspiration to be president. One of 12 children born into a working class Roman Catholic family in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, he worked in his father’s bar and later as a janitor before entering politics.
His performance in accepting the Speakership was notable for how low-key it was. “The American people have humbled us,” he said. “What they want is a government that is honest, accountable and responsive to their needs. A government that respects individual liberty, honours our heritage, and bows before the public it serves.”
When the chamber erupted into applause, Boehner looked almost embarrassed and said: “It’s still just me.”
…When the health care bill came to the House floor, Boehner yelled: “Hell no!” It turned out most Americans were with him. Obama explained the benefits of his reform like a Vulcan and it didn’t compute with him when the majority disagreed. …
Michael Barone has a post on Bill Daley.
Was it just my imagination, or was there a note of one-upsmanship in Bill Daley’s noting, in his remarks after being announced as the next White House chief of staff, that he had been in the White House fifty years ago this month?
Fifty years ago this month Barack Obama was a fetus and Bill Daley was a 12-year-old visiting the White House. Not, one is safe in assuming, in an ordinary tourist visit but as the guest of the “young president” Daley referred to but did not name, John Kennedy. And Daley even at 12 was surely aware that he and his parents and siblings were there because his father had done more than anyone else (exactly how much remains a matter in dispute) to deliver Illinois’s 27 electoral votes to Kennedy.
The implied message to Obama: I’ve been around a lot longer than you have, and I know how things work. This looks something like the opposite of groveling.