Fascinating Slate article on the kinds of district court judges that Obama should take a look at in deciding who to appoint for the appellate level – and there are a lot of positions to fill.
Oh how sad – the passing of Majel Roddenberry, the widow of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek – most famous for her roles as “Number One” in the pilot, the Enterprise’s first officer (a woman of authority in the final frontier, a pioneer for the 1960’s); Nurse Chapel; Mrs. Troi in “ST: The Next Generation”; and of course, the voice of the computer in almost all the ST series and the movies.
The stranger, a Western businessman, slipped into the chair next to me at an Asia Society lunch here in Hong Kong and asked me a question that I can honestly say I’ve never been asked before: “So, just how corrupt is America?” [….] It’s the whole bloody mess coming out of Wall Street — the financial center that Hong Kong moneymen had always looked up to. How could it be, they wonder, that such brand names as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. could turn out to have such feet of clay? Where, they wonder, was our Securities and Exchange Commission and the high standards that we had preached to them all these years?
One of Hong Kong’s most-respected bankers, who asked not to be identified, told me that the U.S.-owned investment company where he works made a mint in the last decade cleaning up sick Asian banks. They did so by importing the best U.S. practices, particularly the principles of “know thy customers” and strict risk controls. But now, he asked, who is there to look to for exemplary leadership?
“Previously, there was America,” he said. “American investors were supposed to know better, and now America itself is in trouble. Whom do they sell their banks to? It is hard for America to take its own medicine that it prescribed successfully for others. There is no doctor anymore. The doctor himself is sick.” [….]
The Madoff affair is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense. Which is why we don’t just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout. We need to re-establish the core balance between our markets, ethics and regulations. I don’t want to kill the animal spirits that necessarily drive capitalism — but I don’t want to be eaten by them either.
I’m not saying that capitalism is bad – but regulation and rule of law exist for reason that should be obvious. Or so we would like to think are obvious. What a mess the economic crisis (recession; depression?) is turning into.
With the scandal in Illinois of Governor Blagojevich, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is the attorney in the news. Time.com did a profile on Fitzgerald – ex-New Yorker. At one point one of “People” magazine’s “Sexiest Men,” he’s married now – but seems to be still a workaholic and what a job in prosecuting the Illinois thing… (hey, sort of a follow up to the year where he had been Lawyer of the Year, huh?).
Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker on the revitalization of the Law side of “Law and Order,” with the legal wrangling between DA McCoy (Sam Waterston) vs. ADA Cutter (Linus Roache). I agree – it has been good stuff to watch. Yes, last night’s episode had a ripped-out-of-the-headline plot (man and his family living a green lifestyle to decrease their carbon footprint) with the non-headline twist that the wife died in a murder, but the heartbreaker was the law portion. It was sad watching the trial judge (Ned Beatty) be revealed as turning to dementia and the law clerk (Sherry Stringfield) was trying to prop him up to keep her job going (and not because she (kind of) had something romantic going with Cutter), and she was a law clerk (actually court attorney, but oh well) who had graduated from middle of her class of her middling law school (or so she told Cutter; so what law school did Cutter go to?). She came off creepy, and made me wonder why on earth Cutter was attracted to her (well, give him credit for being a sucker for smart pretty women; although it was funny how McCoy and ADA Rubirosa raised their eyebrows over Cutter’s implied dating said law clerk).
Ultimately, Cutter moved forward to try to get the judge off the trial, because he did not feel it was right that the judge remain because of the incompetency. He earned the ire of the judiciary (not like McCoy didn’t warn him that would happen; but it is uncomfortable that even McCoy would rather get the conviction than be concerned that the judge wasn’t competent). Plus, people were grumbling about the questionable romance that was going on in the background, and how Cutter foolishly approached the judge in an ex parte manner (after he and Rubirosa spied on the law clerk and the judge during lunch at the Odeon on West Broadway (not some fake restaurant!)), risking disbarment (seriously, Cutter’s been on the series for a second season and the man’s still juggling chainsaws).
No easy stuff. Oh, and the defense attorney was also great this time – I recognize her as the Broadway actress who won the Tony this year. At least, I think so – I can’t seem to dig up credit on the imdb.com or other sources.
Maybe this media theme lately is procrastination: Newsweek has an article too; I had put off reading the article, but then decided I couldn’t keep avoiding it.
Friday – another birthday; another year and not necessarily wiser. But nice to get away from the office, and so cool to have a nice birthday dinner – Momofuku Noodle Bar. Considering how often I’ve linked to stuffabout David Chang and his Momofuku restaurants, I was happy that my siblings and I finally did a Momofuku (my brother has been to Momofuku Ssam a couple of times – and he said the desserts are indeed good). The steamed pork buns were delicious; the smoked chicken wings were tasty. I ordered the Momofuku ramen – good ramen, but a bit saltier than I liked. Thumbs up generally.
Hilarious review of the new Star Trek movie trailer on Television Without Pity (as part of the Trailers Without Pity feature):
TV Stuff:
“Fringe” — hmm, Special Agent Olivia Dunham probably did take too much LSD when Dr. Walter Bishop put her into the limbo tank to communicate with her comatose-then-dead boyfriend. So, she has dead boyfriend’s memories stuck in her brain, and now everyone wants her to get to those memories. Hmm. Gee, do you think this means one shouldn’t take LSD? Plus, what the heck is Peter Bishop? Is he a clone, or his father really nuts (hmm, maybe the latter; but Walter would be the first to admit that he doesn’t have his sanity intact).
“Law and Order” – well, I missed about more than a quarter of the episode, but it was quite entertaining. A return of the EEE-vil (or just way amoral) Governor of NYS (you think Spitzer had his nutty moments? Or that Patterson’s funny? Or Pataki irritating or Cuomo stubborn – too stubborn to even have his official portrait done?), well, get a load of the Governor on “L&O” – makes the real governors of NY look great.
Dets. Lupo and Bernard find out that upstate NY ain’t too keen on them downstaters. Det. Lupo thinks that being a cop – a detective no less – and a first year (part-time or evening) law student allows him to represent himself in small town court when the NYS troopers arrest him for being a downstater (kidding; they arrested him to prevent him from taking a witness and because he got a little pissed that they roughed up ADA Rubirosa, who was probably a little charmed by Lupo’s chivalry, since she’s not exactly a shrinking violet kind of woman). Thought the moment where ADA Cutter had Lupo doing legal research on the laptop was HILARIOUS. Thank you, L&O writers; you as fellow lawyers find ways to make it really amusing and proud to be a lawyer!
Plus, ripped-from-the-headlines – not just the whole “Gee, what is the governor making the troopers do?” but also the whole “gee, are upstate civil courts handing out justice properly?”
McCoy going toe to toe with the EEEvil Governor, and then finally deciding he’s going to run for DA of NY county and having Cutter be the first person to sign the petition to get McCoy on the ballot. Umm, shouldn’t make sure Cutter is a NY County resident (probably; he doesn’t strike me as an outer-borough guy) and is it ethical to have one of your subordinates do that in front of you, in your office – like a conflict of interest or something? He must be pretty darn confident about his personal respect and friendship with Cutter.
Plus, the entertaining guest stars of Katee Sackhoff (aka Starbuck of “Battle Galactica” – not a show I watch, since I keep missing it every single time) as the tough as nails murder suspect and Clancy Brown as the EEEvil upstate small town sheriff.
Plus, the Channel 4 new news studio is major weird – too blue. And, Channel 4 is laying off more people, right in the middle of setting up one of its digital channels into an all-local news channel. Hmm.
Last but never least: a link to Robert Pinsky poem; the former US Poet laureate on family; things to think about during the holidays as we spend time with our relatives.
