Beyond my concerns with drivers distracted by their texting on phones while driving lies my pet peeve with moviegoers who insist on texting or reading messages during the movie. Most theaters now display an on-screen reminder, typically sponsored by a wireless carrier, to “Silence your phone.” Would that was enough in this day and age. [...]
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Summer Conference Wrap-Up
July 22, 2010Each summer I attend two conferences: in June, the law school technology conference hosted by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) and in July the annual meeting and conference of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). This year the CALI conference was scheduled later than ever, and the AALL conference the earliest it [...]
Legislating on Texting While Driving, part 2
June 3, 2010In keeping with my theme that monetary penalties rather than traffic violation charges may be the most effective way to combat this activity, I would add the following language to my prior recommendation, to make this a pocketbook hit: If in any civil action in which the operator of a motor vehicle has been adjudged negligent [...]
Banning texting while driving…
May 27, 2010Ohio is among the states whose legislatures are considering banning the act of texting while driving. H.B. No. 415 has passed the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate. Today’s student-run University of Cincinnati newspaper, the News Record, contains two pieces condemning passage of such a bill, one of which is available at [...]
Karaoke with Ken 2010
May 5, 2010I digress from commentary to announce this year’s venue for the CS-SIS Karaoke with Ken outing. This will be the 10th such event, following unofficial Karaoke nights at the AALL meeting from 1997 – 2000. This year’s evening will be held Monday, July 12, beginning at 9:30 p.m. at Armida’s Restaurant, 840 Lincoln Street, Denver, [...]
And a few more words on the attacks on the healthcare bill . . .
March 23, 2010Potentially more troubling than Republican assertions that they will fight to repeal the bill (H.R 3590), soon to be the act (Pub.L. 111-148?), is the charge of several Republican Attorneys General being led by Bill McCollum of Florida. Putting aside whatever legitimate arguments concerning the 9th and 10th amendments may be advanced in their argument, [...]
A few words on the passage of healthcare reform, and the racist protestors…
March 22, 2010In a prior post, regarding the hubbub generated when the president wanted to address the nation’s schoolchildren, I attibuted most of that furor to racism. This past weekend’s racially motivated behavior at the healthcare protests outside the Capitol offered more of the same. Many of those who protest the passage of the act base their [...]
Pick a decade, any decade – and other end of year potpourri
December 30, 2009The media is full of lists of the “_____ of the decade.” Best movies. Best TV shows. Worst of each. Political turning points. You name it, someone has a list. Which decade do they mean? Apparently, the one ending tomorrow. So, to be clear, not the first decade of the 21st century, but the decade [...]
Calling them out on racism!
September 4, 2009For the past few days the controversy de jour has been whether the President of the United States may deliver a short, and likely inspirational, speech on the importance of education to students in schools across the country. Commentators and parents decry the idea has an attempt to “indoctrinate” school children. Some parents are even going so [...]
Five Nights, Four Days in Washington, D.C.
August 4, 2009Like more than 2,000 other law librarians, I attended the annual meeting of AALL in our nation’s capital at the end of July. This was my 17th consecutive meeting, but it was unlike any other in one key respect: I spent most of my daytime hours in a hotel room with three colleagues, interviewing applicants [...]
