"[Writing] is theft" Ctd Thomas Jefferson, John Locke and the Declaration of Independence

From 6 minutes into his talk on one of the founding father of the United States Christopher Hitchens explains how much of the Declaration of Independence was inspired and even "plagiarized" in parts from the work of John Locke.

SCOTUS ruling against DOMA moves the world a step closer to marriage equality

Andrew Sullivan has said that marriage equality is the civil rights issue of our age. As have many others, including Mayor Bloomberg. I agree. 

The recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States did not actually find a fundamental right in the constitution to same-sex marriage. Therefore the highest court in America did not impose gay marriage by fiat on every state. Rather, the court led by Chief Justice John Roberts made it that federal law upholds and recognizes all gay marriages. 

There are 30 states that still ban marriage equality an they can continue to do so; but the federal government cannot stop marriage equality. As Andrew Sullivan said, the democratic debate will go on at state level, even as the momentum for equality has been increased. Andrew said:

"I find these incremental nudges and concessions to be the best kind of jurisprudence."

Andrew Sullivan then commented on the global import of America's new constitutional arrangement:

"Last week the court saw the mountaintop ahead and nudged America - and the world - towards it."

"[Writing] is theft", Ctd Orwell on Dickens

"Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing." 

- George Orwell

The above illustration is mine, you can see more of my art at www.brianjohnspencer.com.

Writing is hard Ctd Neil Gaiman on writing on paper

On a June 23 episode of Open Book on Radio 4 Mariella Frostrup talked with Anglo-American writer Neil Gaiman. One of the first writers to blog and one of the most prolific on Twitter, Neil is well known for his children books and his famous commencement speech, 'Make Good Art.' So good it is that it's been turned into a book.

Anyway, Mariella asked Neil: "You seem like a very linked-up, Twitter friendly 21st Century writer, so I was amazed to read that you still work your first draft by hand. Is this right and why? Neil Gaiman responded:

"I absolutely write first drafts by hand. And in fact, in this linked up age when your computer is not just something you work on but something that your plug into the world through and the world can get to you through.  

It's almost for me an act of defence.  

When I'm sitting there and writing by hand with a fountain pen in a notebook nobody can put message on my screen. Nobody can tell me important things. I I get the urge to go and check how a particularly unfamiliar word is actually spelled, I'm not going to look up an hour an a half later when I've just bought something I didn't even want on eBay wondering how I got there through a particularly incantation of web pages.   

All of which I'm completely capable of doing on my computer. So for me I like the pace or writing in a notebook. And also I noticed in the early 90s that I felt that my writing was starting to bloat a bit. And I realised if I was writing anything directly into a computer I never seemed to delete things. I would just add things. 

The pieces grew and grew. Whereas if I write in a notebook and am transcribing it as a second draft I can find  2 or 3 pages that aren't very good. Then I just leave them out. I feel like I've saved myself a bundle of work. It's a fantastic feeling. And I'm the kind of writer who like to feel that he's making every word count."

Fintan O'Toole on Ireland's dark history

The esteemed Irish journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole wrote in Up the Republic!: Towards a New Republic:

"For most of its history, the state failed miserably in the basic task of ensuring that citizens were free from subjection to the arbitrary will of others. It allowed the institutional Catholic Church (as opposed to Catholics themselves) to exercise unaccountable and secretive powers in key areas of public and private lives of citizens, from access to contraception to basic public services such as healthcare and education. The state also actively colluded in grotesque systems of arbitrary  power; such as industrial schools, Magdalene Homes and mental hospitals - incarcerating without trial a higher proportion of its citizens than the Soviet Union did.  

More recently, the state itself has been dominated by private interests. Corruption allowed wealthy citizens to purchase public policy, to the detriment of the majority of their fellow citizens. The skewing of the planning process for the capital city over two decades is just one example. And even when corruption was not at play, specific interest groups - banks being an obvious example - acquired a position of complete (and in the event, disastrous) dominance over key areas of public policy."

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd craven self-interest and student loans

Andy Mergendahl, writing in the lawyerist.com said something that brings a lot to the debate on why the hell everyone wants to go to law school, and importantly, why law schools enlists students knowing employment prospects are as bleak as a ducks arse.

Andy said that so long as the federal student loan system persists and the money flows, the law school over subscription problem will exist. 

See, it's all craven-self interest. Here's Andy:

"It’s tempting to conclude, given the legal job market and the intense criticism the schools have endured, that they must be changing a lot, and quickly. 

I disagree. As long as federal student loan money continues to flow like a river, nothing significant will change. Money drives everything in the law: legislation, the executive branch, judicial elections, law firms big and small. Only money (or the lack of it) will change the law schools."

LETR, strong support for more practice-focused undergraduate legal study

On undergraduate law degrees, the following was said in the Legal Education and Training Review [emphases are my own]:

"The qualifying law degree:
2.10 A qualifying law degree (QLD) is one that is recognised by the BSB and SRA as satisfying the academic or initial stage of qualification as a barrister or solicitor.

2.11 Demand for QLDs has continued to grow across the higher education sector since the 1960s, tracking the general expansion of UK higher education. Today, accounting for all single and joint honour variants available, there are over 600 QLD courses available across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. These include joint honours degrees; sandwich degrees; part-time degrees; degrees which incorporate parts of the qualification regime of other jurisdictions, such as the Anglo-French double maîtrise and degrees which incorporate the Legal Practice Course (LPC), the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) or CILEx and paralegal qualifications.

2.12 To be a QLD, the programme must satisfy the requirements of the Joint Announcement
on Qualifying Law Degrees (JASB, 2012; SRA, 2011a).4 QLDs primarily require 240 of the total of 360 credits (assuming a typical three-year degree, or part-time equivalent) to be
in law subjects. This includes the seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge (the Foundation subjects), which together must amount to no fewer than 180 credits; legal research, and
a requirement for some legal study in the final year (at level 6).5 Although titles will vary by institution, the Foundation subjects are public law (constitutional, administrative and human rights); EU law; criminal law; obligations (contract, restitution and tort); property law; equity and trusts.

2.13 There is little prescription of how subjects are organised, or the stage of the degree at which they should be delivered, so the same subjects may be taught at any of levels 4, 5 or 6 by different institutions. In practice, however, the majority of the Foundation subject credits tend to be concentrated in the first two years of the programme."

The above text doesn't tell us much but the image, if you can make anything of it, does. It gives the results of polling among law professors etc. where they were asked questions, like whether or not QLDs were too theory heavy and practice light.

Full LETR document can be accessed here.

Muriel Rukeyser: "Breathe in experience, breathe out [creativity]"

The American poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser wrote:

"Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry."

I say something similar. Here's my adaption:

"Breathe in good books, sights, conversations, movies, art; and by doing so you can begin to breathe out good writing, good art and good work in whichever creative medium you work through."

Gay couples in Northern Ireland can adopt

I heard it here first:

Breaking: Court of Appeal rules that gay couples in Northern Ireland should be allowed to adopt. Minister Edwin Poots' appeal is dismissed.
— William Crawley (@williamcrawley) June 27, 2013

Alex Kane commented:

As someone who was adopted I am delighted that gay couples, civil partners and cohabiting couples are now able to adopt children in NI.
— Alex.Kane (@AlexKane221b) June 27, 2013

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd It's all your fault

That's what the President of the American Bar Association, William Robinson thinks:

"It’s inconceivable to me that someone with a college education, or a graduate-level education, would not know before deciding to go to law school that the economy has declined over the last several years and that the job market out there is not as opportune as it might have been five, six, seven, eight years ago."

See more on his take on the situation here. Lexis Nexis shares the sentiment to a lesser extent:

@brianjohnspencr @Charlie_Ware 1/2 self interest yes BUT students need to take some responsibility for own decisions as probs well known
— LexisNexis LawCampus (@lawcampus) June 27, 2013

Rod Liddle on Anjem Choudary

My favourite online writer Rod Liddle is at his absolute biting best with his blog post, 'Jane Austen! Why can’t we have Anjem Choudary on the new ten pound note?'

"Would he have got away with this for so long if he was, say, a Methodist imbecile, rather than a Muslim imbecile?"

Read him in full here.

Exhibition: "Belfast Faces and Famous Places"

The exhibition at the independent coffee shop, Common Grounds opened on June 7 2013 and will run until mid-July.

You can read a preview of the exhibition by freelance journalist Amanda Poole here. You can also listen to the opening speech by Eamonn Mallie here and below:

listen to ‘Listen to @EamonnMallie launching @BrianJohnSpencr's #BelfastFaces exhibition - see it in @commongroundsni’ on Audioboo

Below is a selection of some of the pieces featured in the exhibition. You can see a full gallery here.

    

How to write, Ctd with Neil Gaiman

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/28/neil-gaiman-8-rules-of-writing/

Andrew Sullivan on Syrian non-intervention

Illustration by George Butler

To my mind, Andrew Sullivan has put together the most reasoned and forceful argument against intervention expressed to date:

"These are not our religious wars. We had ours in the 16th and 17th centuries. No one intervened to police ours  – and because of that, we arrived at our own liberal evolution."

He continued:

"Non-intervention can be a blessing in resolving core internal conflicts that need to be resolved internally before a new order can arise. That may take decades or centuries. And if we are yanked by every outbreak into intervention, we shall indeed soon be like Gulliver."

In full here.

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd Legal Education andTraining Review

After 30 months, it's out. Legal Cheek has produced a good summation of the 335 page document.

10 tweets that help you understand the Legal Education & Training Review without having to read the thing http://t.co/n1bTIVCHO4 #LETR
— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) June 25, 2013

Coffeehouses are crucibles of creativity

Tom Standage of the Economist wrote in the New York Times Sunday Review:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/social-networking-in-the-1600s.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

"Rather than enemies of industry, coffeehouses were in fact crucibles of creativity, because of the way in which they facilitated the mixing of both people and ideas. Members of the Royal Society, England’s pioneering scientific society, frequently retired to coffeehouses to extend their discussions. Scientists often conducted experiments and gave lectures in coffeehouses, and because admission cost just a penny (the price of a single cup), coffeehouses were sometimes referred to as “penny universities.” It was a coffeehouse argument among several fellow scientists that spurred Isaac Newton to write his “Principia Mathematica,” one of the foundational works of modern science.

Coffeehouses were platforms for innovation in the world of business, too. Merchants used coffeehouses as meeting rooms, which gave rise to new companies and new business models. A London coffeehouse called Jonathan’s, where merchants kept particular tables at which they would transact their business, turned into the London Stock Exchange. Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse, a popular meeting place for ship captains, shipowners and traders, became the famous insurance market Lloyd’s.

And the economist Adam Smith wrote much of his masterpiece “The Wealth of Nations” in the British Coffee House, a popular meeting place for Scottish intellectuals, among whom he circulated early drafts of his book for discussion.

Patricia Park argues the case for blue-collar work

Patricia Park makes more money bagging groceries than lecturing at a university. In an article for the Guardian here and excerpted below, she explains the economics 1-0-1 of supply and demand:

"At a time when unemployment is at an all-time high and college tuition continues to climb, the old formula no longer upholds. Students emerge with their hard-earned degrees and the college loans to show for it, but for what returns? The majority do not land a six-figure banking job straight out of school. According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages for recent college graduates have not grown over the last decade, and actually dropped from 2007-11. In 2011, that average was just $16.81 per hour, a figure that barely makes a dent into student debt.  

Survey finds graduates with work experience are 3 times more likely to land a job

I found that this was stating the obvious. Here's what was reported:

The High Fliers study of more than 18,000 university leavers indicates that graduates who have had internships are three times as likely to land jobs. 

Marketing is the most popular sector for these first jobs and more students than ever plan to work in London. 

Fewer students are taking time off after studies to travel. 

This picture of the graduate jobs market is based on face-to-face interviews with students leaving 30 leading universities across the UK, carried out by High Fliers Research, which produces data on graduate recruitment.

Read BBC report in full here.

How to be creative

Maria Konnikova says here:

"[We] know that much of what we associate with creativity—whether writing a sonnet or a mathematical proof—has to do with the ability to link ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways. This ability depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocused mind."

The above is an excerpt from an essay in the New Yorker, 'How Caffeine can Cramp Creativity'. The essay was also covered by Andrew Sullivan here. While on this creative path I also came across an academic paper on a theory behind the creative process which you can read here.

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd, 'Glut of graduates threatens hope of career in law' reports Sian Griffiths

From Sunday 23 2013 in the Sunday Times, a must read: 'Glut of graduates threatens hope of career in law.'

In short: young people are not being warned about the shortage of legal jobs according to the Law Society of England and Wales.

The warning from the Law Society certainly gives force to the article, 'It Is Now Completely Clear to Everyone That Law School Is for Suckers.'