Klutzy Woman Bruises Self in Most Unfortunate Location

Groan. I can't even explain how I managed to hit my pinkie right next to the knuckle so hard it is both bruised and swollen. It hurts to type. OK, maybe that's just in my head. But still.

I've been crazy busy. I have to give two speeches tomorrow. One is a presentation in Jurisprudence comparing a 19th century slavery case with previously studied positivist approaches to jurisprudence. Double groan. Unfortunately, this is the first time I've cracked the book all semester, so I have to not only catch up on this subject, but I also have to go back and read about those positivist approaches so I will know what I'm talking about. The main goal is to get through the presentation without having anyone fall asleep. Actually what really happens is you get up there and start the presentation and then the prof interrupts and starts peppering you with questions and hopefully your answers get people in the class all riled up and everyone starts arguing with each other, and then you don't have to talk anymore. That's what Matt did in his presentation on Tuesday, and I gotta say, it was brilliant. It is fun to get riled up in that class when the discussion turns to public policy etc.

Hey, our friend Snipey is in that class. It's been awhile since I've talked about him. There's not much to say. He's an idiot. But let me go ahead and give you a quote from last week's class, where we were talking about Judge Noonan and applying natural law concepts to immigration policy. We were talking specifically about a few asylum cases. (As you might imagine, the Juice did get quite riled up). Our Snipey quote of the day: "I don't have a problem with immigration, it's Asylum I have a problem with." Huh? How do you even respond to that? Basically, I guess he thinks refugees are just whiners and they should stick around and get killed, to hell with the international humanitarian law, nonrefoulement etc. M-Kay. Which reminds me of another thing. A case we were discussing (Lazo-Majano v. INS) involved a woman who sought political asylum in the US because a member of a death squad in El Salvador raped her repeatedly (sometimes at gunpoint, or while holding grenades by her head), beat the shit out of her on numerous occasions, and threatened her with weapons etc. There was a long history of her being tormented, violently abused, raped, and threatened by this death squad guy. Because of her position (her husband was a political dissident and had escaped El Salvador) she was pretty much helpless, and her tormentor knew this. But just in case she thought about complaining, he told her that "if she ever told on him he would have tongue cut off, her nails removed one by one, her eyes pulled out, and she would then be killed." So finally, the poor woman escapes and seeks asylum in the US. I don't even know HOW this came up during our discussion, but Snipey suggests that the woman should have sought help in El Salvador. Specifically, he suggests that she should have reported the guy's behavior to his superiors. (Consistent with his position that asylum-seekers are a bunch of whiners who just need to suck it up and solve their problems rather than running to the US like a bunch of crybabies). This is like the most hilarious joke I've ever heard. She is supposed to report to the head death squad guy that a member of the death squad had threatened to torture and kill her because her husband is a political dissident while there is basically civil war going on in El Salvador? Nice. The dude would get a medal for that and she'd be toast within 10 minutes. Needless to say, the words come out of Snipey's mouth, and you can hear the whole class flip out, people pounding on the tables, groaning, guffawing, arms shoot up vying for the opportunity to take a shot back at him. Ahhhhhhhh.....good times. and yet...Sad slow shaking of the head, eye-rolling, grumbles, clenching and unclenching of fists.

I digress.

The second speech is for Law Review (a/k/a "Nerd Review"). We are having elections for the editorial board (a/k/a "Nerd Board"). Truth be told, no one ran against me for the position I submitted my candidacy for--Symposium Editor. All the other positions have several candidates running. (As much as I'd like to think people were just too scared to run against me, in truth this is kind of a difficult position, and I think I'm the only sucker who actually was excited about doing it). All candidates have to give speeches tomorrow, then voting will take place over the next few days. I've already begun my work as Symposium Editor, which involves getting contributors and all things relative to organizing our twice-yearly symposia. I'm really excited about the position, and of course I'm excited to be on the Nerd Board. But they're still making me give a candidate speech tomorrow night. I can assure you all it will be a very, very good speech and will last all of fifteen seconds. Anyhoo, that symposium stuff is one reason I've been so busy.

Just in case you're wondering, I plan to wear a pink suit in honor of my two speeches tomorrow.

The other reason I've been busy is that Summ and I are arranging a super-sweet service trip down to Gulfport, Mississippi during our Spring Break. We are partnering with a legal aid organization down there to help with housing issues, monitoring evictions, and the like. We'll be gone March 18-25. I'll talk more about this later. Right now, though, I gotta hit the hay.