The Last Legal Issue

This year in Contemporary Legal Issues, I have learned a plethora of things on so many different issues, including: divorce agreements, what an annulment is, many current events, among many other interesting pieces of knowledge. I enjoyed blogging about so many interesting events, especially the Michael Vick case. That case interested me very much, and I enjoyed researching the entirety of the story, and making my own inferences with the knowledge the class has provided me. Furthermore, the most interesting topic/unit that we have covered was consumer section. That was information that I think everyone could use everyday, because of the fact that we all buy many things and we should know how to protect ourselves and who is working to help protect us. I also enjoyed the debates. If this class is taught again (which I think it should be) I think there should be more time devoted to the debate and ideas for rebuttals. I also believe we should have researched more of the other side’s arguments because there were times were I was uninformed of what the other side had stated. Overall though, it is a good activity, and I believe debates should be done more often even in other classes. What I did not find totally engaging and interesting was the section on tort laws. I know this is important for everyone’s knowledge of the legal state in today’s America, but it is a bit monotonous… but not everything can be fun right? J I think that we also should have done more with the current legal world in America. I want to know what the big debates are in today’s society. We did a little of that, but I would have liked to go more in depth. As for movies I think that should be seen in this class next time, I think the movie that we watched about Prisontown, USA was quite interesting, and deserves to be shown again to all legal issues classes. I really believe that Shawshank Redemption should be shown to the class, firstly, because it shows how hard prison life is, and also because it is a really awesome movie, and this is a really good excuse to watch it. Moreover, I think that the class should watch one law show on TV. Any one. They all have something to do with the law in America. Lastly, in college I may pursue a career in law. Law is kind of interesting to me. I don’t know whether I would like to spend my life practicing law, but there may be some sort of job in law that I may find interesting and look into. Overall, this class has been great, probably the best class of my semester (don’t tell the other teachers). I have had so much fun, daily, in the class, because it had the perfect blend of people and teacher, somewhat the perfect storm of a class. It has been great. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the year, and the next legal issues class… but it won’t be as good as ours.

Facebook, the work of Bill Belichick?

Facebook has grown wildly in the past four years populating almost every high school and college laptop, and even those of graduates and now teachers. ;) Facebook has also grown from its early age, when the capabilities of the website was only messaging and “posting on walls”. Facebook now has hundreds of add-ons to its website that users may use to personalize their page. One could get a Hebrew calendar on their homepage, or ravaging zombies. These features are meant to be fun and more intimate, showing more of the users personality, but the newest feature on the site allows people to view recent activity that the user has been doing on the web. The new feature can show the last transactions places by the user, movie tickets being bought, among many other things. It seems Facebook has built a monopoly on the networking industry… If you want to be cool, and have a Facebook, you will allow these actions to take place. Luckily users of Facebook will not comply. A group has been formed on the site called “Facebook, stop invading my privacy”, and Facebook CPO Chris Kelly has received the message. Kelly states though that users can opt to disable the feature with no other ramifications. I believe that this is not an invasion of privacy, and in this regard I agree with CPO Kelly, although I really hate those other stupid things you can add such as the zombie feature because they are just so stupid. But keeping on task, an invasion of privacy does not seem to be occurring because the users have the ability to stop it whenever they want. So why would this feature even have been made? Truthfully, some people just like the attention. When Facebook attempted about a year ago, to create a new feature called “news feed” it also came to these same criticisms. This news feed showed new wall posts, new friendships, relationship, and breakups of friends all when you logged in. People claimed this was an invasion of privacy! And they shouted that they did not want their personal business being flaunted when everyone logged in. Facebook groups were made to petition Facebook to get rid of these atrocious things that no one wanted or needed. Those criticisms have since quieted down to being absent. I guess that people realized, hey, its actually pretty cool, and if I don’t want it, I can disable it. This is the route that this new feature will take in my opinion. Even if the cries are loud and strong right now, they will quiet in a month’s time. People are afraid of change, when it comes to leaving home, changing jobs, cars, houses, and any aspect about their lives. Turns out, Facebook is no different.

From Football to Prisonball: The Michael Vick Story

An interesting occurrence happened today, that I have never heard of happening, today, another new twist on an already worn out story. Michael Vick, the dog-fighter extraordinaire, surrendered to authorities, three weeks before he was set to appear in court to be sentenced. Michael Vick turned himself in to jail, before he was even found guilty. I have never heard of anybody going to jail on his or her own will, even before having a sentencing. I thought people wanted to stay out for as long as they could. I hope Mr. Vick is not hoping that the judge will lower his sentence because he’s being such a “good boy” by going to jail before even being asked. The judge should not have any mercy, because Vick really does not care about anybody but himself. If he really wanted to be a “good boy” and to entice the judge to have mercy on him, he should have turned himself in while he was committing the offenses! Also, if anybody thought this was Michael Vick trying to be a good person by serving his time justly, that is not true. I was listening to ESPN News, and it was revealed that Michael Vick’s motive behind all of this is probably to get out early enough to play football in time for fall mini-camp. The reporter said that only if Vick starts his jail term now, could he serve his one-year suggested sentence in time for football season to start. The reporter elaborated saying that Vick could serve 10 months in a federal prison, then the last two probably at a halfway house. This would mean that Vick could start football in August of next year, in perfect sync with the start of NFL’s mini-camps.

I see Michael Vick’s gesture of going to jail early, as actually a selfish move! This man is just trying to position himself to quickly forget about his mistakes and get back to making millions of dollars in the National Football League. This guy is just a bad person trying to again beat the system. I am glad he is doing this. Michael Vick will soon realize his plan is just dumb, for so many reasons. Firstly, he must get reinstated into the league. The rookie NFL commissioner, Rodger Goodell, has been the toughest commissioner ever on player’s legal issues in the league. He has been suspending players left and right for tarnishing the league’s image even a little. If he possibly clears that hurdle in his attempt to make a comeback, I HIGHLY doubt that any self respecting team would take a chance on this convict with a history of legal, and locker room troubles. If any team by the slimmest margin, gave Vick a chance, he would never earn one hundredth of the ten-year, $167 million dollar deal, he signed with the Atlanta Falcons, the most lucrative deal in NFL history. A team might gamble a $1 million dollar contract on him, AT MOST.

Happy Trails Michael Vick. If you thought your plan might just work, just wait until you get your sentence… and it won’t be the minimum of one year in prison… it will be the five years-that the maximum sentencing guidelines allow for these offenses.

Post Number 3: Below the Zenith Bazaar

Sub-prime mortgages are killing America. That may be a bit drastic, but the US housing and loaning situation is not in a good place right now. Banks are foreclosing upon houses more than ever before. This trend could really mess up the economy. I was once told, by the best teacher ever, that this is a cyclical market. What it will lose, it will probably gain back, at some point. But what if it never does? MarketWatch (a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data) analyst firm Stifel Nicolaus (no relation to Steve Stifler) claims that "the rapidly increasing scope and depth of the problems in the mortgage market suggest that the entire sector has plunged into a downward spiral similar to the subprime woes whereby each negative development feeds further deterioration", he calls it a "vicious cycle" and adds that they "continue to believe conditions will get worse". If this company is correct, what is going to happen? Will the currently booming economy join the downward trend? Will the subprime market begin to affect more harshly the upper class in various ways? Will many factors cause the US to fall out of the ranks of world super powers? Most likely not, but anything is possible unless we fix the problem.

An article in the Wall Street Journal proposes a solution to the problem. When the sub-prime buyers signed their fixed-rate mortgages, that was the beginning of the end for them. They could afford the “starter loan rate, but then the rates reset higher, and they can no longer pay. The idea for a fix is the brainchild of Sheila Bair, the federal bank regulator. She preaches that banks should convert the subprime loans from their fixed rate status to the currently lower, variable rate. This, she says, would benefit both parties, leaving many sub-prime buyers living in their homes, and banks (although getting less of an income stream) foreclosing fewer houses. A few companies are already responding. Troubled Countrywide Financial announced this week that it will modify the terms of $16 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages through the end of next year. Countrywide has already allowed more than 30,000 customers to restructure their mortgages and will contact an additional 52,000 to offer refinancing options.

Another idea making its rounds in Washington is to ask lenders to take a small, 10%-15%, haircut on these subprime loans but then bring in the Federal Housing Administration to insure the rest. This could spell disaster, if the housing market continues to decline, so it would not be the best idea.

I believe that the government will not save America. America’s housing market, sub-prime market, and future overall economy lies in the hands of the evil corporations that plague our world. I hate corporations for many reasons: they don’t care about their customers; all they care about is money, money, money. They drive prices up through the roof just because they can. But now America is in their hands. If they choose to prove me wrong in my generalizations, America can be okay. If they can follow in the tracks of Country-Wide Financial, they can help our country revitalize itself. Hopefully Sheila Bair gets through to them; but even if she does I will still hate corporations.

Post Number 2: Chimps and Limps

Man 1: $3… COME ONE COME ALL TO SEE AN ACTUAL HUMAN LEG SEVERED FROM ITS BODY!
Man 2: Ummm… that’s mine… can I have that back?
Man 1: NO! I FOUND IT, IT IS MINE!

Did you ever think a conversation like this could happen? Well, turns out this did happen। A South Carolina man, John Wood, who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the North Carolina man, Shannon Whisnant, who found it. As farfetched as this sounds, it is a big issue. This could set a precedent for future cases of the same sort (as weird as that also sounds). No one can argue that the leg is not John Wood’s, but is it possible that since he lost the property where it was stored, the leg no longer belongs to him? Could this case be ruled by a kindergarten saying, “Finders keepers losers weepers?” Interestingly enough, I am learning about this in one of my Jewish studies class. According to Jewish sources, if a man does not specifically tell the fiduciary to take care of the valuable object, the fiduciary should morally take care of it, knowing it is important, but is not required by law to take care of it. The fiduciary should now steal the object he is safekeeping. If a fiduciary gives away the item he is looking after, and the man it was given to knows it was not the person’s to sell, he is at fault for accepting it. So according to Jewish law, Mr. Whisnant is at fault and must return the item! Case closed.
In a completely unrelated story, a chimp wants to become an Austrian citizen. Although chimpanzees may be smarter than many humans I know, they are not humans. This is just weird. Can dolphins be humans? Can spiders be humans too then? This would set a precedent that could open a can of worms. But in the end, this would never happen. (If it happens, I will go to Carolina and try to buy that leg off of John Wood.)
The tort of slander and libel are unclear to me. Where is the line of free speech and defamation? What if there is no way of proving the falsehood or truth of a statement? What if the line between opinion and fact is too blurry? The idea of qualified privilege seems to be too easily taken for granted. Who judges whether the public NEEDS to know a certain piece of information? Absolute privilege is completely hypocritical to the anti-defamation idea. Just because you are in court, does that mean that if the court allows you to say falsehoods, you can? Doesn’t make much sense. What about rumors? Is spreading rumors slander? Wouldn’t many of us be serving time in the pen at this point? West Bloomfield would probably be wiped off the map. Think about that. ‘Till next time… Fat Al

Entry Number 1: OJ, Castration, and Every Other Crazy Sensation!

After 13 years of calm, the storm has returned for another round of drama. Memories are returning (even is they are just from VH1's I Love the 90's) of that white Ford Bronco driving slowly down Interstate 405 in 1994. OJ is a felon once again. On September 14, Simpson now 60-years old, admitted to taking sports memorabilia (which he claims are his property anyway) from a Las Vegas Hotel, but denied breaking in, and having a weapon there. On September 16, Simpson was charged with robbery using a deadly weapon as well as conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary with a deadly weapon, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and coercion. This whole situation seems incredibly comical to me. OJ Simpson, the face of all that is wrong with the United States justice system, is once again in trouble with the law… giving them a chance to right the wrong that they incurred 12-years ago. I really think this can be an incredible lesson about karma. It will come back to you… maybe not now… but maybe thirteen years later! HAHA! Isn’t it the most ironic thing that OJ didn’t go to jail for KILLING two people, but has a good chance of going now, for stealing some footballs with his signature on them? But seriously, it serves him right for writing a book called, “If I Did It.” This time, Johnnie Cochran isn’t here to save him, so he can just take his Heisman Trophy, and NFL Hall of Fame plaque to prison and share them with his fellow inmates for the next 60+ years. Maybe he can start a prison football team, and beat the guards! GO MEAN MACHINE! Anyway, in a totally unrelated, but just as ironic, story a rapist is cutting off his testicles, for a reduction of his life sentence to 25 years. On this topic I question the right to, “no cruel and unusual punishment.” Who and what determines “cruel and unusual?” If it is at the judge’s discretion, then punishments could still be anything really. And there are some sick people out there that wouldn’t mind being castrated, it certainly may not be cruel and unusual to them. For all I know, this guy wants a sex change, and this castration is just killing two birds with one stone! If you really want him to suffer for his misdeeds, send him to jail for life. Another thing in the news, and something we have been talking about in class is statutory rape. A 17-year-old high school student was sentenced to a mandatory ten-year sentence for having consensual oral sex from a 15 year old. The law by which he was charged has since been changed, but does not work retroactively, so the boy still has to serve the sentence! The irony of it all is that by Georgia law, if the two had just had intercourse, the maximum sentence would be only one year! What have we learned today? Irony seems to be thematic in today’s world. What else? The justice system sucks. I think I am going to go break into my neighbor’s house, and slip and fall, and sew them for every penny they have.