May 9, 2010 | 11:16 am

You need UCLA

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow me on

I was just on The New York Times website looking for interesting stories—one of those to follow—when I noticed this ad directing me to ioucla too. I guess I missed this story in the The Daily Bruin, but it looks like IOUCLA is trying to separate UCLA’s fate from the feeble state:

IOUCLA is a platform for people to organize and advocate for the issues they care about—whether the arts, community service, health care, education, research, the environment, economic growth or the millions of other ways UCLA impacts our world every day. ...

We need everyone in the UCLA family; every member of the leadership community; every business, large and small; anyone who benefits from this university; anyone who ought to know what’s at stake.  That would very likely be every one of us.

Speak up. Sound the alarm. Get active.

If this is a campaign to save UCLA, I say amen. The future certainly looks bleak. And UCLA, like UC Berkeley, is a vital part of the California economy.

I do hope, though, that the name, I O UCLA, is a reminder to Californians, not to Bruin alumni. Because as grateful as I am to the undergraduate education I got at UCLA, and for the legal education I’m getting there now, I’d like to think the steeply rising tuition I already paid—something like $4,000 a year during college and an average of $40,000 a year for law school—fulfilled that obligation.

May 8, 2010 | 2:59 pm

Starr: Leaving the Garden of Eden for the desert

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I just finished my first year at UCLA School of Law. But Kenneth Starr is finishing up his final year at Pepperdine University Law School. Starr, however, is not a student but, as the former Whitewater prosecutor, is the dean. And he’s leaving to run Baylor University.

I love the imagery in this weekend profile from The New York Times:

Leaving the oceanside cliffs of Malibu for the dusty plains of Waco is rather like leaving the Garden of Eden to go wander in the desert. It’s a choice few would make willingly. On hearing of his impending move to Texas, one is tempted to ask Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor, if he accidentally bit the wrong apple.

Read the rest here. It’s an interesting story, and includes some surprising details. For one, Starr’s wife was born Jewish but is now Christian. This leads into a discussion of whether Starr will be hiring any Jewish or Muslim faculty at Baylor. As former Judge Bruce Einhorn knows, Starr has no problem employing someone of quite different religion and politics.

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May 8, 2010 | 12:20 pm

Head stolen from Jesus statute

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

When I saw the headline for this story, I could immediately hear General Disarray saying, “Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!”

For the second time in about a year, a statue of Jesus outside a Tinley Park store that sells religious items has been vandalized.

The 40-inch concrete statue at Our Lady of Perpetual Help was tipped over and broken late Thursday or early Friday.

Last year, store owner Bill O’Brien was able to repair the statue. That won’t be easy to do this time because the vandals “stole the statue’s head.”

“Last year, I was able to fix the statue because the head was still here. I can’t fix it without the head,” O’Brien said. “It’s mighty annoying. I don’t think it’s an anti-religion thing. It’s more along the lines of evil,” O’Brien said.

Evil ... that’s not a word you often associate with vandalism, and I don’t think this act automatically takes on a different tone because the target was a statute of Jesus. But O’Brien’s assessment still sounds about right, even if the Bart wanna-bes wouldn’t share that belief.

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May 8, 2010 | 12:10 pm

Franklin Graham found a way around being disinvited

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

From the AP:

Evangelist Franklin Graham prayed on a sidewalk outside the Pentagon Thursday after his invitation to a prayer service inside was withdrawn because of comments that insulted Muslims.

“It looks like Islam has gotten a pass,” he told reporters. “They are able to have their services, but just because I disagree ... I’m excluded.”

In 2001, Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, described Islam as evil. More recently, he said he finds Islam offensive and wants Muslims to know that Jesus Christ died for their sins. The Pentagon’s chaplain office called those comments inappropriate and, at the request of the Army, withdrew Graham’s invitation to attend a multi-denominational “National Day of Prayer” service that was held in the Defense Department auditorium.

He came anyway, arriving in the Pentagon parking lot just before 8 a.m. EDT — his party of a half dozen people forming a circle on the sidewalk and praying.

The rest here.

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May 7, 2010 | 3:20 pm

That’s his legal name

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I feel like we’ve been down this road before:

The victim might have forgiven the woman who ran him down in a Massachusetts crosswalk, but police haven’t.

Police say a Pittsfield woman has been cited for running down a man named Lord Jesus Christ as he crossed a street in Northampton on Tuesday.

The 50-year-old man is from Belchertown. Officers checked his ID and discovered that, indeed, his legal name is Lord Jesus Christ. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor facial injuries.

I wonder if he was doing his Abbey Road impression.

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May 7, 2010 | 12:21 pm

Elena Kagan to be nominated for Supreme Court

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Don’t say I didn’t call it: Elena Kagan will be nominated to fill the Supreme Court vacancy that will be left when John Paul Stevens retired. From Politico’s Mike Allen:

Look for President Obama to name his Supreme Court pick Monday, and look for it to be Solicitor General Elena Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean. The pick isn’t official, but top White House aides will be shocked if it’s otherwise. Kagan’s relative youth (50) is a huge asset for the lifetime post. And President Obama considers her to be a persuasive, fearless advocate who would serve as an intellectual counterweight to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia, and could lure swing Justice Kennedy into some coalitions The West Wing may leak the pick to AP’s Ben Feller on the later side Sunday, then confirm it for others for morning editions. For now, aides say POTUS hasn’t decided, to their knowledge

If Kagan is nominated and confirmed, the Supreme Court will be made up entirely of Catholics and Jews.

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May 5, 2010 | 7:49 pm

How Muslim women are changing the Mideast

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I missed this program titled “Islamic Fundamentalism” on KCRW Tuesday. But a loyal reader—in fact, my boss—passed it along. Here’s the synopsis from KCRW.com:

The phrase “Islamic feminist” might sound like an oxymoron, but Isobel Coleman says Muslim women argue that gender inequality is contrary to Islamic law and spirit. She writes that they’re fighting for advancement from within their culture, and she says they’re succeeding. POC producer Sarah Spitz speaks with Coleman about her new book, Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East.

I tried in vain to both embed the audio program or even include a link to KCRW, but each time it caused some snafu and wouldn’t publish. Apologies. Here’s a backdoor. Additionally, NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” did a story by the same name back in 2003.

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May 4, 2010 | 11:37 am

Maybe instead of law school ...

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Three finals down, one to go. Right now, though, I’m thinking maybe the is the route I should take:

This year has been particularly rough, especially considering my early exit from the Moot Court Competition and career-low statistics in both Secured Transactions and Business Associations II.  That being said, I’d like to announce my eligibility for the 2010 NBA Draft this June.

After talking extensively with my family, NBA Scouts, and Dean Agrawal, I feel the time is right for me to take my game to the next level.  We went through a lot of the same process last summer, but then again, at that time I had a paid internship and a credit score above 600.  Given the current economic climate, looming unemployment rates in large legal markets and another potentially devastating subprime real estate ripple approaching, this is the right decision for me financially as well.  The daily per diem and impending shoe contract have simply become too alluring in light of rising out-of-state tuition and an increased Consumer Price Index relative to average national legal wages.  With little or no hope for an externship and a 0% success rate with OCI, the NBA draft is my next best alternative.

More about Ryan McAteer here. And more on my broken hoop dreams here.

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May 4, 2010 | 10:52 am

What we know and don’t about the Times Square bomb suspect

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The New York Times has the latest on the Times Square bomb suspect. Today’s headline is a bit less leading than last night’s, which said something along the lines of “man with Pakistani ties arrested in bomb square.” Here’s the word:

A Connecticut man pulled off a plane bound for Dubai and arrested in a failed bid to set off a car bomb in Times Square has made statements implicating himself, a law enforcement official said on Tuesday morning.

The man, Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, was taken into custody just before midnight Monday at Kennedy Airport aboard an Emirates flight that had just pulled away from the gate, officials said. Mr. Shahzad had apparently driven to the airport in a white Isuzu Trooper that was found in a parking lot with a loaded handgun inside, the official said.

Mr. Shahzad also told the authorities that he had acted alone, but hours after he was arrested, security officials in Karachi, Pakistan, said they arrested a Pakistani man who had spent time with Mr. Shahzad during a recent visit there. Investigators said they arrested the man, Muhammad Rehan, in a mosque in the North Nazimabad area just after morning prayers. The mosque is known for its links with the militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad.

Investigators said Mr. Rehan told them that he had rented a pickup truck and driven with Mr. Shahzad to the northwestern city of Peshawar, where they stayed from July 7 to July 22, 2009. The account could not be independently verified.

Mr. Shahzad, who lives in Bridgeport, Conn., spent four months in Pakistan last year, the authorities said. His ties to that country, as well as the arrest there of Mr. Rehan, strengthened suspicions that the Times Square plot had at least some tentacles reaching overseas.

There is a lot more here. Oddly, though, no mention of motivations or really any religion at all.

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May 2, 2010 | 4:37 pm

Wes Craven: from Wheaton to Elm Street

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m having a bit of a nightmarish studying weekend, though even without it I don’t think I would have seen the remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Still, I was intrigued by this appeal in The Daily Beast for filmmakers to stop remaking classic horror films in a “world they’re ill-equipped to scare.” It’s an interesting premise, and I was surprised by just how many horror remakes there have been lately.

But what really stopped me was this line about West Craven, which of course comes without explanation: “Born into a strictly religious household that forbade him from watching movies”

So I did a little searching, and it turns out that the creator of a great many horror classics, and even that classic horror reimagining “Scream,” went to Wheaton. In 2001, Craven talked with RNS about his upbringing:

Craven recalled his Wheaton years as a period of both searching and rebellion. “I really frankly was in trouble a lot,” he said, explaining that he and about a dozen classmates, while considering themselves Christians, chafed under the college’s restrictive interpretation of the faith.

“We were ... threatened with everything from expelling to being asked, `why don’t you move to another school?’” Craven said. “There wasn’t an open dialogue of ideas.”

The director remembered sneaking off to another town to see “To Kill a Mockingbird” because the college prohibited students from going to movies.

Besides bucking the rules, Craven recalled his internal struggles as he began questioning the narrow approach to Christianity he had grown up with and that Wheaton seemed to enforce.

“I was going through a very slow, but definite ...questioning of my own inner realities,” he said.

The soul searching took different forms. Sometimes Craven told himself, “I am bad because I am rejecting the Holy Spirit of Christ.” But at other times, the doubts served more positively as signs that he needed to rethink reality.

Asked if he considered himself a religious person now, Craven responded, “I don’t do anything in an organized way.” Rather, he has come to see filmmaking as the most significant way to express his beliefs and longings.

Craven said he found something in the whole process of crafting a film, from the business nuts-and-bolts to “wrestling with my inner demons and inner glimpses of light,” that was more satisfying and beneficial than anything he could have done in traditional venues of religious service.

“I think that’s ... the best approach to (the) spiritual ... I’m capable of,” he said.

Read the rest here.

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May 1, 2010 | 11:33 am

‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I know I’ve posted this before and that I’ve already resurrected one old blog post, but this little ditty reminds that law school isn’t really that rough.

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