Mostly Plants

Tonight I leave Massachusetts for sixteen days of adventure.

I will take the bus to the commuter rail station, the commuter train into the city, the subway to South Station, and the Silver Line (a Dual-Mode Bus that runs through Subway tunnels on catenary wires) to Logan Airport, where I will take the plane to Chicago and hop on a car with my coadventurers to Wyoming (via Badlands N.P.), for two weeks of backpacking, day-hiking, and hopefully rock climbing.

Reports and photos will be forthcoming.

While we were waiting to have our exams collected and inventoried, and all blatantly disregarding the repeated, but not particularly emphatic instructions not to speak, a member of the Board of Bar Examiners stepped up to the rostrum and announced:
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From the MA bar review course, guaranteed to amuse those in other states as well as the rising 2Ls and 3Ls.

Those who have never studied law may find some of these funny, but I make no warranties.

Best wishes to all who must endure what this week brings–and if anybody reading this took the Louisiana bar, you are already done, and I do not want to speak to you for the next week (except Ariel.  And Josie.  Okay, I do want to speak to you, just not about the bar exam.)  But you may still enjoy the quotes.  I apologize for the lack of usufruct jokes–we don’t have those up North.

And because this post contains some statements of positive law, and because Paul Lisnek tells us to presume non-lawyers are morons for professional responsibility purposes, I feel compelled to tell you that you would have to be a moron to think that anything in this post (or elsewhere on this blog) is legal advice.  If anything here seems to speak to your particular situation (for example, if you have been having sex with a seventeen year old in MA and filming it), do not rely on these quotes.  For the gods’ sake do not comment about it or contact me.  Get a lawyer.

Michael Simons–Criminal Law and Procedure

Death by lightning is not a natural and probable consequence of a mugging

You can’t burglarize your own house, but it happens with some regularity on the bar exam

In Massachusetts it is legal to have sex with a seventeen year old, just don’t take any pictures. That’s child pornography.

The last thing you want is for a Mass essay grader to think you’re from New York!

Drugs.  Yes, they’re illegal.

We’ve been at this for two hours, and so far what have you learned? BAR PREP IS BORING!!

Eye rape is not a crime, thank goodness!
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This is a brief update, to let you all know that I’m not dead, nor have I abandoned Mostly Plants.

The bar exam is eating my life.

I will be back in August.

Meanwhile, I have moved to North Chelmsford, MA. It is pretty here. I’m very close to New Hampshire, where I can shop tax-free.

Most of you know me as an advocate for the accused.  One reason that I have chosen to pursue that path is to put into practice my belief that all living creatures are worthy of love and compassion, even those who, in the eyes of many, have forfeited that worth.

Recently, circumstances have forced me to acknowledge that victims of violence are also an under-loved community.  I have been working with a group  here on campus that formed as a support network for one particular survivor, but also as an activist group to change the culture on campus.  I have learned a great deal from them about the realities of trauma, blame, and self-ownership.  One thing that I have learned, and would like to pass along, is that victim-blaming has a great deal more depth to it than the traditional “she had it coming/she wanted it/she was a slut” defense to accusations of sexual violence.  Victim blaming can be more subtle than that, often comes from people who think they are being supportive, and is not confined to survivors of sexual violence.

So, as one of my friends puts it, let’s talk about the difference between being supportive and being an asshole. [Read more →]

This is my channeling a bit of my dad’s perpetual anger at people who yield the right of way that is rightfully theirs.  I don’t think it’s nearly as big a deal as he does.  For instance, when you’re pulling out of your driveway on an empty residential street and a driver coming by stops and waves you out, that’s a little silly but in a nice way.

Here’s what happened tonight:

I’m coming home from an aborted bike ride, my rear dérailleur having failed about a mile out of town.  The bike is still rideable, but not terribly shiftable.  At the top of a hill, I have a left turn back onto my street, and a stop sign.  Oncoming traffic also has a stop, cross-traffic has right of way.  I am slowly creeping towards the intersection, backpedaling and trying to keep balance without putting a food down and losing momentum.  I don’t particularly want to put a foot down because my feet are clipped into my pedals, and it’s a pain to unclip and recliip when you don’t have to.  Also, I would lose some of that precious momentum if I came to a full and complete stop.  There’s only one car coming from the right, and at the rate he’s going, I can crawl up to the intersection and then sneak in behind him without having to make a full stop.

As the car approaches the intersection, the driver slows down, to a creep, much like what I am doing.  Almost as if waiting to make a left turn, except that 1) he doesn’t have his blinker on, and 2) if he wants to turn left, he  can do it–hee’s got no oncoming traffic.  As he comes to a slow rolling stop in the MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION, he makes eye contact with me, as if to say “why aren’t you going anywhere, moron?”  Maybe because I have a stop sign and you don’t?  Had he waved me across as he approached the intersection, I could have gotten in in front of him.  Had he proceeded at a normal rate, I could have gotten in behind him.  What actually happened due to his utter failure to either follow the rules or communicate an acceptable deviation, was that I nearly fell over sideways, and did perform an utterly graceless dismount and walk my bike the remaining block home.

This just baffles me. Yielding when you don’t have to I understand, IF YOU SOMEHOW COMMUNICATE.  It can be nice.  Stopping in the middle of the intersection, expecting everybody to know what you’re thinking, and making me look like a moron who doesn’t know how to ride his bike is ärgerlich.

I do not claim that this recipe is “Indian” in any authentic sense.  It is tasty.  That is all I really care about.  That said, it is very tasty.

Ingredients:

That you can get anywhere:

2.5 c. Green lentils
1/2 large onion
3 cloves garlic
LOTS of ginger (I grated about a finger’s worth
McCormick Hot Madras Curry Powder, or your favorite combination of tumeric, coriander, cumin, red pepper, and other spices.  I used the McCormick stuff because I had it handy, and it was VERY good.  About 1 cap worth.  Seriously, don’t skimp on the spices.
1 can tomato paste, or 1/2 to 1 cup diced tomatoes
1 jalapeño pepper

That you will have to hunt for:

10 curry leaves (optional, and very hard to find in many places
1 pinch asafoetida (be warned, this stuff smells FOUL.  If you  use the hot madras curry powder, it is already mixed in.  If you find asafoetida, you can skip the onion.  If not, no biggie–just don’t skimp on the onion.)

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The garden is coming along quite nicely now.  I visited today, did some digging, and mulched around the brussels sprouts.  Three cubic feet of mulch didn’t go nearly as far as I thought they would, and I gestimate it would take about ten bags to mulch the whole garden.  Probably cheaper to plant chives, clover, and other companion/cover crops, and just mulch the walkways.  My radishes are sprouting like mad, and I clearly planted too many of them.  Oh well, seeds are cheap.  Spinach is just starting to peek out, but should be very happy after tomorrow’s rain.

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Following the acquittal of Shawn Bell’s killers, one of the lawyers pointed out an interesting discrepancy between the New York and Federal criminal procedure systems: in New York, a criminal defendant has a right to a jury trial, and can waive that right.  In the Federal system, however, the United States also has a right to a jury trial, and both parties must waive their rights in order to have a bench trial.

Ordinarily I don’t like criminal procedure rights that flow to the government.  The government has enough tools in their belt as it is, and procedural rights are a check against government overreaching.  The right to trial by jury, in particular, is a right to be judged not by the government but by the people, and was originally viewed as a necessary tool against government oppression.

When public officials are on trial for crimes under color of their office, they like bench trials for exactly the same reason that ordinary criminal defendants tend to be suspicious of them: the judge is part of the government, who identifies with other government officials.  Most judges tend to presume police officers are trustworthy public servants.

Therefore, I propose the following: all cases alleging official misconduct (be they criminal actions, Bivens actions, or § 1983 actions) must be tried to a jury, and neither the plaintiff/prosecutor nor defendant can waive that right.  The right to a mandatory jury trials in this case would not be a right that is personal to a party, but a right of the people to have the community be the judge of its officials.

Thoughts?  Is this a terrible idea?  Brilliant?  Use the comment form!

Yesterday I took possession of a Cornell garden plot out at Plantations, just south of the Dyce bee labs.  I got some Brussels Sprout seedlings from Home Depot and put them straight in the ground, and staked out my plot with dead limbs from the forest that other gardeners have used in the past (I can tell because they’re sharpened).  Right after I left the skies opened and dropped a centimeter of rain on Ithaca!

Because I’m a big nerd, I also picked up a soil sample at the garden and brought it home to my soil test kit, which told me that it’s good on Potassium, and Phosphorus, but low on Nitrogen.  It also tested VERY  alkaline (pH 8.0).  I thought at first that the result was just confounded by alkaline tap water, but my tap water came up at between pH 6 and 7.  Time to take samples from a wider area of the garden, and if they’re all this alkaline, to spread some Melanterite (FeSO4*7H20).  Or maybe just manure.  The internet tells me that manure is generally neutral and buffered, so maybe that would do?  Does anybody have experience with alkalne soil and could make a recommendation?

Other vegetables in the pipeline: I’ve got two jalapeños, six habaneros, and six bell peppers growing as seedlings on my roof.  I’ve got a potato plant that’s doing quite well, five tomato seedlings, and just yesterday seeded basil, oregano, and summer squash.  I have seeds for radish, spinach, and broccoli to go straight into the ground.

Peppers in front, seeds back right, potato back left.

Today’s project: work five gallons of Cayuga Compost and some manure into the soil, and install my rain gauge.  Plant radishes, spinach, and broccoli.