Fun Tips

Here is a list of good commencement speeches and funny films:

Commencement Speeches

1. Will Ferrell's 2003 Harvard commencement speech. See if you can spot Al Franken in the audience.

2. Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University.

3. Ellen DeGeneres' 2009 commencement speech at Tulane University.

I was too lazy to add all the links, but you can find the speeches on YouTube.

Funny Films and Shows

1. The I.T. Crowd, Seasons 1 and 2

2. Adam's Apples, a Danish film

3. Wedding Crashers

4. My Cousin Vinny

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly

Just saw To Catch a Thief. Not one of Hitchcock's usual suspense films--it was very funny and had wonderfully comedic banter:

Francie: Money handles most people.

John: Do you honestly believe that?

Francie: I've proved it.

John: You're a singular girl.

Francie: Is that good or bad?

John: Oh, it's good, it's quite good. You know what you want. You go out after it and nothing stops you from getting it.

Francie: You make it sound corny.

John: Oh no, you're a jackpot of admirable character traits.

Francie: I already knew that.

John: Yes, I will say you do things with dispatch. No wasted preliminaries. Not only did I enjoy that kiss last night, I was awed by the efficiency behind it.

Francie: Well, I'm a great believer of getting down to essentials.

It's much better in the spoken word than on paper.

The Average Lawyer's Creed?

Isaiah 59:4 "No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil."

Update: a friend says that the above quote should apply to politicians, not lawyers.

Gender Gap

From NYT, April 18, 2010, Sunday Business, page 8:

Women account for just 6 percent of the chief executives of the top 100 tech companies, and 22 percent of the software engineers at tech companies over all, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. And among venture capitalists, the population of financiers who control the purse strings for a majority of tech start-ups, just 14 percent are women.

Interesting.

Malanga on California's Government Unions

Steven Malanga on California's government unions, including the teachers' union:

http://city-journal.org/2010/20_2_california-unions.html (City Journal, Spring 2010, "The Beholden State")

You wouldn't think that a public school teacher could possibly be an enemy of private enterprise and fiscal responsibility, but the rank-and-file don't usually dictate policy to their union bosses. Also, political discourse has become so hostile, no large entity seems to be fighting over the middle ground, where common sense resides.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Recently, I was featured in some publications. I wanted to put the links in one place, and this blog seemed like a good place. So, without further ado, if you are interested in SCU lawyers and what it's like to coach youth basketball, you might like the following links:

http://law.scu.edu/sclaw/spring-2010-private-practice.cfm

http://www.scribd.com/doc/27008818/Daily-Journal

http://ucdavismagazine.ucdavis.edu/issues/sp10/letters.html#letter_9

http://proxyexchange.org/barrister_program [current as of 1/2011]

Describing himself as philosophically Jeffersonian, Matthew [Rafat] is passionate about economics. It is not the theories or the personalities that draw him. It is the issues: "What concerns me now is that so many people in the U.S. seem to have lost their capacity for long term planning, delayed gratification, and sacrifice for future generations. At the end of the day, capitalistic systems rely on a fragile balance of supply and demand; thus, they only work if most people are honest, reasonable, and prudent, and they work best when economic transactions are transparent."

Ferrari Sighting in Downtown SJ