Microblog 2008-10-27

“Energy independence is no more desirable than coffee independence, banana independence, or car independence.” [David Henderson, EconLog] #
L.I.R.R.: a disability certification outfit disguised as a railroad [Bogdanich, N.Y. Times] #
Even post-scandal, private attorneys for towns can still collar lucrative NY state pensions [Peddie, Newsday] #
Lining up for bailout bucks: automakers and even mass transit [Carney] #
Poll of worst law firm names (“Low, Ball & Lynch”) [Greatest American Lawyer; h/t @SCartierLiebel] #
List of legal newsfeeds on Twitter, now updated [JD Scoop] #

Microblog 2008-10-23

Did the Feds err in letting Lehman fail? [Salmon vs. Carney] #
Oh, spare us, Newt: Gingrich says some of SNL’s Palin skits “were slander and were worthy of a lawsuit” [Van Susteren] #
Signs of much economic distress in ocean shipping trade [Naked Capitalism] #
Seattle municipal archives, tons of cool historical photos [Flickr] #
“Journalism is not brain surgery; it’s more difficult than that,” sez (did you guess?) a journalism professor [Happy Hospitalist] #

McCain hoist on his own campaign regulation petard [WSJ edit] #
Conservatives should hold a retreat to talk about why they’re being sent to the wilderness [Friedersdorf/Culture11] #
Disability activism and “anti-national sexual positions”: just another day in postmodern academia [Massie] #
Unionism on steroids: Employee Free Choice Act would be Thatcherism in reverse [Claire Berlinski, City Journal] #
Here’s a twist: a politician walking over his ambition to reach his grandmother #

Parents press states for autism insurance laws [AP] #
Steve Chapman on right and wrong ways to legalize gay marriage [Reason] #
Unsolicited “StoneZone” mailings say they’re from veteran GOP operative Roger Stone — and when you try to unsubscribe? [Greenfield] #
“Lawyer Called ‘Poster Boy for Capital Litigation Abuse’ Appointed to New Case” [ABA Journal] #
Before fingering credit default swaps (CDSs) as culprit in the crisis, better read this [Salmon; more, John Carney] #
Twitter cookbook all recipes 140 chars. or less h/t VBalasubramani #
Reminder: you can follow Twitter feeds of both Overlawyered and Point of Law #

Foolish use of social media: Dan Schwartz feels like a broken record (= “corrupted music file”) warning about it [Connecticut Employment Law Blog] #
“Hundreds face charges for having nude photo that girl circulated” [Obscure Store, Michigan; Radley Balko at Reason “Hit and Run” has a separate Ohio case] #
“I Am the Beast Six Six Six vs. Michigan State Police”: crazy case names [Lowering the Bar via Legal Antics] #
Potential uses for lawyers of those new Google late-night “Email Goggles” [Lowering the Bar] #
Freddie Mac paid lobbyists $2 million in 2005 in stealth effort to undermine GOP-backed reform measure [AP; and N.B. Public Citizen still going out on a limb for Fannie & Fred] #
John Steele Gordon on mortgages, banks, bubbles and irresponsible politicians through U.S. history [Commentary] #
Can’t type “publ int” as shorthand for public interest without Word autocorrecting it to “pub lint”. #

Hey, James Surowiecki has started blogging [New Yorker] #
Why Canada’s bank and mortgage system isn’t broken [John Carney] #
“Went to my ATM and it asked to borrow a twenty till the weekend”: jokes from the credit crisis [MargRev] #

Anonymous but mostly plausible Q & A of what went wrong on Wall Street [Rowley/Yahoo Finance] #
Most PR people still approach bloggers in clueless way [Kevin O’Keefe; more background, PoL; also see Greenfield] #
Glitnir and Kaupthing sound like Wagnerian trolls, but went on a scarier rampage as Icelandic banks [UK Independent] #
Not a misprint & no zeros missing: median price of house or condo sold last month in Detroit was $9,250 [Detroit Free Press] #

Filed under: banks, Twitter

Don’t kvetch about Krugman Nobel, it’s for his work in economics not his politics [Cowen, MargRev] #
“Law Grad Cited for Frivolous Suits is Source of Obama Muslim Rumors” [ABA Journal] #
Garrison Keillor reads a poem on product warnings [Point of Law] #
Last will and testament, handwritten on a shopping list [Giacalone] #
Fast, fast relief from troublesome teens, just drop ’em in Nebraska [Houston Chronicle] #
Michael Arrington: “suing someone to get them to return your calls is not exactly a sign of brilliance” [TechCrunch via Blawg Review #181 at Mediation Channel] #

The Brokers with Hands on Their Faces Blog [via Radley Balko] #
Still undecided on Calif.’s anti-gay Prop 8? Here’s why every paper of note in the state advises voting no [Box Turtle Bulletin] # Also radio’s John & Ken [same] #
Ben Stein 2007, meet Ben Stein 2008 [Felix Salmon] #
Everyone was glad to see Anchorage, Alaska restored as a salmon habitat but then… [Anchorage Daily News via Ted] #

Would single-payer fix malpractice woes? Not likely given trial bar political clout [KevinMD] #
Prosecuting candidates for crowd-inciting campaign speeches? Now there’s a truly bad idea [Point of Law] #
Her busy docket: “For people like Oprah, lawsuits are a part of life” [Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times] #
Nebraska hospital sues patient for refusing to leave [Happy Hospitalist; related earlier] #
Community covenant craziness: “Dad’s in prison because we can’t afford to sod the lawn” [St. Petersburg Times] #