Short news items from law school land.

A. Yesterday afternoon, I was on my way out the door to go running when I heard a wierd scraping noise from the parking lot. Out of curiousity, I jogged by to witness the MSU parking minions attempting to tow a Porsche 911 parked illegally in a handicapped spot. To put it mildly, I recognized the car, whose graduate student owner habitually parks in the handicapped space. I suppose that this small inconsideration shouldn't bother me, but it was very enjoyable to watch the towing process. The owner of the car showed up while the tow truck driver was attempting to free the car's bumper from the curb, leading to some very animated conversation...and frankly, I suspect the driver is an arrogant ass, which made the whole thing more fun to watch.

B. I'm taking an enviromental law class this semester, which is basically just schedule filler for me, as I have no desire to practice enviromental law. Anyway, the class is going pretty well, the professor is interesting* , and the material isn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I spent about half of Monday's class stuggling to supress my desire to utterly tear into one of my fellow students, who looks like Metzger's friend Andy, and appears to knee-jerk to liberal political positions without any critical thinking. It isn't so much that I disagree with him on everything, it is truely the failure to think critically about his positions that kills me.:

Student "X": So, even if a given air pollutant only effects a couple of people with a rare disease, they have a civil right to be able to do anything a healthy person can. It is just like the ramps at the post office, we have a moral imperative to stop whatever pollution causes them to have disease and suffering.

Professor: Umm, well, what about the cost issues, I mean it was predicted to cost $2 Billion/year to institute that NAAQS control plan, and perhaps that money could be better spent.

Student "X": You can't weigh costs, that minority of people that suffer from this pollutant have a right to exactly the same jobs, and living conditions we all have. They HAVE A CIVIL RIGHT NOT TO NEED AN INHALER that is worth more than any amount of money....we can't disciminate based on medical consitions to allow our economy to function.

(At this point I'm doing all that I can not to ask Student "X" how he proposes to allow those afflicted with Down Syndrome fly the space shuttle, or a similar comment)

Professor: I know yo ufeel strongly about this, but there has to be some balancing, I mean what if the people that have that particular medical condition would rather not have the moral weight of having spent all that money...

Student "X": What they want is of no concern, the have a civil right to breathe air that doesn't make them cough, no matter how few of them there are, or what they want...

Then, class ended.


I'd like to think that I've gotten more mature because I didn't tear into Student "X", but I did watch the Porsche towing with much glee....