And there are no robots.

Annemarie Roeper died today.

I met Ms. Roeper only a few times, most recently over 15 years ago, so it would be disingenuous to say that she personally was a huge part of my life. But the influence of her work, her school and her ideas, on myself and countless others, could not be overstated.

Although less famous than Martin Luther King or Thurgood Marshall and less published than Douglas Adams or Christopher Hitchens, Ms. Roeper was second to no one as a clarion voice for the principles of humanism, compassion and free inquiry, and as a strident lifelong adversary to totalitarianism and dogmatism. I myself owe my life's ideas and dignity to the honorable institution she and her late husband George founded, and I'm sure that many, many other of their students could say the same. The Roeper School, which I had the privilege of attending, simultaneously fostered a profound respect for individuals, and an equally profound critical eye towards social institutions - exactly the opposite of the bias towards which the world too often trends. I have never before or since encountered an institution that so truly adhered to its stated principles. I could only wish for a life as honorable and important as hers; but if I have a chance at it, it is due to her influence.

I've bought plane tickets to travel to Princeton, NJ from May 31 to June 4, and then to Detroit until June 7. I imagine most of the time in Princeton will be occupied at the reunion (though I hardly know what I'll do there. I imagine a bunch of high-class Ivy League graduates won't have much time for a poor west coast public interest lawyer like me.). But I'd be glad to see anyone in the area, if I can.

I wonder what it means that the Oregon Bar Exam results were announced at the very minute that Reed's Thesis Parade was going on? Congratulations to all who made it through.

My car broke down tonight. In a loading zone. I'm waiting for a tow truck. (Such is the miracle of smartphones.)

This was really not a good time for this...

Update: The car is fixed. I had it towed to Repair Right Auto across from Reed, and left a note. When I called them in the morning, they'd already replaced the battery and called it good. Apparently car batteries don't normally last eight years. So the car is fine, but I'm out $300 for the tow and repair.

The Good Men Project published the article I wrote about the recent attack on abortion rights. I think this is the first time my writing has been published by someone else. You can view it here, but be warned:

... some of the people who post comments on that site are aggressively misinformed. I briefly tried debating, but I'm getting out. This is not my kind of argument. I'm accustomed to vigorous, but generally reasonable, legal arguments. I love well-meaning, clever sparring, with people you know to share your core values and trust to not take offense. I'm accustomed to people arguing on the internet in places like 4chan, where the Rules of the Internet control and the only cardinal sin is taking anything seriously ("Just post an image macro and go to the next thread."). But I'm not accustomed to places on the internet where people actually believe the idiotic things they say. In my world, trolls do it for teh lulz, not because they actually think that someone is Wrong on the Internet.

In light of the foregoing, I've decided to stop responding to comments there.

Another one of the lawyers renting my office got hired at a Real Job. (Great credit to him - he's offered to pay for the remainder of the lease term, which lasts for another few months. The rent is so cheap that it's not much of a burden, even on a PD's salary.) So we're looking for another couple of young attorneys who want to open private practices.

I posted an ad on Craigslist and something similar to OTLA. I've had a couple expressions of interest from these already - we'll have to see. But if anyone wants to open a solo practice, now is definitely the time.

This article arose out of a couple of different conversations that I had with people on web sites like Facebook, about the recent Republican attack on women's reproductive health. I put them all together into an essay and submitted it to noahbrand's new operation, the Good Man Project.

( Why good men should support women's health and choice: )

In general, I never understood the music video as an artistic genre. But I have to say: These are INCREDIBLY AWESOME:

If you're interested in probate law, or if you liked 'Arrested Development': The Shins - Simple Song

If you dislike war: 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War

If you like Edward Gorey, airships, and you know what, I don't even begin to know how to explain this: Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks

The Multnomah Bar Association just sent out its regular offer of health insurance. The MBA doesn't provide insurance coverage itself, but it offers some kind of discount plan for its members.

A review of the plan (pdf file; maybe not accessible except by email) indicates that the minimum price, for the minimum plan, for just one person, is $416 to $454 per month. With a $2,000 deductible.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to have health insurance this year.

Well, we knew this was going to happen eventually.

MSNBC has a story about homeowners in (where else?) California who have allowed an advertising firm to turn their house into a giant billboard, in exchange for mortgage payments, for a year. Apparently, theirs is the first case, a pilot program, for the ad firm; they had to apply, and compete with other struggling homeowners, to get the gig.

Arguments in favor: Anything that helps avoid foreclosures and keeps people in their homes has that much going for it. (Though the article quotes the family as saying that they plan to use their monthly $2,000 to pay down credit card debt, rather than the mortgage. Why you would do this, given bankruptcy laws, I don't understand, unless you'd already filed for bankruptcy in the past eight years or planned to lose the home anyway - possibly because it looked like a giant billboard. But then, if they lose the home before the contract expires, presumably they don't continue to get paid.) Freedom of contract, blah blah.

Arguments against: It is deeply troubling how society is witnessing a gradual decline in advertising-free spaces; and how corporate sponsorship is increasingly necessary for every endeavor - not just sports stadiums and radio stations, now, but everything including family homes. It's a major step towards the dystopian future we've all been anticipating. And there are zoning laws that will cause potential problems, and, and... after this, does it really matter? Your home is a billboard.


This weekend, I went to an Occupy Portland meetup, intending to offer advice on foreclosure defense. The meeting was about as undirected as the worst stereotypes of the Occupy movement suggest, and lacking in resources. But I'll follow up on the referrals to various organizations and see if there's anything to be done.