Another One In the Books

2L is done. Done done done. Assuming I did not fail my Tax final, which is not an assumption I am fully comfortable with. That final was difficult. Maybe not Civ Pro I difficult, but I would give it an 8. 70 multiple choice questions: +2 for correct answers and -1 for incorrect answers. Yeah, I left a few blank. It's only worth it to guess if you have it down to 2 choices, right? I would say I was guessing between two for somewhere around 30 of the questions. So this was a serious exam. I hope I had a good guessing day. (Alright, I generally had a hunch of which was correct between the two answers, but I was not confident on a lot of questions because the professor wrote them to be intentionally tricky).
Going into the test, I was expecting to get rolling on a few questions before coming up against a toughy. Wrong. Question #1 I spent about 5 minutes on and had to come back to. The exam came out throwing punches. The only respite was a series of questions around #60 that were a bit easier (I felt, I am assuming nothing). But by that time it was quite easy to run out of steam, making the questions harder. The federal income tax is not joking around - it is rough.

Two night ago I had Crim Pro dreams. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking in the paradigm of Criminal Procedure. Everything had to be analyzed under either the 4th, 5th, or 6th Amendment. Of course, I was thinking about completely unrelated things, so this made no sense. I spent 2 minutes at 2:30 am trying to figure out whether my morning run would be a constitutional violation. It was completely bogus. My subconscious is a moron.

Did I mention that I am done? I sat at my desk and had no studying to do. (Oh wait, I do have a substantiation assignment for journal. Shhhh! Don't ruin my moment.) I caught up on some tv shows, I got a haircut, and I will soon attend a "seder" at Damien's.

Haircuts at Diego's have completely changed how I view haircuts. In a good way.

Reflections on the Semester:
Criminal Procedure - I more or less know someone's rights when they are arrested. In close calls, the police are going to win. Even in not close calls, the police will probably win. So if you are arrested, tell the police you would like to assert your right to silence and then shut up. (Yes, you must actually tell them you want to be silent. If that makes no sense, you can blame Justice Kennedy.) Also, if you are arrested in a car, you have almost no rights. However, Jay-Z was correct about the trunk: "You gonna need a warrant for that." Unless they have probable cause. Then they don't need a warrant.
Federal Income Tax - the tax system is complicated out of necessity. The tax code is long because it has a lot of loopholes to close. Tax policy is actually fairly interesting, and affects literally everything. A dinner that your company gives you might be included in your income. It is certainly Haig-Simons income (an econ thing - don't ask, Wikipedia). All in all, I think I can probably do the 1040 EZ form next year.
Law of Democracy - gerrymandering, redistricting, voting rights, and contributions are complicated. Think long and hard about them, there are upsides and downsides to any decision. Citizens United is pretty much garbage. Bush v. Gore is absolutely garbage. The Supreme Court justices involved will tell you just to get over it; I think they should get over themselves.
Lawyers, Lobbying, and the Law - bah. Joke. Waste. There is a constitutional right to lobby, get over it. And Madison knew how to right a Federalist Paper (14, in particular).

Curse you, Southwest

No more Mondays this semester. Phew. Last long day is done. You hear me? Done. One of my professors is an ex-State Department official. My mother asked me whether there was any discussion of Wikileaks publishing classified diplomatic cables. No, of course not because it won't be on the final and it could potentially be interesting. There is no place in school for such things. One day back is all it took to regain that cynicism apparently.

Not cool, Wikileaks. Not cool at all.

At the moment Southwest is my enemy. Last night my flight was delayed two hours. In addition to getting back to my apartment later than I'd like, public transportation back to DC shuts down pretty early on Sunday nights which meant that there was a distinct possibility that getting home would have been a real problem. Luckily Reza and Enoch drove me back from the airport, so I am in their debt. My initial reaction to the two hour delay was anger (go figure), but Ronya happened to be in the same terminal at the same time. So we commenced one of my favorite activities: drinking at the airport. Maybe it is the intoxicating smell of jet fuel or the profound calm that comes from watching so many tense people mulling about, but beer at the airport is just about the best thing ever.

How is it that Kanye West can be both so good and so dumb at the same time?

Today at lunch there was a conversation which occurs occasionally, the one where a New Yorker trumpets the accomplishments of his or her city and declares every other place to be irrelevant. For once another New Yorker combated this notion. Apparently he is aware that just because you can get a delicious bagel at 4am does not negate the fact that a homeless man has peed on everything in the city at one point.