Question for the upperclassmen:

If I want to interview firms that won't be coming to CLS for EIP, when is the proper time to send them my resume/cover letter?

None of the firm websites that I've looked at answer this question. I've asked career services, but they've not yet responded....

Various and Sundry Teas

Green tea is the big craze in my office right now. Robeks (smoothie store like Jamba Juice) has this green tea smoothie that everyone keeps getting. I was at Starbucks on a firm-sponsored "coffee break," and when they didn't have my beloved apple cider (about which I was distraught), I ordered chai tea, thinking that was my best shot at being "kosher." I got back to my office, and discovered (I think) that chai tea is not okay, and so had to throw away my $4.00 cup.

I've always thought that "herbal" tea and "fruit" tea are okay, whereas "black" tea was not. I've never known about "green" or "chai." My limited googling seems to suggest that chai is based on black tea, and is therefore not okay. Green tea is distinct from black, and the way the tea is prepared seems to have caffeine, but green tea extract may not (this is unclear to me). If green tea extract has no caffeine, is it then okay to drink it? If it has only a little amount, is it okay to get a green tea smoothie? Green tea is supposedly wildly healthy--all sorts of antioxidants and such.

Has anyone thought about this?

Whither conservatism?

So, I've been trying to think of something controversial to blog about (per Cliff's original request) for the last several days. It's tough. This appears a season of conclusions -- the trick is finding the new, important controversy (e.g. "42" -- but what's the question?).

So, to turn you all into temporary pundits, I'd like to ask the following: whither conservatism? I.e. where did the most intellectually vibrant policy agenda of the last quarter century go wrong, and what is to be done about it?

I think it's obvious that conservatism is in crisis. To think otherwise (a la the Provo residents in the article Nancy highlighted) is just playing silly buggers (yes, I will afflict you with English-isms for the foreseeable future). The current administration's appalling corruption and ineptitude, however, is not the real issue in my view. The problem is conservatism's failure to produce new ideas to answer new problems.

It is too late at night for me to want to explain how conservatism has failed to provide efficacious new ideas for the following major issues. You will have to either assume the failure with me or imagine my reasoning (or just go read Fukuyama's latest attempt to save face -- it's suggestive). I'll get around to it, I promise. My purpose, anyway, is to instigate one of those roiling, maddening free-for-alls of yore (though it would be nice to come short of calling each other "cowards"). That said, the big recent issues, where conservatism has failed markedly:

1. Terrorism and globalization (they go hand-in-hand).
2. Fiscal policy (assume that the recent spate of Republican spending sprees does not result from a crop of exceptionally profligate politicians -- rather, it may be either an indication that government does need to be "big" or that conservative fiscal restraint is a doctrine about as realistic as clerical celibacy).
3. Growing economic inequality (I expect our budding cadre of tax lawyers to speak up here).

There are others, of course, but those are the three that I'm most interested in.

mcj

Earning Your Keep?

About this time last year, I remember Nancy canvassing the JReubs for the top office view. So, with that in mind: how is your summer going?

1. How's the view?
2. How's the work?
3. How are the people?
4. The location?
5. What are your plans?

For those of us splitting, the questions above are only preliminary, of course. That doesn't mean you shouldn't pipe up now. We won't hold you to it. (This means, though, that we'll be getting new reflections on these questions from Phil well into November).

Though the questions are rather bland (I'm sure you will spice them up in due course), I think our answers will serve not only as a tool to maintain our respective superiority complexes but also as an indication to the incoming 1Ls of what fabulous riches, travels, and assorted status symbols await them. Anyway, if we keep talking about class selection, they may bail before they get here.

mcj