126--

Your insightful, cogent, high-brow criticism has shown me the light. You must be an FTT grad.

Given your gratuitous use of "retarded" as a self-deluded, unsuccessful attempt to insult me, would you also like to add a racial or homophobic bomb as well?

NYU made things a LITTLE easier? Really Elie, I like your work, but that description is ridiculously hyperbolic. I've already shown in a prior post that NYU has a target of over 60% B+ in every class (can go even higher). That's not grade inflation, that's a farce, which is only less inane than the fact that NYU is still considered an elite school.

I still remain amazed that the self-crowned "elite" schools have been able to continue the prevarication that they actually reward merit. No matter how low these anti-meritocratic hackeries stoop to pander to their lowest common trust-funded blue blood, it won't matter because of the revolving door incestuous policies in private practice, federal clerkships, and government work. The FTT graduates who have stolen democracy from the masses continue to perpetuate their stranglehold, not because they earned it, but because the system is stacked against those who actually earned their keep at an institution that actually practices merit-based grading.

I'm all for the hedge fund billionaire playing cards--it would be just like those Iraqi criminal/terrorist playing cards our troops received in 2003. That way, the American people could remember the faces of the most amoral, self-entitled, greedy thieves of our time.

My four aces: Bernie Madoff, Raj Rajaratnam, Ralph Cioffi, and Matthew Tannin.

Althouse remarkably manages to write an even more incoherent commentary than George Will's "The Last Word." Let me break down the issue in simpler terms:

--Carrie Prejean proves herself unable to coherently answer Perez Hilton's rather simple question, tripping over her own words in an instant beauty pageant classic.

--Prejean is not selected as the winner of said beauty pageant.

--Prejean instantly claims that she was "punished" for expressing her "First Amendment rights." She takes advantage of her newfound celebrity status by becoming a political spokesperson.

--Sick of Prejean's crusade, Donald Trump dings her for breaking her contract in innumerable ways (which she did).

--Prejean brings suit, but apparently forgets that those in glass houses should not throw stones. She settles for a mere $100,000, which covers all her attorney expenses. (Seems pretty generous when she didn't even have a claim to begin with, no?)

(1) Prejean did not win the competition because she came off as the dumbass that she is. If she would have given the same incoherent answer, except that she supported "same marriage," she would not have won.

(2) Even if she did not win because she only supports opposite marriage, that is not a First Amendment right. The First Amendment protects you from the government, not from a private beauty pageant. Twit.

(3) Let's presume I'm wrong. So what? Why is it that Carrie Prejean should have unfettered ability to express her ideas in a private forum with impunity, but the heads of that private organization should be foreclosed from expressing their views by not choosing someone against same-sex marriage to represent their organization?

(4) Prejean got what she deserved. When you cry wolf, play the media, claim the moral high ground, and turn yourself into a political spokesperson, you have no right to bitch when someone calls you out for making child pornography and getting a boob job. No private life when you're in the spotlight? You, Prejean, of all people, should have known that.

Re: Diane Cannon

To use a version of Rush Limbaugh's joke from a few weeks ago, "I don't care whether it's true, because I know that's what Sidley Austin does."

FTT-ridden BigLaws draft unprofessional, sarcastic briefs all the time. Apparently to the degenerate FTT mind, if it can be called that, invective is an adequate substitute for legal research and reasoning. Not that it surprises me, given that the "professionals" behind the briefs are invariably self-entitled FTT hacks who believe they are god-like nephilim due to their performances on a three-hour test. Wonder if clients realize what their $500 an hour is paying for...

Here's a hint for those FTTs reading these comments: Westlaw and Lexis both have locate functions. For an extra 30 minutes, and at no extra charge, you can find cases relating to the specific issue involved to incorporate into that garbage you call a brief. This is far more persuasive than simply block-quoting the general rule for "work product doctrine" and then calling opposing counsel a douchebag for asking you to turn something over.

46--

We know where most of the chickenhawks on this blog come from--anti-meritocratic FTT incest houses. In their world, snarky, argumentative statements are even better than actual legal analysis. Hardly unexpected, given that none of them ever received a legal education but nonetheless were given incessant praise as being the "best and the brightest" the legal profession had to offer. The revolving door keeps on turning...

Any case involving two FTT firms eventually devolves into a pissing match, where the real fights become over who is being more disrespectful of "clearly" established law rather than the merits of their respective clients' positions. I wouldn't entrust a client's case to an FTT any more than I would to my cat. Correction: I would rather entrust it to my cat, because at least my client wouldn't look like a nefarious bloodsucker on account of blithering counsel.

4--

Worse. A bunch of bitchy, unemployed FTT law students who feel that a three-hour test performance entitles them to $170,000+ a year troll the comments and say that you are "too liberal." My guess is if any of them had to work an honest day in their lives, they might not be quite so deranged.

3--

In total agreement. Our soldiers, by and large, get shit on, and I have every respect for the proud JAG officers that help as much as humanly possible to perform much needed legal work on their behalves. Meanwhile, elitist FTT hacks, whose only show of patriotism is waving small flags on three obligatory holidays while bitching about taxes that support VA health care, denigrate JAGs as "beneath them" or "for the TTTs."

To those reading these comments who have served or are serving in our military--thank you for your service. In all seriousness. To JAGs in particular, you are fine examples of what the legal profession could be at its best. I hope the rest of us eventually live up to your example.

20, 21--

You are correct, my language could be construed as applying to you. I assure you I had no intent and apologize for any ambiguity.

If you've seen my prior comments, you hopefully know that my attacks are devoted to self-entitled, elitist FTT blue bloods who are placed in BigLaw solely due to revolving-door FTT incest policies rather than actual merit or, in the alternative, to FTTs who devote their careers to corporate criminal enabling.

This certainly does not encompass all graduates of, say, Harvard or Yale, nor does it encompass all BigLaw employees. I think, with few exceptions, it is safe to say that anyone who has served our armed forces has earned his or her keep and proven capable of excelling in a real world, often high-pressure situation. If veterans such as yourselves constituted the BigLaw ranks as a general matter, Res Ipsa, as an ironic reactive character, would most likely cease to exist.

Again, thank you for your service.

33--

Way to steal my thunder...at least you forgot to mention that HLS also pumps out criminal corporate enablers at a higher rate than any law school in the country.

Nonetheless, I vote you for the win.

45--

The all-caps really makes your otherwise conclusory non-sequitur more persuasive.

Brings back good memories of my clerking days, when FTTs would perfunctorily submit briefs that would capitalize, underline, and bold certain parts of a contract, statute, case, etc. Amazingly enough, the emphasized portions of the text were often insignificant or, in some cases, actually antithetical to the litigant's position.

Further proof of the self-entitlement complex by FTT hacks. Apparently $39,600 annually to sit on their asses is not enough, and God forbid they have to join the hoi poloi and do food service or something to supplement that free money. Or, if the thought of getting a job--yes, even one that those filthy plebeians usually take--had never occurred to said FTT degenerates, this goes to prove my point that they can't think their way out of a cardboard box.

I hope the irony isn't lost on this comment board that the same asinine hacks that degrade people for taking out loans for homes that, it turns out, they couldn't afford (despite the nice banker expert telling them they could) are now whining about their own loans for degrees that, it turns out, they couldn't afford (despite the nice FTT career services expert telling them that they could).

I guess those students who opted for state schools--sometimes with money--over FTTs weren't so "TTT" in hindsight. After all, they can live on a prosecutor's salary fairly comfortably without defaulting. Even in New York or Chicago.

226--

Res Ipsa is an ironic character made possible only by the presence of other self-entitled, FTT hacks perfunctorily posting their own asinine tripe on this blog. Honestly, how many comments have you seen that include "TTT" or some derivative? How many commenters degrade those who went to state school or something that isn't considered "T14" under a ranking system even more flawed than the BCS? If you're going to be a curmudgeon, at least be equal opportunity. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

By the way, Ernest Hemmingway wants his writing style back.

A few weeks of this boring, hackneyed, absurd tripe is a few weeks too many. This is even worse than when I subjected myself to Saira Rao's unintelligible ramblings. Clearly FTT writing, except without the sophomoric pot shots and bold, underlined, capitalized emphases every other paragraph.

ATL: Even if your loyal readers don't click on the link, we still have to see this abomination on the home screen. Please discontinue this garbage.

Re: Utah college student can't use "global warming defense"

Uh...yeah. In other news, you can't block access to a nuclear power plant or firebomb a polluting factory based on alleged environmental necessity.

@38: NU is WAYYY overrated as a law school.

You are correct, good sir (or ma'am), but not nearly as overrated as every school "ranked" above it on US News. At least Northwestern recruits a sizeable number of students who have actually done something with their lives after undergrad, rather than a bunch of "studies"-majored hacks who had a great attention span for three hours.

The hilarious thing about the Van Zandt approach to rankings, however, is that it is precisely how the US News (or Super Lawyer) ranking system works in practice. If the legal profession were based on merit, any unbiased law school ranking system would have Harvard, NYU, Yale, and Stanford far outside of the top 10. Their legal "education" is not worth the paper it is printed on, but their self-crowned superiority nonetheless is continued through overvaluing "pedigree"--an invented elitist term--over actual ability.

Any other type of study based upon that degree of hearsay, anecdote, and ipse dixit would be thrown out as completely unreliable. But since FTTs have stolen academia and the Am100--well, I guess then it's valid, because they say so.

79--

That is, without question, the most incoherent critical comment I have ever received on this blog, and I've received quite a few. (It IS critical of me, right?)

As I am a fan of second-grade level hate from self-entitled FTT mental degenerates such as yourself, would you please rephrase it so that it actually makes sense?

36--

You have about a 95% chance of being correct. Almost no one gets into Harvard on merit. Most get in because they had a good three hour test session and had an undeserved GPA at a "top" undergraduate school thanks to ludicrous grade inflation in a major ending in a "studies" or, alternatively, in a major ending in "science" that doesn't result in a B.S. For those who couldn't even accomplish that, there's always daddy's phone call.

I'll give credit where it's due, however--at least Harvard has the decency of recognizing its anti-meritocratic bent by not issuing letter grades anymore. Now it will be impossible to separate the studious hacks from the idle, borderline-alcoholic hacks.

45/60--

Negative, 45 did not pay attention in Con Law. By reporting a commenter, Elie would not be violating free speech, because:

(1) The First Amendment applies to the government, not individuals or private entities. ATL is not an agent of the government. Amateur mistake--same one Prejean and Palin made.

(2) The commenter section of this blog is ATL's, not a public forum. Elie can restrict or report whomever he wants.

Say it with me now..."CONGRESS shall make no law"...

Uh...26...the two teams started playing each other in the 1870s, making it the oldest rivalry in college sports. Hence why it is known as "The Game."

I also believe that Harvard has the oldest college football program in the country.

Despite that I'm an unabashed critic of FTTs, I'll give them credit (in the few cases) where it's due. It is one of the best rivalries in college sports, and the only one where trash talk features such gems as "your mother clips coupons!".