Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

This is Science?

This story seems to be getting a lot of play:

Long the subject of speculation, a study says dogs really do resemble their owners -- if the dogs are purebreds. University of California, at San Diego, researchers Nicholas Christenfeld and Michael Roy photographed 45 dog owners and their dogs and added 45 pictures of extra dogs. Twenty-eight judges were asked to pick the owners and their dogs.

I'm sorry but the plural of anecdote is not data. Forty-five pictures taken in one city and then studied by 28 judges (who aparently were psych students) looks an awful lot like plural anecdotes to me.

The American Constitution Society …

... is the least necessary organization in legal education. Gordon Smith explains why.

You’re fired

He may have a hit TV show, a new book and a stable of high-profile real estate, but "The Donald's" Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. may be on shaky ground. In a statement accompanying Trump Hotels' annual regulatory filing, the company's auditors, Ernst & Young, said there are conditions that "raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern." Auditors' statements in annual filings usually are standard statements; it's rare for an auditing firm to question the client's ability to continue as a company.

rare? Try almost unheard of. It's a very, very bad signal.

In Defense of Peeps

Belle Waring @ Crooked Timber slams Peeps:

Now that Easter is coming, it’s time to focus on what matters: Marshmallow Peeps. This special, nauseating American food product may be a more worthless candy than the apparently styrofoam-based Circus Peanuts. Nah, Peeps are #2; the Circus Peanuts are the worst. But did you know you can pay top dollar for gourmet passion-fruit flavored Peeps in NYC? Or that with a little Martha-like craftiness you can decorate an entire office with Peeps? Here’s my special fun-filled Peeps trick: put a marshmallow Peep in the microwave (on a plate) and set for one minute. It’s a flaming orgy of sadistic Peeps-destruction! Mel Gibson’s got nothing on me (though I doubt the edifying spectacle will cause anyone to confess to murder.)

But did you know that Peeps make mighty fine actors?

Stuart Buck

Stuart is one of my favorite blawggers, so I am very relieved and pleased to learn of his improving medical condition. Best wishes and prayers for a complete recovery.

Daschle to Block all Judicial Nominations

Daschle has made it official: The Senate Dems will now block all judicial nominations until the White House gives up its historic and clearly constituional power of recess appointments. Hence, I renew my offer to President Bush to serve as one of many conservative and libertarian recess appointments - lets flood the courts with recess appointments until Daschle gives up. [Update: No comment, except "heh."]

Still at war

As the 9/11 Commission grinds on with its increasingly partisan focus, here come some timely reminders that we should be thinking proactively rather than retroactively:

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes. Those plans were aborted mainly because of the decisive U.S. response to the New York and Washington attacks, which disrupted the terrorist organization's plans so thoroughly that it could not proceed, according to transcripts of his conversations with interrogators.

Decisive action by the Bush administration may have spared Chicago and LA, but the threat remains very real:

An al Qaeda plot to blast London was dramatically foiled by police today. Seven hundred police swooped in a series of 6am raids in the capital and the Home Counties. They found half a tonne of fertiliser explosives - enough for a series of terror "spectaculars." The terrorist suspects arrested by police are believed to have chosen "soft targets" for bombings including pubs and clubs. One of the suspects being held had a job at Gatwick Airport, immediately raising concerns over airlines and passengers. A total of eight men - all of them British citizens of Pakistani descent, three of them teenagers - were arrested in the operation, with police from five forces searching a total of 24 addresses across London and the South-East.

And:

The Philippines says it has foiled a "Madrid-level" terror attack on shops and trains in the capital Manila by arresting four suspected Islamic militants and seizing a large amount of explosives.

As Jeff Jarvis observed: "This is war. It's not an encounter session. It's war."

Insta-huh?

Prof. Reynolds is unusually cryptic, even by his standards:

SEX-IN-THE-CATHEDRAL SHOCK JOCKS OPIE AND ANTHONY ARE COMING BACK: No doubt Howard Stern will rejoice at this victory for free expression.

Personally, I prefer "sex in the cathedral" to "murder in the cathedral," but that's just me.

I don't get it. Is there some pop culture reference I'm missing? Update: Several readers suggest it is a reference to TS Eliot's short play, Murder in the Cathedral, which seems likely. I pass on, however, one reader's theory that it could be an even more obscure reference:

In 1478, Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici were attacked by members of the Pazzi family (a wealthy rival family) during mass at the Cathedral of Florence. Giuliano was killed and Lorenzo managed to escape with a wound and later solidify the power of the Medici. That was always known as the "murder in the cathedral" plot.