Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Why Aren't There More Conservative Law Professors?


You would have to have a very poor grasp of logic to come up with a nutty idea like this:
Obama clinches; Dow Jones Average drops 72 points in 9 minutes. ... This is not a particularly large drop (it's less than 1%), but the probable trigger was much clearer this time than for market responses to other primary wins and losses.
But apparently law professors aren't required to understand the difference between correlation and causation.

6 comments:

  1. It's like the classic criminal law fallacy that increased ice cream sales increases violence (the idea being that violence increases in summer/hot weather as do ice cream sales)
    The worst law professor I ever had--and that's saying something, since they all sucked ass--was this guy who was in his 70s. He had been teaching law school since 1959 (this was 1994 that I had him) and he made a comment about how formal education does not equal intelligence. Cool. Then he went on to say that his mom was very intelligent, despite only having an 8th grade education. Cool! And then he finished with, "Of course some of us still think women should only have an 8th grade education, right guy?" You could hear crickets chirp at that one. If he wasn't as old as Moses, I would have crammed my foot up his ass so hard he'd have tasted my toenails, or something similar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. . . . or that lead paint is the cause of most violent criminal behavior in the United States . . . as opposed to say, living in a slum with minimal economic opportunity or rule of law?

    CWD

    ReplyDelete
  3. . . . of course in the universe of "stupid things said and done by law professors" I'm not sure your example makes the cut for the top quarter. (The well known University of Michigan professor who stated in class that African Americans are superior athletes because of the extra bone in their ankles comes to mind . . .)

    CWD

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not "extra" bone - "longer". But... why bother.

    In fairness to conservative law professors, and some of my favorite UM Law profs were unquestionably conservative, the title of this post is more about the whiny laments about the hurdles conservatives face in the academic world, heard at sites like Volokh than it is about actual conservatives. I don't sense that J.J. White would make such a complaint, but I also don't sense that he would confuse correlation with causation.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's an admirable thing to boast, as an attorney about the quality representation you'll get because of his vast experience, but my skin crawls when I hear a Sil.ly offer to be a sex teacher/surrogate based on the same credentials, Lots of Experience. (someone elses SIL.y daughter maybe, but, oooh, but you...yoo...hooo...oooh..yuk...I'M BEGINNING TO THINK, 'I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU. LET'S LEAVE IT THAT WAY...OK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm beginning to think I should call you "Tex".

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.