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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

"your comments about spiking footballs seem distinctly un-professorial"

In my post yesterday about the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturning Judge Sumi, I opined:
This is a sweeping victory for Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker. (And for my prior legal anaylsis, but that's another matter. I'll be spiking the football, for sure.)

....

Okay, analysis done, now I spike the football by referencing my prior posts...
In response, I received this email (emphasis mine):
Dear Professor Jacobson:

Do you hail from Wisconsin (as I do)? I'm perplexed by your interest in Wisconsin constitutional and administrative law. Surely everybody else at Cornell could not care less.

My views upon your espoused opinions aside, your comments about spiking footballs seem distinctly un-professorial, but I suppose matters of style are not for me to judge.

Curiously yours, Professor _______

Adjunct Professor
U.C. Hastings College of the Law
Reaction?

Here's mine:
Ya see, this is what blogging does to the mind. It's not my fault. I'm a victim.

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66 comments:

  1. Professor Gasbag (U.C. Hastings): providing my daily reminder of why I did not stay in the academy after obtaining my Ph.D. I would have lost my mind surrounded by people like that. Kudos to you Professor. I don't know how you do it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the giggles professor. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Ya see, this is what blogging does to the mind. It's not my fault. I'm a victim."

    Perhaps you should seek rehab?

    ;-)

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  4. You spike the football every chance you get. Your blog is by far my favorite read of the day. I always learn something and get more than a few laughs in the bargain.

    You other Prof Jacobson stalkers, consider a subscription. It is money well spent.

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  5. Do you hail from Wisconsin (as I do)? I'm perplexed by your interest in Wisconsin constitutional and administrative law. Surely everybody else at Cornell could not care less.

    I'll remember that the next time the next time the national media and outside political groups go berserk over something that happens in Texas.

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  6. This just made my whole day! Thanks for your hilarious response to this dullard.

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  7. Please oh please post the name and e-mail address of that Hastings stuffed shirt. He needs a poke in the ribs to take the hot air out
    Please?!

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  8. Perhaps the good professor from U.C. Hastings didn't appreciate the issues in the case. Whenever a court makes a decision that weakens the rule of law, I'm saddened. When courts restore the rule of law, I'm heartened. That's true even if the courts are not in my home state. I'll admit that I might feel more strongly about things if the courts are in my home state, but I've enough empathy for my fellow beings that I care whether they live under the rule of law or not.

    And, it was the rule of law that was being undermined by Judge Sumi's attempt to use judicial power to set aside the will of the legislature despite clear precedent stating NO court had the authority to do what she was attempting to do. Our system of government cannot (long) survive if it were acceptable for our judges to overrule the legislature on matters of policy. We'd be ruled by judges and not by our elected representatives.

    The good professor from U.C. Hastings may not care about such matters. I do. A lot.

    I'm a happy camper today. Please spike the ball, again, for me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the giggles professor. ;)

    Giggles? I'm laughing my butt off. Well done Professor. I commend you.

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  10. Nonny nonny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo. Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, I lost my composure for a moment :D

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  11. Curiously yours

    Really? Ew. Sounds like some signoff from a "Letters to Penthouse" forum.

    Not that I would know.

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  12. Yes, but randomly writing law-prof bloggers as the judge for what is or is not professorial is itsel professorial? Please. Clearly a sore loser with the emphasis on loser.

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  13. "I suppose matters of style are not for me to judge"

    ...so I'll just do it anyway . That's how profs roll.

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  14. Thanks for the morning laugh Professor. A perfect response to the stuffed shirt. Spike on!!

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  15. This has got to be a hoax, right? Too funny

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  16. @ Professor Jacobson

    So .... have you been saving the dancing dinosaur for some time waiting for just the right moment to deploy or did you go find it after you got Professor Pompous's e-mail?

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  17. Heh. Awesome. Judge Sumi didn't just get overruled she got spanked. Like Professor Gasbag wouldn't do the same but worse if this happened at other end of the field.

    Keep up the great work.

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  18. Muhahaha! That's too funny! I love Legal Insurrection and I check in several times a day. Keep it up!

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  19. Hilarious! And that professor, IMHO, knows exactly why this is extremely important - not only in WI and here in NY but all across the fruited plain! This is a very critical domino knocked down, hopefully the first of many. This seriously kicks lefties and union-lovers where it hurts, and if this guy is a professor he's smart enough to recognize that.

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  20. You don't spike the football when you have slogged down the field three yards at a time, with the refs not calling any penalties except against your team & you make it into the end zone by pushing the football over the goal line with one hand with time running out. You say a grateful prayer.

    Three judges out of seven on the Wisconsin SC think that they are the first among what were once equal branches of government. Wisconsin is one vote away from government by judiciary. This is not good.

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  21. Hey,Professor _______
    Adjunct Professor
    U.C. Hastings College of the Law

    Is the water nice and warm in your little fish bowl? Do you not see the national implications of the Wisconsin Temper Tantrum?

    Come up for air once in a while and look around Prof. Blank.

    You will soon see that there is no more money, none!

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  22. Yeah, I am sure that none of the liberal profs at Cornell could care less about the fate of the labor laws in Wisconsin. My guess is that more than just a handful had serious indigestion over the ruling. And I love that an adjunct, no less, is deciding what is professorial and what is not - said professor needs to remove stick from orifice.

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  23. Translated:

    Dear Professor Jacobson:

    Boo-hoo-hoo! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

    [*tantrum tantrum tantrum

    STOMPS FEET

    THROWS SELF TO GROUND FLAILING ARMS AND LEGS]

    *sobs*
    You AWFUL conservative! I hate you for being right, and you're immature, too!

    Boo-hoo-hoo! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

    Petulantly yours, Professor _______

    Adjunct Professor
    U.C. Hastings College of the Law

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  24. "...so I'll just do it anyway . That's how profs [t]roll."

    Fixed it for you.

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  25. Did he just use a chicken-hawk-like obfuscation? You can't care about politics unless you are [a soldier, friend/father/relative of a soldier; a woman, off-white, off-sex; from this place, this zipcode, living on this side of the tracks...]

    Liberals live in such small worlds. No wonder they think they can understand - and, more, master - any of it. Sad, deluded, puffed-up little people.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Well, Twitossus Maximus of Hastings, I DO live in Wisconsin, as do most of my children. We DO pay taxes in this State--a lot of them. And we DO have more than a passing concern over separation-of-powers issues.

    BTW, Sumi was not "slapped." She was bashed, as in bunny-bash (a Wisconsin thannng.)

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  27. Haha, great fun.

    But for the benefit of the UC Hastings Prof who will likely read this:

    1. How does 'hailing' from a state make an interest in one of its court cases more professorial? Hailing from a state does not imbue you with a special personal connection to all of its court decisions.

    2. Legal scholarship generally inspires interest in court decisions outsides one's own jurisdiction (even outside one's nation). They can provide persuasive authority. There is sometimes a broader political significance, as in this case.

    3. If matters of style are not yours to judge, don't judge 'em. Perhaps you're a very buttoned-up sort of lady/fellow. But no...not every person or person who becomes a professor is going to be as restrained in showing a little humor or personality.

    Now I'm sure everybody at Hastings could care less about the court decision in Wisconsin. I'm sure that when you bring it up they all look at you disdainfully as if you're reading stereo instructions.

    You should be thankful that Prof Jacobson was 'professorial' (since we're in a habit of misusing the term) enough to omit your name.

    The next time you might engage Prof Jacobson on the legal and policy merits as well as political significance in future correspondence. That would not at all be curious or unprofessorial of you.

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  28. Hastings Doofus maybe doesn't realize that what happens at the state level often has national repercussions, especially when Big Labor is staking its future on the outcome. Why else would players on both sides of the issue be focusing national attention on it?

    Dying in the private sector, the only way Big Labor will grow is to infest and national state governments and use their political influence to force governments to deal more with unionized contractors for state contracts.

    Thanks for the video. I'll hopefully have many occasions to use it myself.

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  29. Adjunct professor? Who would claim that as a title? I'm not sure Hastings would stand behind the opinion of an adjunct.

    Wasn't Obama an adjunct professor as well??

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  30. "Espoused opinions" is redundant and repetative.

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  31. I've known Hastings faculty to be fun hogs of the first order. How did this twit sneak in?

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  32. I'm pretty sure if I ever need an attorney I want one who rejoices in victory!

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  33. I could almost feel sorry for this person, because they are so obviously unaware of how their scorn betrays their wounded personal feelings, and how their pretense of being "curious" and "perplexed" makes it even more glaringly apparent.

    But you can't feel sorry for someone who combines that with nasty wishful thinking, because it is also obvious that they would like to see Prof. J. suffer professional harm, and maybe more than professional harm.

    It's an attempt to bully, but it's the bullying of a child. This is becoming a very familiar behavior.

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  34. So .... have you been saving the dancing dinosaur for some time waiting for just the right moment to deploy or did you go find it after you got Professor Pompous's e-mail?

    That's not a dinosaur, that's Charmander!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Prof. Jacobson:

    You ROCK!

    Yours,

    David Rogers, atty at law, MPW, holder of poetic license, and aspiring pompous windbag (hey, do you think that Hastings guy has room for an intern?)

    ReplyDelete
  36. He's a concern troll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)#Concern_troll), one of the more annoying of the species. Best to ignore or mock (as you are doing).

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  37. The leftist mobs bussed in by national private sector unions from all over the country to Madison for the purpose of intimidating public officials from carrying out their duly elected legislative duties turned this into a national story.

    The fact that Democrat Senators ran away from home like spoiled children to try to stop the duly elected representatives of the people from enacting legislation turned this into a national story.

    The fact that disgruntled far left throw-backs from the 1960s occupied the state capital for weeks on end turned this into a national story.

    So the line, "I'm perplexed by your interest in Wisconsin constitutional and administrative law" is, frankly, total horseshit.

    I think the complaining professor employed by a public university in CA sees the writing on the wall and realizes the gravy train he's been riding in CA is eventually going to be detoured like the gravy train in WI was. And he doesn't much like it.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Surely everybody else at Cornell could not care less.

    Surely? According to Cornell's website, there are 20,000 students at Cornell, which implies thousands of faculty members and additional thousands of non-faculty researchers, deans, etc. But the good professor (and I'll note in passing that Hastings is a law school, so he's a law professor) is sure that "everybody else at Cornell could not care less."

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  39. Harvard, Yale, Stanford...

    Hastings?

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  40. Wow. This almost replaced my daily '"go-to-my-happy" place, leekspin.com.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Passive Aggressive much Professor _______?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Lawsuits are a form of competition. Celebrations of winning are human nature.

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  43. I am sure you misjudge the man. He undoubtedly shares your point-of-view entirely and wants only that you put your best food forward. There is no chance whatsoever that his opinions on the political issues have influenced his criticism in any way.

    BTW - we know that women can also be arrogant. But we are all (myself included) certain this adjunct professor is male. Women would express arrogance in correspondence differently.

    wv: mancluch

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  44. Here's a little update on the speculation/concern that the Secretary of State (WI)would not publish the law:

    Doug La Follette: 'I will publish' the law on June 28

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  45. Even after a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust drive down the field ... yes, spike the football!

    It inspires others to press on, on their own drives ... and lets the opposition know that they can neither discourage nor dissuade us from taking them on; that we have the confidence that we are right in our convictions, and know it.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Everyone who weighed in on, protested against, and demonized the Arizona immigration law was from Arizona, right? I would be totally perplexed by anyone else taking any interest in that matter. Surely people not from Arizona could care less.

    ReplyDelete
  47. BTW - we know that women can also be arrogant. But we are all (myself included) certain this adjunct professor is male. Women would express arrogance in correspondence differently.

    Sure we do, sweety.


    ;^p

    ReplyDelete
  48. "..., but I suppose matters of style are not for me to judge...."


    Liberals spent 50 years pointing out no one is supposed to judge, so yes, you can't. Your rules.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Professor, you have just won the Internet. And I intend to make sure everyone knows it. *grins*

    P.S.

    How DID you find that video?

    ReplyDelete
  50. Shame on you, Professor Jacobson, you really should know that political interest and intellectual curiosity should be determined by what others at your univ are interested in and from whence you hail. Everyone knows this. I, personally, always check with my colleagues to find out what I should be interested in and comment on, then I do a quick check to make sure that the issue involves the state in which I was born. Geesh! Get with the program.

    ReplyDelete
  51. adjunct

    Heck that isn't even a real one.

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  52. Yes, we are quite sure that if Gov Walker (and the people of WI) lost in the Supreme Court, that professor would have spiked the football a million times. But there's no joy in Mudville, the mighty Sumi has struck out.

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  53. From the article linked by Alan Markus:

    Once the bill is published, there is an expectation that new legal challenges will be filed in court.

    Here we go again? Is LaFollette slow rolling publication to give the bill's opposition time to get a new suit ready to go? Sure looks like it. Since Sumi's order was void "ab initio", and the 10 day period has long passed, La Follette seems like a petulant loser by delaying publication until the 29th.

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  54. Prof. Pompous (UC Hastings) reminds me of a tweet from MK Hamm when it suddenly became obvious that Prosser would win: "Local election with national implications about to have no implications at all."

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  55. Unfortunately, I can't see Youtube videos from the computer I'm on. I'll have to check back later tonight.

    But, from previous remarks in this thread, I think my originally intended comment is unnecessary.

    I was going to say... if someone is complaining about spiking the football, it's time for a touchdown dance.

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  56. i would have gone with junior senior myself.

    good times.

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  57. My recommendation for your curiously sniveling counterpart at Hastings would be to start a blog.

    And given the distinctive underlying tone of that communication, I'd even be willing to recommend a catchy title.

    How's this?

    Pro·fes·so·ri·al Jeal·ou·sy

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  58. UC Hastings -> San Francisco.

    Figures. I wonder if the CA constitution would allow the same strategy that worked for Gov. Walker in WI. The possibility probably scares the pee out of the adjunct prof.

    May sanity return here to the land of fruits and nuts.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Seriously, what is wrong with acknowledging when you are right and proclaiming it by 'spiking the football'? Did this other professor feel the sinking feeling of loss and therefore when confronted with an opposing view that is right gets twerked at the fact that someone else is correct?

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  60. I agree with the professor from Hastings. You should absolutely not spike the football. Instead you should hold a nationally televised rally at Ground Zero, which no less an authority than our esteemed President has declared is not spiking the football.

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  61. Dear Chicago Bears Wide Receiver:

    Do you hail from Wisconsin (as I do)? I'm perplexed by your interest in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, Packers' nickel and zone defenses. Surely everybody else on the Chicago Bears team could not care less.

    My views upon your offensive moves aside, your spiking the football after your touchdown scores seems distinctly un-professional football, but I suppose matters of celebratory style are not for a dork like me to judge.

    Quite curiously yours, Professor ___________.

    P.S. Please share this with your running backs, as I am pressed for time and still have yet to email at least a dozen more teams. Talk to you again next week !!

    LukeHandCool ( who thinks Professor Jacobson should print out adju-prof's email and frame it. Then, any time Professor J. is feeling down, he can just walk over to that framed email on the wall and have a good laugh).

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  62. I regret to say that I have that Tiny Tim record.

    ReplyDelete