Judge Miner's explanation seems perfectly reasonable. In fact, I will be using it on the first tall/hot girl I see in about an hour. Thanks Judge Miner!

new HLR pile-on post please

3:54 -- let us know how that turns out

If Miner said "good game" as well, it could all be a misunderstanding.

This question could be rephrased for most liberals as, who is more deserving of being our next president, BHO or HRC?

I honestly don't see what's wrong with the conduct of either judge.

go off yourself, 3:59. The world will be a better place.

Shenanigans! I knew it! The woman whose buttocks were touched did not file the complaint. In the great state of Texas an old judge can still get away with minor acts of piracy.

Why does everyone have to ridicule Texas? We are not a bunch of backward, redneck yahoos practicing polygemy and all. Y'all should come down here and see for yourself what a great place this is.

Judge Miner has a problem with "gender sensitivity"? What did he do that was gender insensitive? He slapped some chick's ass, he didn't grope a tranny.

Oh, no! A white republican judge talked about American slavery history and politics! I would have no problem with it if a black democrat judge talked about American slavery history and politics, but not a white republican judge! That's just horrible. I am appalled!

oh, c'mon 4:33, how would you feel if you were Jewish and he wanted to talk about pogroms, or you were Irish and he wanted to know if you had lost relatives in the potato famine? Would you think, wtf? Also, about saying he was a republican, in a lot of states, you aren't supposed to discuss politics on the bench.

I'm going to need some more information on what Judge Keis actually did. "Attempted to engage in a conversation" about slavery tells me nothing. We need some quotes here. And I don't even know what saying that he's a Republican has to do with anything. It seems kind of irrelevant but there isn't enough context in the source article to really tell what's going on.

4:52,
Actually, I am of Irish descent, and I don't see anything inappropriate about discussing the potato famine. Of course, the famine was so long ago that I have no idea if I "lost relatives" in it. I imagine that most African Americans other than Alex Haley have no idea if they lost any relatives to slavery either. Slavery happened a long time ago, too, although you'd never know it by listening to people talk about slavery as if it was happening during the Reagan adminstration.
-4:33

I wish some idiot old judge would ask me about the middle passage. I would middle passage his a$$.

taco suerte

I voted for the ass-slap, in keeping with ALT tradition:

See here http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/07/summer_associate_of_the_day.php

and here:
http://abovethelaw.com/2007/07/a_summer_associate_etiquette_m.php

I just read 5:57 and whoever you are, you are an idiot. The middle passage problem is not about how people died; it is about how people were treated. Any trip that cost 1/3rd of the lives on board, and was repeated, shows sincere disrespect for human life. And is, to me, evil. I am sure when/if your ancestors fled the potato famine to the great US of A, they didn't come in leg shackles, with not even enough room to turnover or piss without wetting your neighbor, and the women weren't raped for the pleasure of the crew on the ride over.

Get over yourself. Slavery in the United States was a terrible revelation of the depths people will go to abuse someone and yet keep them alive, and it should never be forgotten, because people are capable, believe it or not, of doing the same thing again.

Maybe if we paid a little more attention to the instances of human atrocity like the middle passage, we would be more sensitive to other situations of impending genocide or ethnic cleansing, which happen all over the world or here in the USA, and when they do, people always pretend to be surprised that something that evil and pointless could happen. In the face of all the other horrendous human atrocities, like the middle passage, that history provides us.

Slavery is not a point of guilt (so I really really wish that people would get over this issue); it is a historical fact that also reveals the way in which ordinary people are capable of hurting one another. No, most Black people do not know if they lost someone on the middle passage. But many many black people know that they would not be in the United States without it. So you can't pretend it didn't happen or forget it. Especially given the state of things with being Black in the United States. Whomever you feel is at fault, things are not good in the Black community in the United States. The Middle Passage, and it's relationship to the slavery experience as a whole, is part of a legacy of poor human relations between people whose ancestors were enslaved here in the United States and the country itself, that allowed this to happen, and embraced it as a way of land development at low costs.

And if anyone finds issue with this, and starts checking my grammar, or other such actions that people do to attack arguments that are completely unrelated to content, get a life. If you really have time to spell check my comments, you aren't going to meet your billable hour requirement, associate, and you aren't going to get an offer, summer, and you should already be studying, you pre-law school student person.

I don't see what the issue is with telling the attorney that a county is predominantly Republican. He is doing her a favor by tipping her off that the county jury pool is likely to be composed of people who do not like big jury verdicts as they want to keep their insurance costs down.

9:40, I'm pretty sure I lost some ancestral relatives to Genghis Khan's armies. Since that was horrible and can never be forgotten, I motion that we repeat the historical fact everyday, blame the Mongols for all of Russia's problems, ask for affirmative action, demand reparations, disallow anyone non-Russian from talking to me about the Mongol invasions, and self-righteously criticize anyone who dares to say that what happened centuries ago should be studied but not constantly harped upon as a bludgeon of guilt.

And in case you don't know, thousands of whites were brought over as slaves too, and their children were slaves, so don't co-opt the Middle Passage as if it only relates to the "state of being black in the United States".

The woman whose buttocks were slapped -- what race was she? Not a white woman with the flat droopy behind, obviously.

Just kidding. I think the buttocks slapping quote is the clear foot-in-mouth winner! Caveat: This excuse would never work for really short-armed slappers or anyone slapping the buttocks of super tall women. Just a tip.

1:27 - the verb form of motion is move. You meant to say that "you move that we repeat historical fact everyday, . . . " There are major substantive problems with your "argument," of course, but I thought I'd start you out on something easy. You must be a January starter. Most schools cover this in the Fall semester of first year (though maybe not Cooley).

Motion can be a verb, too.

I think I see 1:27 standing over there across the room, motioning for us to be quiet.

Of course, the notion of "motioning" a court to do something is pretty funny. Personally, I like to picture a lawyer giving the judge a Bronx cheer when someone talks about "motioning" the court.

nuru = male