JD and Whatnot

Ok, so the regular update thing failed to happen. There’s been so much going on lately that the blog got de-prioritized. So here goes… First of all, I got my sheepskin. I’m a doctor of jurisprudence. Pretty wild. We even got to wear those funny, stop sign shaped hats. Seven years of higher education, tens of thousands in student loans, and I get the privilege to take a three day test for the bar. This is of course an elaborate procedure that is supposed to ensure a limited number of lawyers enter the world, artificial supply control to ensure that we get to bill for outrageous sums. Wheee!!!! In any case, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m three months away from a regular paycheck.

This brings us to the second major life event that took place the week of graduation. I’m broke; a symptom rather than the actual event. The actual event being that I bought a house, a three bedroom ranch on the outskirts of Birmingham. Way too much going on around that particular occurrence to discuss everything. One thing that struck me though is the ridiculous amount of paperwork at closing. The idea that a layperson is going to make an informed decision after reading all that is ridiculous. There is a movement in the law away from legalese and toward plain English. However, translating esoteric language doesn’t make people more competent to make decisions regarding their legal rights. The formality of letting people sign the agreement just makes us feel better about it. It’s comparable to informed consent in medicine. Allowing patients make decisions is only realistic for a fantastically small percent of the population. Untrained people are completely unequipped to look out for themselves in legal or medical situations. For that matter, lots of lawyers and doctors are completely unequipped to fend for themselves in legal or medical situations. Anyway, people are stupid, experts are less stupid. I don’t know the intricacies of how a jet works, but I trust my life to them. I think it’s foolhardy to think that I should have a say in other situations that are beyond my ken.

Second point about the house, pride of ownership aside, moving the yard still blows.