To:  Elizabeth Warren,
Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Dear Prof. Warren:

I am a third year undergraduate at a university in Michigan.  Given your background, I am taking the liberty of writing you for advice.

As you undoubtedly are aware, in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), the US Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action admission policy, ruling that the school and the state had a compelling interest in class diversity.

There have been quite a few hard feelings in this state since then, as a significant number of applicants with higher Grade Point Averages and test scores have been denied admission to UMich Law in favor of minority students with less stellar applications.

I have several questions for you:

1.  My great grandparents lived in an Eastern European country where they were definitely part of a minority.  If we were a minority in the Baltic Area, is there any provision in American jurisprudence under which we/I could qualify as a minority here?

2.  A significant part of my family emigrated to South Africa from Eastern Europe.  I have studied pictures of these relatives and ancestors, finding that some of them had flat noses, just like all the Africans.  Would this qualify me as an African American?

(Of course some of the noses were flattened by two-by-fours swung at them by folks chasing them out of one location or another.  But we should try every avenue of opportunity, shouldn’t we?)

3.  I note that much of your academic research is focused on bankruptcy and commercial law, especially as regards troubled companies.  http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=82

I have several questions in this regard.  First of all, a pension program for benefit of several of my friends and family members had holdings in the secured debt of Chrysler Corporation before the auto reorganizations.   This debt was supposed to have been secured by all the hard assets of Chrysler, to be paid off in a manner senior to the junior debt holders.

My understanding is that your friend, President Obama, arranged for a reorganization which all but wiped out the secured holders (including pension beneficiaries), giving much of the stock to the company’s labor unions which were not secured creditors.  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7731226&page=1#.T6Rywdl0SSo

Do you think that this was a) fair; or b) an aberration of American creditor/debtor law.

Do you think that shares now held by the UAW and its friends should be delivered back to the pension type investors who thought they were secured?

I see also that you are a specialist in what is described as ‘small business bankruptcy”.  I am curious to know whether this is because you are studying it or because you and those of your party are causing it?

Finally, I too think I have high cheekbones.  Do you think that it would be possible as a result of this to get my family a charter to operate Indian casinos?  It wouldn’t have to be in Michigan.  We would be flexible on relocating.

Thank you in advance for the courtesy of a reply.  Best wishes in your upcoming contest.

Ash

This is the crime http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20120320_11_A1_ULNSet211200&PrintComments=1

They met on a blind date on Thanksgiving 1946, and within a month, Bob and Nancy Strait were married.

For 65 years, the couple lived a happy life in Tulsa, raising their children and sharing their kindness with their family and everyone they met.

“In the evenings, that’s what we did: sit on the porch and pick guitar and sing,” said Lanora, one of their daughters.
Last week, that long marriage and happy family were torn apart by an apparent home invasion that left both Bob, 90, and Nancy Strait, 85, severely beaten. Nancy Strait died from her injuries. Bob Strait survived with a broken jaw and ribs and severe bleeding. Lanora said he could be released from the hospital sometime this week.

Here are some details:

Bob Strait was shot in the face with his own BB gun and suffered a broken jaw and cracked ribs.   Nancy was sexually assaulted and died of her injuries the following day.

Their assailants reportedly made off with the Straits’ television, a BB gun, and the couple’s Dodge Neon.

Police later charged Tyrone Dale Woodfork with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and burglary in the case.  They say he was apprehended a short distance from the house, having just sold the victim’s television for $250 at a neighborhood gas station.

A British newspaper reports:

According to police reports, a witness spotted the Straits’ stolen car on Thursday afternoon and alerted the police. Officers stopped the car and took several people into custody. All but Woodfork were released.

A photo of Woodfork released by officials in Oklahoma seems to indicate that if Barack H. Obama had had a son, the boy would have looked like Woodfork.

Pictures of the defendant and victims are here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/strait.asp#lmiotDQ35gGZDCpD.01

Here is the what:

Homer Wright says he won’t hesitate to buy another gun — or use it to defend himself or his South Side tavern.

The 81-year-old Englewood man who shot a teen who allegedly had broken into his home said Monday he was happy that weapons charges against him were dropped, but he was annoyed that cops had seized his gun.

Here is the Who

Anthony Robinson, 19, was trying to break into Wright’s home behind the tavern to steal liquor about 6:30 a.m. March 26 when Wright shot him in the ankle, authorities said.

Robinson, of the 6600 block of South Wood, was charged with burglary.

Here is the real America:

After Wright was charged, family and neighbors rallied around him. They said he has run Sheree’s Past Time tavern in the front of his home and lived in the back with his wife and family for more than 40 years.

And here is the Question of the Day:

Having spoken up for a 16-year old expelled high school student,  in whose locker was found burglar tools, unexplained female jewelry, and evidence of stored drugs,  isn’t it time, Mr. President, to speak up for an 81-year business owner who has been targeted again and again by young thugs?

Here is the link http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/11670014-418/ill-buy-another-gun-vows-senior-who-lost-his-after-shooting-intruder.html

An open microphone gave the world today some idea of what Barrack Husein Obama might do if unfettered by the need to run for re-election.

Speaking with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the Seoul meetings of world leaders, our President addressed Russia’s hopes that we neuter the missile shield defenses planned for Europe.

Not realizing he was on live mike, our President told Medvedev for relay to Vladimir Putin:

On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space….

This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibity.

The morning news program I saw this on commented that the remark is being discussed world wide.

I am sure that amongst the places it is a subject of discussion:  Tel Aviv, London, Warsaw.

The world, and Americans, deserve better than this.

http://news.yahoo.com/president-obama-asks-medvedev-space-missile-defense-election-101729176–abc-news.html

Perhaps you have read of hazing charges at a Dartmouth fraternity.

Here, from the student newspaper, www.thedartmouth.com, is the case

The Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Office has charged 27 members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity with hazing violations during the fall 2011 pledge term, charges that could lead to the students’ suspension or permanent separation from the College if they are found responsible, according to SAE president Brendan Mahoney ’12.

Mahoney said that administrators told him that former SAE member Andrew Lohse ’12 had submitted statements to the College accusing the fraternity of hazing.

You’ve got to love the concluding sentence in the referenced article:

Lohse declined to comment for this article, citing an exclusive arrangement with Rolling Stone magazine.

We assume Lohse dropped a dime on his former frat brothers, looking forward now to a job in magazine publishing at Rolling Stone.

Wanna bet this Lohse guy surfaces in something a year or two out?  Not the kind of guy I would hire or associate with.

http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/07/news/sae

I tried finding the following story on NYTimes.com

BLANCHARD, OK., (Indiana’s NewsCenter)— 18 year old Sarah McKinley said she did what she had to do to protect her new baby The recently widowed mom killed an intruder on New Year’s Eve after a 911 operator told her, “Do what you have to do to protect your baby.”

Sarah McKinley, who was alone with her 3-month-old son in their Blanchard home, McKinley says two men — one of whom she had met previously — appeared at her door Saturday night and then tried to break in. Two days earlier, she had buried her husband, who died of cancer on Christmas Day.

It’s supposed to be somewhere under Times Topics, one of the Oklahoma stories.

I also tried finding it on MSNBC.com’s web page.  A search through their internal server brought the above story.  But nothing highlighted.

One man — identified as 24-year-old Justin Martin — had come by Thursday to express condolences. But Saturday, armed with a foot-long hunting knife, he and his partner attempted to break down McKinley’s door. She blocked it with her couch, grabbed her baby and fetched a 12-gauge shotgun and a handgun before calling 911.

McKinley said she asked the dispatcher, “I’ve got two guns in my hand — is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door? I’m here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?”

“I can’t tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby,” the dispatcher said.

The 911 conversation lasted for 21 minutes. Then the door gave in.

So, for 21 recorded minutes two men, armed with a foot-long hunting knife attempted to break into the young widow’s home.

“I waited till he got in the door. They said I couldn’t shoot him until he was inside the house. So I waited until he got in the door and then I shot him,” McKinley said.

Martin, who charged McKinley with his knife, was hit in the “upper torso,” police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His cohort, Dustin Louis Stewart, 29, fled but later surrendered to authorities.

I can just imagine NY Times Editor Jill Abramson, holed up in her (I suspect) Hamptons summer house with knife-wielding thieves attempting for 21 minutes to break in the door.   Might be a life changing event vis a vis gun rights.  Or not.

As a personal aside, my late father carried a gun at his business and kept either a German Shepherd or Doberman nearby.  When a rough looking customer would ask, “Does that dog bite?” his usual answer was

“Only if you mean to bite us.”

In this week’s stand-off between Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and Stamford, CT Conservative Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, I stand with the Tebows.

In a blog posting on Jewish Week,Hammerman wrote:

“Tebow’s mother, a Baptist missionary, became comatose during her pregnancy and was saved by drugs that nearly killed the fetus.  Doctors anticipated a stillbirth and recommended termination to protect her life, but Tim’s mother refused to abort.”

Hammerman adds:  “His mom’s decision to risk her own life rather than abort her fetus flies against my own — and Judaism’s — values.”

He asserts: “If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.”

To the board of Hammerman’s synagogue, I say:  He’s a Rabbi in Name Only.  Fire him.

To the millenial generation of Jewish women, I say:  It is not without reason that non Orthodox Jews in America are not replacing themselves.  Each new life, each potential life, is a treasure, and I weep for those never born.

To the rest of America, I say:  Please excuse my coreligionist.  I take my religion seriously, and the nation is a better country to the extent that you do likewise with yours.

Frankly, if my very existence had been so uncertain, if I had emerged to live a somewhat normal life let alone be so blessed as to quarterback an NFL team, I would be extraordinarily thankful.  Some people are said to ‘thank their lucky stars’ for outcomes such as health and an NFL career.  If Tim Tebow wants to thank his God and celebrate his religion, I say more power to him.

Dear NY Times,

Your feature today entitled “Aid for Child Care Drops When It Is Needed Most” is much appreciated.

As you note,

Christian Griffith, chief consultant of the California Assembly Budget Committee, said the state cut $335 million in child care financing this year, and with hundreds of millions in cuts to other public services — courts, schools and the public university system — “there aren’t many good options at this point.”

Here is a suggestion for your editorial page and Board of Directors.  You think that providing child care for poor women is a high priority.  You and others on the left believe that the nation should continue to provide social services whether or not the nation has the resources to do so.

Why not have the New York Times Company provide or at least subsidize these services from its own till?   Yes, it is true that for the first nine months of 2011, your firm has lost $98.6 million, and it owes  $1.8 billion in various debts and pension obligations.

Yet isn’t that just what you folks are urging for a nation, which spent $3.8 trillion while taking in only $2.2 trillion? Which owes $15 trillion and counting?   We should just spend on social needs and borrow more?

Perhaps it’s time for you to take your own advice.   What’s another $20 million or even $200 million if you already owe $2 billion?   We could help you with some letters to the editor in support of it.

Very truly yours

Ashland Avenue

Here is your story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/child-care-subsidies-drop-when-families-need-them-most.html?hpw

And here are your financials:  http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71691/000007169111000012/nyt10-q9252011.htm

Five days ago, I wrote a snarky little item here suggesting that troubles at Chicago based MF Global brokers could represent one more failure for former NJ Governor Jon S. Corzine.

I didn’t know or care whether MF would file or escape bankruptcy proceedings.  It was pretty clear even then that stockholders of the firm would face harsh consequences.

What was unfathomable less than a week ago was the idea that hundreds of millions of customer moneys could be unaccounted for at the troubled firm.

Thus, at cnbc.com:

Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday.   http://www.cnbc.com/id/45113687

And at NYT:

The recognition that money was missing scuttled at the 11th hour an agreement to sell a major part of MF Global to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global had staked its survival on completing the deal. Instead, the New York-based firm filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

Regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer funds to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse.  http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/regulators-investigating-mf-global/?hp

The collapse has led to disruptions in Chicago trading pits, where many market participants either cleared their accounts at MF or depend for settlements on others that did.

The MF denouement came at least in part because of Corzine’s view that MF should put more of its capital at risk.  Several billions of assets were positioned at risk in European sovereign bonds.  Enough so that a decline in the bonds’ value might have been enough to eliminate the MF capital.

I don’t so much mind the idea of putting one’s capital at risk.   We bear the consequences of bets gone bad, even if it’s bankruptcy.   Here’s what is unacceptable:  How does the former governor of a major state, the former CEO at Goldman Sachs, stand at the helm of an enterprise which puts $700 million of customers’ money at risk.

Want a translation for  ‘at risk’?  Say you had no margin debt, no securities in your account, just cash, and want it transferred to another firm.   Today, if your account was at MF Global, the answer back would be:  Wait a while, we can’t find it.

Remember, this is the industry in which Madame Secretary of State,  when she was just someone’s wife, put less than the legal minimum into a commodities account and saw it spun up to $100,000.  The money she made came from somewhere, presumably becoming a debit in the house’s trading account.

But, losing track of hundreds of millions of dollars in a short period of time takes more than just a tip from management.

Most likely, customer funds were wired out to settle the firm’s margin calls with counterparty firms worldwide.  Something like customer funds were wired out to Bernie Madoff’s favored spots.

Again, how does an ex-GSCO CEO, a former governor, stand by as this happens?

We should have known when he had the bodyguard/driver take the official vehicle past 90 mph on state roads.  A guy who couldn’t wait.

On April 12, 2007, Governor Corzine and 25 year-old aide Samantha Gordon were injured in an automobile accident on the Garden State Parkway near Galloway Township while traveling from the New Jersey Conference of Mayors in Atlantic City to Drumthwacket, his residence in Princeton, to meet with radio personality Don Imus and the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.^[126]

The New Jersey State Police determined that Corzine’s SUV, driven by a state trooper, was traveling in excess of 90 MPH (147 km/h) in a 65 MPH (105 km/h) zone with its emergency lights flashing when the collision occurred.^[127]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Corzine

Like I said, no problem with guys or companies putting their own capital at risk.  States and fiduciary organizations, however, should be run by grown-ups.

President Obama’s recent slogan seems to be ‘We Can’t Wait.’   Sounds a bit like Jon Corzine stepping into MF Global, doesn’t it?  We have to be big right now.  We can’t wait.

My suggestion to those who oppose the President and his party?  Teenagers and children can’t wait.  Time for grownups to take over.

What do you call a financial company leveraged 11 to one, and making money?  How about JP Morgan Chase, with $1,941 billions of liabilities supported by its assets and also $176 billion of equity.

What do you call a financial company leveraged 32 to one, uncertain as to whether there is a tomorrow?  How about:  one more failure of former NJ Governor John Corzine?

After losing the NJ governorship to Chris Christie, Corzine was hired to head former commodities broker MF Global.   He was not without background in securities, having served as CEO at Goldman Sachs.

On joining MF, he and its board expressed interest in transforming the firm into a mini Goldman.

MF’s $44.4 billion of liabilities are supported by $1.4 of equity.  Six billion of the assets, however, are affected by European debt renegotiations.   A 25 cent haircut in their value wipes out MF’s equity.

From today’s WSJ:

investor fears grew about the roughly $6 billion in exposure to European sovereign debt the company has disclosed holding this year. That exposure, explained in more detail during the company’s earnings call Tuesday, is a large bet relative to the $12 million in revenue the firm generated from principal trading during the latest quarter.

Lesson:  It’s just as easy to ignore a huge and growing pension liability as it is a multi billion dollar commitment to European government obligations.

Prediction:  It will take a grown-up to clean this mess up also.

June 30, 2011 Balance Sheet:  http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1401106/000119312511207641/d10q.htm#tx198607_3

WSJ Piece: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504576654992676019306.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection