Merry Christmas

I'm going to break from my tradition of funny blog posts to pause for a Christmas message.

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Matthew 1:23

This is the miracle of Christmas - that God is with us, that He came to dwell on Earth as one of us to bear our pains and sorrows and save us from sin and death. God has many names. One of my favorites is Prince of Peace.

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6, emphasis added

At this time, when war ravages parts of the earth, and when inner turmoil ravages the hearts of many, it's nice to pause and remember that the Prince of Peace was born in a humble stable in Bethlehem. It was heralded by angels but unnoticed by all except for a few shepherds and wise men.

On this Christmas Eve, as we pause to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I join with the angelic choir proclaiming the aspirational message of peace on earth and good will toward humankind.

Merry Christmas!

It's an Article!

Going along with the awkward childbirth analogy relating to my supervised analytical writing requirement (which is more or less analogous to a thesis), I have an announcement to make.

At 5:30 this morning, Pacific Standard Time, I gave birth to a healthy and beautiful seminar paper. Labor was lengthy and protracted. There were complications and it was touch and go for a while, but thanks to supportive classmates and a talented and patient paper midwife, both author and paper are doing fine. Its name is Religious Exercise in Prison - A Guide for Prison Officials. It was 5,500 words long and weighed 4 ounces. After the Christening (in a month or so), there will be a virtual reception on SSRN where anyone who is interested can meet the lovely paper.

I have high hopes that this paper will sometime in the next few months grow up into a fine, upstanding law review article. This paper joins its sibling Hagar's Sisters: Gestational Surrogacy in the 21st Century, which will be entered into a writing competition next month and which I also hope will grow into an article. Look for this paper to be in attendance at next month's SSRN reception as well.

I would also like to announce that I'm expecting another paper in the near future. Its name will be I'm (Not) Leaving on a Jet Plane - The TSA's Unconstitutional Screening Procedures. I'm excited for my growing family of ideas. Pretty soon I'll have such a full portfolio that I'll have to move out of my little student apartment and take up residence in the ivory tower!

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Ok, this blog post is proof that I didn't get enough sleep last night. But, here you go, my silliness at its finest. I'm so tired that everything is funny. I'm way too old to be pulling all-nighters! Oh, to be 19 again...

Reprint: Pondering Pronouns

I don't have any new material right now, so I'm going to borrow a page from television and do a rerun. Except, I'm going to do even better - I have some new stuff to add.

Last year, I wrote a post entitled Pondering Pronouns about the use of gender-neutral third person singular pronouns in English. Today, I read an interesting post at the Volokh Conspiracy on gender-neutral plural nouns in Spanish.

My old post on pronouns is reprinted below.