Great post on The Stimulist about why you shouldn’t go to law school.

I have a law degree. It’s the one thing I keep in my closet. There is really only one main good reason to go to law school and that’s because you really really want to be a lawyer. Those people do exist. But the only way I think you’ll know if you are one is to work with real lawyers first. it’s very much a question of temperment. And that’s something fancy schools generally don’t teach you about. You can only find out, like you say, on your own. And law school is consuming. And it does reward fearful thinking. And the very process of being there can make it harder to know yourself if you’re giving every waking minute to memorizing the 8 part Lemon Test.

Law school is the army of the middle class. It’s where people go who don’t know where else to go. And it saddles us with a different kind of injury or disability than a war, without having served anyone or anything but our fears.

“Aw but you must find that degree really useful?” I get asked all the time. Well, I did start stand-up in law school. And I’m making a show in which I teach all of law school in 70 minutes.

Here’s the cartoon I drew to get me through the experience.

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our wedding!, originally uploaded by subvert.com.

My Canadian wife and California fiancee Stacey. We will be *LEGALLY* married in San Francisco like every other couple can now be in the State.

My first call was to my Canadian wife/ California fiancee, my second to the caterer.

 

Free! Don’t need permission! So overoyed!

The Wedding FAQ I wrote after Wedding 1.0 in Canada explaining how I feel about it all and why we are getting married twice.

20 Lesbian Wedding Etiquette tips (jokes) I wrote for Curve.

VOTE this November to ensure the constitutional amendment to save my marriage and stop the anti-gay proposition from amending the California constitution.

 

 

I just found out that one of my best friends at law school died. She was too young to die.

And too awesome to die. Can’t Death swop her for someone without a fabulous sense of humour? For someone who wasn’t such a presence?

There is nothing lawyerly or logical about her being gone. One day she thought she had the flu. The next day, she is gone. I can’t call her up.

I wish I had a digital photo of her but I don’t. All my pictures of Felicia are from just before the web….from the days when having free LEXIS-NEXIS access felt like having a secret pass to the world.

Felicia is one of the only people I’ve known who made me laugh every time we spoke. Damn. I just wrote “is.” (more…)

Courtesy of the 5th circuit Federal Appeals Court which relied on a privacy argument.

I still favour a Constitutional Right to Sexual Pleasure, which I spent my third year writing up in law school. I never published it, but it will make an appearance in The Law Project.

The pragmatist in me finds criminalizing sex toys just plain funny in any state that sells vegetables.

An appelate court just recognized a Canadian wedding of 2 women. Does this mean we’re married when in NY? I am still thinking I need to go get some power of attorney forms and all that other jazz we have to do to attempt to make up in contract what marriage does.

Can I make a decision for her if, for some yucky reason, she’s unconscious in a hospital?

I’m truly thrilled to add Prof. Larry Marshall to the next Heather Gold Show: My Needs/ Your Needs.

Larry was one of my professors in law school and was the driving force behind getting Rolando Cruz off of death row and legal work and advocacy that eventually led Gov Ryan of Illinois to commute the the sentences of all prisoners on death row before he left office. 

He’s a passionate teacher and a man of impeccable integrity and I only wish I’d listened to him more when I was in law school. But then I might be a lawyer today.

I am really honored by the killer group we have on the show and I know they will spark an excellent conversation for us all.

Heather mixes Lawrence Lessig, comedian Aundre the Wonderwoman, marketer Deb Schultz and the “audience” about Earnestness in Politics. Is it possible? What about earnestness at work, in the corporate environment?

Listen to the full 90 minute show.

This is a Larry’s alpha version of a talk on his new project on corruption.  It’s an hour long, very interesting and touches on impeachment, authority and culture. He’ll be discussing the project on corruption at The Heather Gold Show this Friday. Buy tix for this Friday’s show on Earnestness. 

6/15/07Heather conversates with equivocal musicianAmy Tobin, GTD electronic apostleMerlin Mann, her guardian angel,+rescuer spirtual leaderPatrick Barnes and the people formerly known as the audience.

Which movie do you want to see? Buy or sell? Paper or plastic? Whether by prayer or Powerpoint presentation, how do you make decisions?

Listen to the mp3 of the entire show (90 min)

Add yourself to our conversation on Flickr (photos),
(chat) and Facebook
(community).

What do you do when you can’t get legally married where you live?

Go to Canada.

Oh it’s just like the draft, except for the love part and the no killing part. And the h’ors d’oeuvres.

It’s not exactly that flip. I grew up in Canada. my whole family lives in Toronto.

We’ve decided to have the wedding-wedding here in San Francisco where our community a year from June. We originally though it might happen earlier. But between multiple surgeries and unrelated medical school it didn’t.

But we want to be legally married as well. So we’re gong to do that in Toronto. Christmasi-sh-time, because that’s how school holidays are organized. With some family and people to celebrate because my family are Jews and they’re gonna shep naches whenever they can. You want to know why weddings are a big deal to Jews? Because it’s a legitimate occasion for happiness. Those don’t come often, so Jews have to cram all the happiness and tummelling they can whenever they get the chance.

And I’m their oldest child and my mum has watched her friends have weddings so finally, she gets a chance. Let me tell you. If they wait long enough, it won’t matter that it’s a lesbian wedding. It’s a frickin’ wedding. Ladyporn.

And now that Stace is going to med school (in Long Island no less) she’s as good as Jewish. She gets 58 bonus mitzvah points. I thought she was going to be a dance therapist when I met her. The last thing I wanted to do was. like my mother, marry a doctor. (That’s a much longer story, or play, to come later.)

I’m thrilled that they’re thrilled. It was a 10 year journey with my mum to go from glum faces and anxiety attacks to “I want to make a wedding for you.” She came around before it became legal in Canada, but it sure helps.

Stace’s folks haven’t had as long as mine to deal with this and they still live in a small town in the midwest. They’re not planning on inviting extended family or friends to either wedding.

I imagine it’s weirder in some ways to be a parent of someone gay than to be gay yourself. I mean when I came out, I got to sleep with cute girls. What did my parents get out of it?

So now it’s gonna get to the details. This is he part that can make weddings not fun. We will plan our wedding-wedding in San Francisco fully ourselves. Celebrating after City Hall we can leave to the grown ups. My parents want Stace’s folks to feel comfortable too. Who will come? How will the fun happen? Stay tuned…