Taxes, iPods and legal briefs, oh my . . . God, the Olympics are on too!!!

Well, I found out about this deal you could get on iPods if you confirm that you're a student. It's a good enough deal that with my tax refund this year I'm getting' myself a 30 gig video iPod. Never thought I would. If you're a student, look into this, it's like $30 off. Anyways, yeah, I'm an early bird when it comes to taxes these days. I guess I'm a fan of filling out the old 1040EZ. Certainly makes my life EZ.

So the first draft of my legal brief is due on Thursday. It's a tough assignment. We were given a real U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) is trying to keep the worst of the worst prisoners from having access to newspapers, magazines and photos. They do this for two reasons. First, the believe that if the prisoners want to have the privilege of reading magazines and newspapers or looking at photos, they'll behave. The other reason is security. You wouldn't believe the kinds of weapons that prisoners can make using newspapers and magazines. They also use them to fling feces.

The biggest problem I have with all this is that it's indefinite. The prisoners are required to spend 90 days in this kind of confinement (called Level 2) when they are sent the Long Term Segregation Unit (LTSU; the place where they send prisoners with behavior problems). After the 90 days are up, they can get to Level 1 (where they are allowed to have newspapers, magazines and photos) of the LTSU if they behave themselves, but this judgment is made solely by the prison officials. There is no time limit as to how long they can be deprived of newspapers, magazines and photos. Some of them have been in Level 2 for years. There are other problems I have with this, but I was assigned to the DOC side, so I have to put them behind me. The DOC lost in the Federal Appeals court. Guess who was the lone third circuit dissenter. If you guessed Samuel Alito, you're right.

This just in in Olympic news: Michelle Kwan is dropping out. I guess it was just her time. Jess and I have both got Olympic fever. I'm going to do everything I can to not turn on the tv to watch the women's ice hockey team play Germany in a preliminary round game at 1 so that we can both get some work done.