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Hi, I'm Kevin hailing from northern New Jersey and a recent graduate from Duke University.
My Tumblelog has no underlying theme or subtext. I hope to use this as a medium to share with others interesting, captivating, and/or amusing pieces of information that I have come across each day. Hopefully, in the process, I can enrich your day by posting things that you have not seen before.
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Helen Foster for McSweeney’s
1. Explain why you want to attend law school.
I want to attend law school because I want to make a difference in the world. My desire to attend law school has nothing to do with the fact that I was recently fired from my job as an analyst at an investment bank, where I worked in the mergers and acquisitions group. Since January, I’ve worked on approximately one merger, zero acquisitions, have played Spider Solitaire 434 times and updated my Facebook status, on average, five times a day. My 401K is down 45 percent. All three of my roommates — Teddy, Whit, and Dan (The Man) McGregor — have lost their jobs and are moving back home with their parents. (I feel most sorry for Whit, who’s from Cleveland.) I have $350 in savings, which may seem strange because I’ve been making, with bonus, at least $100,000 a year since graduating from college four years ago (in “Boston.” OK … Harvard.). But New York is expensive. Drinks cost $15. My Hamptons summer share (which was a valuable networking tool) put me back $15,000 last year. This is a long way of saying that law is a tool to promote equality, and to help create a just society. These have always been my goals in life.
2. Explain your greatest achievement.
To outsiders, it may appear that I have achieved many things in life. I was the valedictorian of my high school class and an All-American soccer player. In college I was the president of my finals club and got recruited to join one of the most prestigious banks on Wall Street. Many beautiful women would like to date me. But these accomplishments mean nothing compared to one that really matters to me: In a world filled with greed and materialism, I live a life of integrity. My integrity is one of the reasons why I was on track to become the youngest-ever partner in the history of my investment bank, but then the economy vaporized and so did that plan. If there’s an empty seat at a Rangers’ game, and it’s better than the seat I bought, I’ll sit in mine anyway. If I accidentally receive mail that’s addressed to someone else, I leave it—unopened—in the mailroom. I never cheat in golf. These are the qualities that will matter when I fulfill my dream of fighting for the legal rights of immigrants.
3. Explain you biggest mistake and what you learned from it.
As I think Chief Justice Ginsburg once said, “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.” My greatest mistake occurred in 2004, when a few of my college friends were trying to launch their web site and asked me to come work with them. They were living in Silicon Valley, and there were only two of them at the time, and I was looking at a six-figure bonus at my banking job and in no rush to leave that or New York. Plus, I liked the security of working for a big financial institution. I like to wear ties, and I like car service home when I work past 9:00 PM. I like going to steak dinners after we close a deal, even though we haven’t closed a deal since January 2008. I like having an assistant, and I like carrying around a gym bag that’s embroidered with the name of my bank. The decision to stay at my job did not feel like a mistake at the time, but it does now, since my friends’ start-up has 120 million unique users, including, I think, my mother, and is this little thing called Facebook. Right now I have no car service, no assistant, no use for my ties, and no paycheck. So in hindsight, becoming the third employee at Facebook doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I believe, though, that this mistake presented an opportunity to explore my passion, which is drafting the constitutions of post-conflict countries.
4. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In ten years I would like to be a successful entrepreneur, a managing partner at an investment bank, or a legal aid lawyer working on behalf of indigent clients. Even though I have no use for material things, I would like to have the option of retiring by the time I’m 45. I believe that law school is a tool to help me realize my goals, as well as an acceptable way to wait out the recession without having to work in retail.
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Guess what? The author actually didn’t go to Harvard. I’m afraid I sound as BSy as this in all of my applications.
for…half my school
The President wrote an op-ed piece (read here) in the NY Times today urging the American public to back his massive health care overhaul.
Afer a little fact-checking, below is a short list of his rhetoric vs the actual facts.
CLAIM: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
FACT: Both the Associated Press and ABC News have already debunked this pledge, noting that White House officials have acknowledged the President’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken “literally.” That’s because the White House cannot guarantee that Americans will be able to keep their health plan. They simply don’t know how many employers will drop their coverage altogether if their plan goes into effect. Experts at the Lewin Group estimate the number could be more than 100 million Americans.
CLAIM: “[R]eform will finally bring skyrocketing health care costs under control, which will mean real savings for families, businesses and our government.”
FACT: According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the House Democrats’ bill would increase the deficit by $239 billion over 10 years. Moreover, as the Associated Press has reported, the Democrats’ plan will increase costs, rather than lower them: “Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf warned lawmakers the legislation that he has seen so far would raise costs, not lower them.”
CLAIM: “This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance.”
FACT: Despite what President Obama and Speaker Pelosi says, their bill would result in a government takeover of health care, and numerous provisions in their bill reflect that. For example, pages 116-118, Section 221 of the House Democrats’ bill requires the HHS Secretary to establish a government run plan that is supposed to play by the same rules as private plans in the exchange. The bill, however, requires the government to set the benefits of all of the plans, including its own, creating an implicit unlevel playing field by allowing the government to set rules for itself.
CLAIM: “I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health care decisions but you and your doctor.”
FACT: Patients and doctors, not government bureaucrats, should make medical decisions, but the House Democrats’ bill puts bureaucrats in charge. For example, page 30, section 123 of their bill establishes a Health Benefits Advisory Committee to make determinations including “categories of covered treatments, items and services within benefit classes and cost sharing.” Page 122, section 223(a)(4) of the House Democrats’ bill would authorize the HHS Secretary to decide which prescription drugs are made available in the government plan. Evidence has shown that government officials in other countries have used this power to deny access to needed treatments on the basis of cost. And these are just two examples.
(via John Boehner, House Republican leader)
Today marks the 233 anniversary of our Founding Fathers’ grand experiment with democracy, as they bravely signed the Declaration of Independence. Below are excerpts from this great document that the Second Continental Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. - Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government …
We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. - And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
The melody to the “Star Spangled Banner” - written by poet Francis Scott Key in 1814 - actually originates from a popular drinking song of the 19th century, “The Anacreontic Song”
Key originally wrote his poem - originally titled “The Defense of Fort McKenry” - as he watched the Americans troops triumph over the British in a battle at Baltimore’s Fort McKenry. The words were soon published in local newspapers, which instructed people to sing it to the tune of the aforementioned drinking song.
The “Star Spangled Banner” was finally adopted as the official national anthem in 1933 when President Hoover signed it into law. Prior to this law, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was often regarded is the defacto anthem. Interestingly, its melody is derived from the British national anthem.
(via MentalFloss)
Supporters often cite the 46 million uninsured individuals as the reason to not hesitate in providing a public health option in the United States. However, it’s important that you actually understand who are these uninsured people. Here’s a simple breakdown. 46.6 million uninsured people in the United States (according to a 2006 Dept. of Labor survey) 33 million people who do do not have insurance and do not qualify for Medicaid
Today the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on one of the most significant environmental bills in U.S. history — a sprawling measure that aims to wean industry off of carbon-emitting fuels blamed for global warming.
The Waxman-Markey Bill is not a “jobs bill” as Obama claims, but will rather be the greatest tax in American history. The Congressional Budget Office even acknowledges that there will be a “potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap.”
“When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill’s restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.”
For more details read: “The Cap and Tax Fiction”, June 25, 2009 The Wall Street Journal
Supporters claim that Waxman-Markey Bill is America’s opportunity to pass legislation that displays us “being good stewards of the earth.” Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are rushing this legislation to a vote in order to avoid an inconvenient truth to surface. Scientific debate is uncovering new research about “global warming” and the affects that humans have had (specifically with respect to CO2 emissions) on climate change. More than 700 scientists now disagree with the U.N. — 13 times the number who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. As a matter of fact, earth’s temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02.
Please read: “The Climate Change Climate Change”, June 26, 2009 The Wall Street Journal
Had a good trip over to the Pacific Northwest. Went to Seattle and saw the first Starbucks Coffee shop. And the seven-night cruise to Alaska was great, minus the cold weather. Unfortunately, now my Tumblarity is down to 0. Time to start reading Tumblr and finding good stuff to post.
More people need to get on Mojo and once you do add me to your friend list (thompsonk2@deusty.com)
It’s simple:
So I changed my voter registration in November to North Carolina, in an attempt to help John McCain. Despite changing my registered state, I still get mailings from the state of New Jersey urging me to vote in the upcoming primaries.
Someone care to explain this to me….
