Trap

As I finish up law school in the next week, the best advice I can give you is:
Don't go unless:
1) You get a full ride and you are o.k with going to a school "below" yourself
2) You are super confident you will not only be in the top 10% of the class but you will interview well when the big firms come around for 2L summering (and even then only if you are comfortable with completely devoting your life to writing briefs and drafting memos for a number of years)
3)Somebody is paying your way through
4)You want to go into public interest law (DA, PD)

I only learned about the attractiveness of option 4 today. Apparently, Congress has established a program offering serious, serious loan forgiveness to public interest attorneys. Say you make 40k as a DA somewhere. You pay 15% of your DI a month 120 times, and everything else is forgiven.

To put that in perspective, with interest, a standard repayment plan on $100k in loans will cost you something like 180k over 10 years to pay off. Yup, thats right, 18k a year in loan payments. New program, lets say 15% of your DI is 5k on a year. You pay that for ten years, you save $130k (even though the benefit is taxed)

So in terms of establishing skewed incentives, the best jobs financially to take now are:
1) Entry level salary 120K +, then
2) Public interest 35k-50k, then
3) Private sector 50k-80k

if you are willing to put the ten years in. Strange.

BTW, can the U.S please go ahead and create a national oil company that would not only be OPEC's biggest customer but would also be able leverage foreign policy beneficially to secure lower oil prices? Reponse: Anticompetitive. Paradox since we are paying $3.60 a gallon for gas and obviously have no alternative? Wait, anticompetitive? The current oil fiasco smells a lot like the same consumer price gouging that the deregulation of electricity allowed Enron to profit so keenly on before it went down. Deregulation and free market doesn't mean abuseless in three and four party adhesion markets.

Go Baltimore. I wish the Eagles would grow a pair in a draft sometime and pick out of there comfort zone. Guys like David Tyree don't make big plays when the team philosophy is "be really adequate all around so that nobody can criticize us" rather than "fuck it, lets take a shot".

I'm not a big Boston fan, but at the same time, I think I like Atlanta less than New Orleans at this point in terms of whiny jawing. At least Washington is somewhat tongue in cheek with their bullshit. We'll see what Paul does against a fired up Tony Parker, and better yet, what Tyson Chandler (HA!) does against Duncan. As far as Atlanta goes, Bibby looks ridiculous and J.R smith and Hortford are overrated. Two nice games, but this would be like Igodaula or Andre Miller telling Rip Hamilton he's a pussy after losing game 3. Even if it might be effective on some street ball level I don't understand, you are much more likely to just look like a douchebag.

I have a feeling Utah is going to be a fun game to watch tommorrow night after Game 4, as will Phoenix. The Philly series cements my suspicion that the Sixers could be a legit Eastern threat if they find a big veteran with poise to settle them down in situations just like thier meltdown in Game 4. Please Garnett? Please? Nah, maybe Jermaine O'Neal or Jason Richardson for a draft pick, Thaddeus Young, and Andre Miller.