Disney is Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of "It's a Small World." Why?

It’s a Small World is a wonderful Disney Ride. It epitomizes the creativity and genius of Walt Disney. The 15 minute Disneyland ride through a veritable United Nations of 437 audioanimatronic children is a pleasant respite after Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, the Matterhorn and The Hollywood Tower of Terror. But the song! “It’s a Small, Small, Small, Small, Small, Small, Small, Small World, After All” is sheer torture. Forget waterboarding. The CIA should have used it at Gitmo on a continuous loop. Even the most zealot Al Qaeda would have broken down. Ask anyone who’s been on the ride what they think. They love it, but that song just sticks in their brains like a bad migraine. I love the ride. I've ridden it many times,but not for the music. The Walt Disney Company is celebrating on April 10, 2014 the 50th anniversary of “It’s a Small World” at all its worldwide theme parks by having guests and cast members sing the song together - a singalong, guaranteed to drive non-singing guests out of the parks. April 10 is not the actual 50th Anniversary. The ride premiered on April 22, 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, where it became an instant hit. It was Walt Disney’s salute to UNICEF, a salute sung by the tiny children in English, French, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish to the same tune. It’s a small world, after all. The lyrics are idealistic: “It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears It’s a world of hopes and a world of fear There’s so much that we share that’s it’s time We’re aware It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small, small world” And on and on and on and on! All most listeners remember is “It’s a small, small, small world, after all” on a continuous loop. The diagnosis is post traumatic song syndrome (PTSS) for which total abstinence is the cure. It can be prevented by using the same earplugs available at monster truck rallies, or by viewing It's a Small World on YouTube with the volume muted. Universality is a wonderful ideal, but not the song. It cannot bring peace and quiet to the world. Disney breaks the loop during the Holidays by adding Christmas carols to the singing. That’s when you should take the ride. The New York ride was 10 minutes. Disneyland increased it to 15 minutes, a 50% increase that stretched the limits of tolerance. Disney is not concerned about the specifics of 50th Anniversaries. The 50th Anniversary of Disneyland lasted 18 months. Do the celebration, but please, hold off the singalong.

How About a Piece of the Pontiac Silverdome? A Plastic Seat? A Urinal?

Pontiac, Michigan was established in 1818. GM created the Pontiac automobile in 1926. The Pontiac Superdome opened in 1975. All three have seen better times. The car died in 2010. The city received an Emergency Financial Manager in 2009. Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the “Doctor of Death” was born and educated in Pontiac. He survived the Emergency Financial Manager by two years. The Superdome entered death throes when the Detroit Lions abandoned the Superdome for Detroit in 2002. The Detroit Pistons left for Auburn Hills in 1988. The City is in better shape in Oakland County than its neighbor Detroit in Wayne County. Pontiac, the City, will survive. Pontiac, the Superdome is doomed. The city sold it at auction in 2009 to the Triple Investment Group for $583,000, or roughly 1% of its original construction cost of $55.7 million. Rumors are that the gas has been cut off for non-payment of the bill. Old arenas and stadiums get recycled today. The Silverdome witnessed epic moments and record crowds: The Papal Mass in 1987, Super Bowl XVI, 1987 WrestleMania, the 1994 Fifa World Cup, and the 1994 Michael Jackson Victory Tour. The days after the Lions left were not as good. The Jehovah Witnesses were meeting at the Silverdome for a few years, but they too moved on. An occasional Monster Truck Mash doesn’t pay the bills. Once upon a time old stadia were demolished or imploded with the rubble hauled away. Now though value is perceived in their furnishings. Sears were sold from the old Shea Stadium and the Astrodome. The Red So and Yankees annually sell seats. Sentimentality reigns. Fans want to seat in the arena and stadium seats from which they watched their heroes. The owners of the Silverdome want to restore it into a valuable venue. Maybe! The odds are against it. Even if they demolish the stadium, such as blowing it up on the 4th of July, the 127 acres will not be prime real estate in the greater Detroit market. In the meantime the owners have announced that they will be auctioning off anything movable in the stadium: the old turf, water faucets, lighting fixtures, seats, concession stands, scoreboards, end zone logos, the training room fiberglass pool, game clocks, any fixture, anything movable. The stadium had 80,300 seats, many weathered during a roof collapse. The auctioneer, RJM Auctions of Plymouth, Michigan, is seeking at least $100/chair, plastic chairs at that, plus another $30 for a certificate of authenticity. 80,300X$130 would yield over $10 million. Won’t happen. The long-suffering Lions fans are loyal. They have to be. The hapless Lions have a half-century record of futility. They are one of only 4 NFL teams not to be in the Super Bowl. Games are often blacked out. The Detroit went a perfect 0 – 16 in 2008. They lost their first regular season game in the Silverdome on October 6, 1975 to the Dallas Cowboys, 36-10, a harbinger of the future. They won the last game 15-10 on January 6, 2002 to the Cowboys, but that was an historical anomaly. There’s not much sentimental value in a Matt Millen Toilet or Wayne Fontes Urinal, certified or not.

Dad Kills Daughter's Boyfriend in Bedroom: Just Another Texas Tale?

The story came out a few days ago. A father in Spring, Texas discovered a man in his 16 year old daughter’s bedroom, and then killed him. The immediate reaction was “This is just Texas; the dad will not be prosecuted,” or “You can get away with murder in gun happy Texas.” (I actually made up these quotes as a composite of the comments of some of the sentiment on blogs). A Texas statute allowed a husband to shoot his wife’s lover: “Homicide is justifiable when committed by the husband upon one taken in the act of adultery with the wife, provided the killing take place before the parties to the act have separated.” The in flagrante delicto statute was repealed in 1974. The Texas statute did not allow the cockold husband to shoot his wife. Nor did it allow a wife to kill her cheating husband or his mistress. Thus, the instance of a wife driving her Mercedes over her cheating husband three times resulted in a criminal prosecution. This video was on the evening news one night; a similar video is on YouTube. Texas is the state where Joe Horn in Pasadena, Texas on November 14, 2007 shot in the back two burglars who had broken into his neighbor’s house. Here are the facts as we know them today. The four year old son saw two sets of legs in his 16 year old sister’s bed at 2:20 am. He woke up his father, who went upstairs to investigate. He found the man in bed with his daughter. He confronted the two. The daughter said she did not know who the guy was. The father can now reasonably believe the young man was an intruder – a trespasser in fact. The common law would allow the use of deadly force, if necessary, against the trespasser. The father could also reasonably the intruder was raping his daughter. He could also use deadly force to protect his daughter. The father pointed his gun at the intruder, who then made a sudden move in the dark. The father could now reasonably believe the father’s life and that of his daughter were at risk. Self-defense would further allow the father to use deadly force in self defense. No charges were filed against the father. The prosecutor will take the case to the grand jury, which will undoubtedly not indict the father. It was a justifiable shooting. The facts now showed the daughter lied. She snuck her 17 year old boyfriend into her bedroom. He wasn’t an intruder, but an invited lover. No matter, the father had every reason to believe a criminal invaded his house and daughter The young couple was doing what young couples with raging hormones have been doing since time immemorial. So was the dad. Young men should be careful about shacking up with a daughter living in her parents home. Some initial commentators claimed the case was another example of a white getting away with shooting a young black. All parties involved are Africa American. Let’s wait for some facts in the future before jumping to conclusions.

The Crimea Plebsicite

Crimea held a plebiscite yesterday on joining the Russian Federation. Crimea announced a 89% turnout with 96.77% voting for annexation by the Russian Federation. The numbers don’t add up. 12% (243,400 under the latest Ukraine census) of the Crimea’s 2 million population are Crimean Tatars, the historic inhabitants of the Crimea Peninsula. The Tatars are Muslims of Turkish ethnicity. About ½ of the Crimea Tatar population was executed or deported between 1917 and 1933. Stalin and Beria deported the remaining Crimea Tatars on May 18, 1944 to the Uzbek Republic and other areas. The Tatars did not return to their homeland until 1991 with Perestroika and Ukrainian independence. The Crimea Tatars would not vote for Crimea annexation by Mother Russia. They dread, are in living fear of, the Russian takeover of the Crimea. If they abstained from voting, the turnout would have been less than 89%. If they voted, the yes vote would have been substantially below 96.77%. The exit polls showed a 97% affirmative vote, which corresponds to the final tally. Either shows exit polls in Crimea are more accurate than in the United States or the vote was rigged. The exit polls were taken under the watchful eyes of Russian soldiers. These are not objective exit polls. The non-Russian Ukrainians also would not have voted to leave the Ukraine. Nor would have the Crimean Catholics, whose religion is not recognized in the Russian Federation. The plebiscite was a farce. The Crimean farce is equaled by the Obama Administration response. The interim Ukrainian Prime Minister visited President Obama at the White House last week. He asked for arms for the weakened Ukrainian army. The Obama Administration offered MRE’s, the military’s ready to eat meals. The Administration was worried that supplying arms to Ukraine would be viewed as a provocative act by the Russians. The Obama Administration was worried about provoking a bully. Therefore it would practice appeasement. Then came the Administration’s response to the plebiscite: sanctions. There’s a saying: don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Don't bring MRE's to a gunfight. Bringing paper sanctions is even less advisable. The sanctions announced by the Administration consisted by freezing the American assets of seven of President Putin’s associates and denying United States visas to them. The response to these essentially meaningless sanctions was expressed by one of the seven: “Comrade Obama, and what will you do with those who have neither assets nor property abroad? Or didn’t you think of that?” President Johnson is reputed to have said: "Grab them by their balls, and the hearts and minds will follow." President Obama apparently believes that if he grab's President Putin's cronies (cronies - not cojones), Putin will follow. Not even their businesses, just their non-existant personas in the United States. An increasingly weakened President Obama promises stronger sanctions if Russia seizes more of the Ukraine. President Putin is hardly shaking in his boots. Russia will seize more. The Crimea’s gas, electricity and water come from Ukraine. Russia will not allow Ukraine to cut these off. Territory versus meaningless sanctions: What will President Putin do next?

Thanks From Binder's Blog

Thank you all. We broke a thousand hits Saturday, indeed 1,109 for a record. I used to joke about no one reading the blog with but 10-15 hits a day – maybe! I’m amazed at which blogs go viral, and which fade into cyber oblivion. It’s no longer my most viewed blog, but the March 27, 2010 humorous comparison of the Spartacus Versus Rome TV series is still fourth with 5,156 views. My all time favorite is an early one, the August 24, 2008 Rule Against Perpetuities posting, a must read for every wannabe attorney studying for the Bar Exam. I am also amazed at the geographic diversity of you readers. we are truly getting out on the world wide web. My blog is idiosyncratic – whatever I want to write about, whenever. I don’t want to duplicate what everyone else is doing. Nor will I be as timely. The goal is a daily blog, but it usually doesn’t happen. I still have my day job. The blog is also inconsistent during times of travel. There will therefore be silence for periods this April and May. Sometimes nothing catches my attention, or, as with the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, it’s too tragic. We can only begin to imagine the grief of the families. Remember, most of the Chinese parents of the passengers and crews only had one child. They lost their future. I’m often drawn by the humorous side of life. For example, I’m intrigued by the recent story of the homeless man, his wife, and their dog waking up inside a garbage truck. They had fallen asleep inside a dumpster. This report also reminded me of seeing a family in a van sleeping in the van in a hotel garage in San Diego. The hotel rates were $200 - $500/night, but overnight parking was only $25. My politics are apparent, but I keep them out of class. Academic freedom and tenure would probably protect me, but it would be unprofessional. If I say to the students that a statute is stupid, it’s to point out why the legislature failed abysmally in addressing the problem. It’s easy to make fun of Congress, the state legislature, city councils and other elected and appointed public officials. Many are intelligent, hard working, honest public servants. Others are often less than a dim bulb. I often think of H. L. Mencken and Peter Finley Dunne in listening to Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. What would those social commentators be thinking of today’s political leaders? Would George Orwell feel vindicated by the Newspeak and Double Think of these politicians? (Cf. January 2, 2010 blog, George Orwell Is Getting a Museum). I have held back blogging about the pressures facing legal education. It’s too personal, but many of us believe that many existing law schools will be gone in 5 or 10 years. I hope to still be teaching at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University forever. The $55 million testamentary gift from the Fowlers to Chapman is a lifesaver. The blog sometimes contain my past, but certainly not all of it. Thanks to the internet, including Wikipedia, for enabling the factual basis of many postings. Finally, please forgive the typos in the blogs. Again, a tale from the past. I signed up for a summer school course in typing at A.P. Giannini Junior High in San Francisco. There we were pecking away. A tap on my shoulder. The Vice Principal, whatever his title was, asked if he could speak to me outside the class. We went out to the hall. He said, I remember the words 5½ decades later: “Typing is for girls only. I’m dropping you from the class.” It’s been hunt and peck typing ever since.

Senator Feinstein Versus the Central Intelligence Agency: What's Really At Issue

The Implications of Senator Feinstein Versus the CIA Senator Diane Feinstein delivered a 40 minute harangue against the CIA Tuesday on the Senate Floor. Senator Feinstein is Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a long time public supporter of the CIA and the NSA. The Senator’s speech came without warning and preempted a scheduled presentation later that day by CIA Director John Brennan before the Council on Foreign Relations. Senator Feinstein exclaimed “I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution, including the Speech and Debate Clause.” She added the CIA may have violated the 4th Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and Executive Order12333. She asked for an apology and recognition by the CIA that the search of Committee files was inappropriate. She, that is the Senate, has not yet received an apology, but instead a blistering denial by the Director of the CIA. If these statements are coming from a staunch supporter of the CIA, then imagine what its opponents, especially in Congress, are thinking. Whatever good will for the CIA came from last year’s movies, ARGO and Zero Dark Thirty, are gone. The underlying facts are somewhat confusing. The Senate Intelligence Committee has been exercising its oversight responsibilities for years trying to get to the bottom of the CIA’s counter-terrorism activities after 9/11. The Bush Administration disclosed in 2005 the generalities of the program. The CIA responded to inquiries about waterboarding by destroying several interrogation tapes. The CIA program included aggressive interrogation techniques, secret renditions, and extensive confinements. The CIA provided the Senate Committee access to a facility in Northern Virginia, and apparently provided the computers. It dumped about 6.2 million documents without an index or summary on the Committee. The CIA did provide though a search engine to access the documents. Somehow the Committee obtained a 6,300 page internal draft report to then CIA Director Leon Panetta. The report may, or may not, conclude the CIA’s techniques were unsuccessful. The Committee claims it obtained the report, not intended for disclosure, through the search engine. Whether it was available through the negligence of a CIA employee or from a whistle blower is uncertain. The CIA believes the Senate Committee illegally obtained it. We have at this point a disputed question of fact, which could have been privately resolved, by the President if necessary. However, the Acting General Counsel of the CIA, Robert Eatinger, referred the matter to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. In addition, Committee staffers found documents missing from their downloads: 870 by February 2010 and an additional 50 by mid-May 2010. CIA Director Brennan said in January that the Agency had searched the Committee’s files looking for unauthorized information. He has since denied the CIA hacked into the Senate Committee’s files: “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers – nothing could be farther from the truth. We wouldn’t do that. I mean that’s, that’s, that’s just beyond the scope of reason.” No it’s not. He added that he was “deeply dismayed” that some members of the Senate “made spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts.” The technicality is that the CIA probably did not believe it is hacking to search one’s own computers, even if loaned to another branch of the government. One of the conditions in the original agreement between the Senate Committee and CIA was that no documents would leave the facility. The Committee has now made some hardcopies, perhaps parts of the 6,300 word report, and stored then in a secure location. Our vacillating President has refused to take sides in the dispute – a dispute that goes to the heart of our democracy. The President is stuck on the horns of a dilemma, between Scylla and Charybdis. Who does he follow? The Senate or the CIA, led by his appointee John Brennan. Congress, no matter how deep the political divide, will stand as one when the institution is betrayed. A few Republicans are sticking with the CIA and a few wish the dispute was kept private, but most understand the need for Congressional solidarity. The CIA allegations are not a political dispute, but one of legitimacy. Our Constitution is premised on civilian control of the military, which today will include the intelligence agencies. The military, CIA and NSA answering to the civilians, which includes Congress, is essential to the survival of our democracy. President Obama is not overly concerned by the mandates of the Constitution, but we should be. Disputes between the Executive and Legislative branches over the disclosure of documents are common, such as the current House lawsuit to obtain the Fast and Furious documents. The disputes are usually resolved with the President often bending somewhat on Executive Privilege. This dispute is of a different magnitude. Senator Feinstein is alleging the CIA hacked into the files of the Senate. The CIA is spying on its civilian overseers. If true, the CIA’s actions are a direct attack upon the United States Senate and our democracy. They may be worse than the NSA’s spying on Americans, which also have been unproductive. To the best of our knowledge the CIA did not eavesdrop on members of Congress or opposition political leaders. They are as suspect as the IRS’s continuing attacks on political opponents of the current Administration. The irony with the CIA and NSA is that they are charged with protecting our safety, our rights. They are breaching our fundamental rights in the name of securing them. President Lincoln told us "We are a government of the people, by the people, for the people." We are not a government of the government, by the government, for the government.

Joe Sax, David Sive, Pete Seeger: R.I.P.

Joe Sax, Dave Sive, and Pete Seeger, all founders of the Age of the Environment, recently passed from the scene. Joe Sax, the law professor, Dave Sive, the lawyer, and Pete Seeger, the singer, were all environmentalists before the environment became a cause. I was originally going to write about Joe Sax, who died last Sunday, but then Dave Sive followed a few days later. The two were often a pair working together, one the academic theorist and the other the legal advocate. Professor Sax taught at Colorado from 1962-1966, Michigan from 1966-1986, and then at Berkeley. I was fortunate to learn from Professor Sax at Michigan. I always viewed Joe as a mentor, but so do hundreds of other law professors and lawyers. That was his greatness as a teacher. He was a true teacher; Joe Sax gave not only his knowledge, but of himself to his students over a span of five decades. He supported his former students, who were no longer students but colleagues. Indeed, he treated his students as colleagues and not as students. That was also his greatness as a person. Joe Sax was not just a pioneer of Environmental Law, but he was also the most formative in its creation. Professor Sax and Professor Bill Rodgers of the University of Washington transformed from the traditional Natural Resources Law into the new Environmental Law. They were by no means the only Environmental Law pioneers in the legal academy, but they brought the most to the field. Another star was the late Dean David Getches of the University of Colorado School of Law, who died unexpectedly a few years ago, and a friend on mine, Professor Bob Beck of Southern Illinois, a water law specialist who also died a few months ago. Joe Sax was the visionary, the legal theorist who crafted new theories for the Environmental Age. His 1970 Michigan Law Review article, "The Public Trust in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention," is probably the most influential article in Environmental Law. He traced the public trust doctrine back to ancient Roman Law roots, and posited it as a modern source of protecting our water resources. I’ve heard him say: “Only that which should be on water should be on water.” The California Supreme Court a quarter century later adopted his thesis to radically reform California Water Law and preserve Mono Lake. It was exhilarating to take three courses from him four decades ago at the onset of the Environmental Age. We were pioneers, but Joe Sax was the lead. He didn’t teach dry law, but comprehensively presented the broad socio-ecological problems, and then applied the existing law, followed by proposed changes in the law. You saw the full picture. He campaigned against DDT, an early environmental battle. DDT is still banned in the United States. Joe believed in citizen participation in judicial suits to protect the environment. We call it “standing,” which is taken for granted today, but Professor Sax paved the way. He explained the problems with the Colorado River allocation, which problems are well understood today, but which few could see in 1971. He explained Con Ed’s desire for the Storm King Mountain pumped storage facility, the Northeast Blackout of 1965, and the utility’s travails with “Big Allis.” He painted pictures in his class with his incredible breath of knowledge. We are fortunate in the Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law fields that we have few braggarts or prima donnas. Joe Sax was definitely not one. He gave freely of his time and knowledge to colleagues. Dave Sive is credited with coining the phrase “Environmental Law.” He pioneered the field, starting with famous cases to preserve the Hudson River. He blocked the Storm King pumped storage station and the Hudson River Expressway, and played a role in blocking the Westside Freeway. He litigated the merits and “standing.” He argued that “aesthetics” could provide standing in environmental cases as a legally protected value, a position accepted by the Supreme Court. His early “Scenic Hudson Preservation Council” cases are still taught to law students. He used New York’s Forever Wild Clause to protect the Adirondacks and Catskills. Dave was more than a litigator and advocate. He was a founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Friends of the Earth as well as the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), of which he was a director from 1970-1992 and then Chair of the ELI Board of Directors from 1972-1976. He also served as a director of the Sierra Club. Dave Sive also taught Environmental Law at a number of law schools, but especially at Pace. He published numerous articles in the field. Pete Seeger, best known as one of America’s greatest folk singers, was also a pioneering environmentalist. He was disgusted in the early 1960’s by the murky, polluted, fish killing Hudson River. His inspiration was to launch the sloop Clearwater in 1969 to educate the public. The campaign was a success. The stripped bass have returned to the Hudson. Malvina Reynolds wrote in 1962 a song “Little Boxes,” about the “ticky tacky little boxes” of Daly City, outside San Francisco. Pete Seeger had a hit in 1963 with the song. Turn Turn, Turn, Joseph Sax, David Sive, Pete Seeger.