Women talk more than men? Uh, yeah.

From the Londan Daily Mail

"It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied. Women really do talk more than men.

In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man. Women also speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat - and actually get a buzz out of hearing their own voices, a new book suggests.

The book - written by a female psychiatrist - says that inherent differences between the male and female brain explain why women are naturally more talkative than men. In The Female Mind, Dr Luan Brizendine says women devote more brain cells to talking than men.

And, if that wasn't enough, the simple act of talking triggers a flood of brain chemicals which give women a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts when they get a high. Dr Brizendine, a self-proclaimed feminist, says the differences can be traced back to the womb, where the sex hormone testosterone moulds the developing male brain.

The areas responsible for communication, emotion and memory are all pared back the unborn baby boy. The result is that boys - and men - chat less than their female counterparts and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent.

'Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road,' said Dr Brizendine, who runs a female "mood and hormone" clinic in San Francisco."

I've never been much of an expert on the femal mind, and I definitely have second thoughts about any research coming from a mood and hormone clinic in San Francisco, but experience around here suggests there might be something to this. The Cheat gets so caught up telling stories sometimes she can get completely dominate a conversation and even has trouble breathing. Me, I just chill on my small country road. I call it Reason Road.

Letter Came Today

"The Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California is delighted to report that you achieved a passing score on the July 2006 administration of the California Bar Examination. Congratulations; you may justly be proud of your achievement."

O.K. I will be.

U of M and the Poor

I've always thought poverty is an under-discussed aspect of the affirmative action debate. The University of Michigan, of course, has gone to great lengths to bring minority students to campus, and it does so pretty regularly at a great cost to better-suited white students.

Meanwhile, I've often theorized that truly underprivileged white kids from rural backgrounds get nothing, while privileged kids from Oakland County who just so happen to be black get welcomed into school and the life of opportunity that comes with a U of M degree. It seemed U of M and the other affirmative action defenders were ignoring the socioeconomic status of those being helped and those being hurt.

Now there is some suggestion this is more than a hunch. From today's Ann Arbor News.

"The University of Michigan is becoming less accessible to students from low-income families, according to a new report from The Education Trust, a national organization dedicated to closing the achievement gap that separates low-income and minority students from other students.

The nonpartisan foundation released a study today that graded the nation's top 50 public universities on their enrollment of underrepresented minority and low-income students.
In its report card, the foundation gave U-M an "F'' for access to low-income students. Twenty-five other schools also were given a failing grade. Seven received an "A,'' including the University of California-Berkeley.

The Education Trust looked at the percentage of students who received a Pell Grant, the federal school aid for low-income students. In 2004, the average family income for all Pell Grant recipients was $19,299.

At U-M, 13.5 percent of students in 2004 received a Pell Grant, down from 28 percent in 1992, according to the study. Meanwhile, 33.9 percent of all students going to a college or university in Michigan received a Pell Grant in 2004, up from 30.6 percent in 1992.

U-M did much better on access to minority students, receiving a "B'' on the foundation's report card, while 27 schools received an "F.'' The foundation considered the percentage of black, Latino and Native American freshmen at U-M in 2004 and compared it to the percentage of those students among the 2004 high school graduates in Michigan."

More California Bar Exam Information

True to form, it turns out the California Bar Exam was once again a very difficult test to pass.

As many of you know, I was not at all confident that I would pass. At one point I was seriously considering not taking the test because I believed I had not prepared enough. In the last few days I have heard from several people who were upset because I had convinced them that I would fail. Please indulge me while I explain how I came to that conclusion myself.

According to the official results, 8,908 took the three-day test. The overall passage rate was just 51.8 percent. First time test-takers such as myself did better (67 percent passage) than repeat takers (those who have failed the California Bar Exam at least once before). Only 15 percent of repeat takers passed.

In addition, lawyers who have been admitted at least four years in another jurisdiction were eligible to skip one of the three days. As I was sworn in to the Michigan Bar less than a year ago, I had to take the full three-day exam. Of the 319 lawyers took the two-day Attorneys' Examination, only 35.7 percent passed.

Thank God I made it. It is a huge relief. Next, before I can be sworn in and become eligible to practice law in California, I have to submit a lengthy character and fitness application and await the results of an investigation into my moral character. I am told this can take as long as eight months. But (hopefully) the hard part is over.

California Bar Exam Results

This is the entirety of the information I recieved tonight. But it really says it all.

"Aaron T. Keesler

The name above appears on the pass list for the July 2006 California Bar Examination."

Needless to say I'm elated. More to come.

Bo Schembechler R.I.P.

On the day before the University of Michigan football team plays one of the biggest games in its rich history, the man who more than anyone else has symbolized Michigan football has died.

Former Coach Bo Schembechler died today at Providence Hospital in Southfield. He was 77. Schembechler was taping his weekly TV show at the Channel 7 studios across the street from the hospital. He was presumably talking about tomorrow's huge game; the first Ohio State - Michigan game ever when the two teams were ranked number one and number two.

It is a sad day in Ann Arbor.

Chicago

Got to go see brother-in-law Will this weekend in Chicago. He's chugging along through his first semester of medical school and seems to be doing very well.

After a particularly difficult anatomy exam we took him out to blow off some steam. I've found from past experiences that there are few better ways to blow off steam than a hookah with friends. You can actually see the steam being blown off. Ding!

After a stressful beginning, Will has pretty much completely settled into his place . The only alarming thing was that he has NO food whatsoever in his apartment. None. I was so famished by the time we got to the grocery store I couldn't wait long enough to take off the pealing.

Reflections from the campaign trail

So we lost. Big. Pete Ricketts was defeated by current Senator Ben Nelson in a romp, Tuesday. Despite using $12 million of is own personal wealth ($61 spent for each vote), he only recieved 36% of the vote in the reddest of red states. Had he won, the Republican party would still control the Senate. Today the Democrats do.

The story can be found here, in today's edition of the Lincoln Journal Star.

I'm not going to say it wasn't discouraging or even really all that fun [some of the time]. Going door to door, dodging dogs and angry Democrats to ask people for their votes is difficult. Telemarketing people to get them to the polls is unpleasant. Challenging voter eligibility and voting procedures is contentious at times. We worked very hard, very long hours and really did our best to get this guy elected.

All of this sucks even more when you realize that the election was such a landslide that literally nothing I did the entire time made a lick of difference in the grand scheme of things. I could have stayed home and nothing would have been different.

But I did learn this: If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone and do unpleasant things you never imagined you would do. Like spending vacation time at the Super 8 in Omaha Nebraska, away from my wife, doing telemarketing and not sleeping.

There is a famous quote from Theorodore Roosevelt that I thought about today and thought I would share:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I don't want to be too dramatic, but I felt a little bit like that today. Then I came home to Ann Arbor to a beautiful and loving wife and ate dinner with her while we talked about her day at work. And I realized maybe everything will be OK after all.

Attack Ads

It's getting ugly here in Nebraska.

Tomorrow's the big day

Finally getting to the lawyerly stuff in the morning. Going to Lincoln to go from polling place to polling place challenging shady voter's ability to cast ballots. I haven't done this before, so I'm a little unsure how it will go, though I have no doubt it will get contentious at times. I'll have more in a few days to tell you guys how it goes.

Say this fast 100 times an hour

While people are trying to eat their dinner.

"Hi my name is Aaron and I'm a volunteer calling from the local Republican campaign headquarters. Republican Pete Ricketts is running for the United States Senate to lower your taxes, control government spending and bring change to Washington. The race in Nebraska could decide who controls the United States. Senate. It's important that you get to the polls and vote on November 7 for Pete Ricketts, Congressman Lee Terry and our Republican team. I hope we can count on your support on Election Day. Make sure you get to the polls to vote. Than you, have a good day. This cal was paid for by Nebraska families for Pete Ricketts."

FUN!

Who is this man?

And why am I spending four days in Nebraska to help him?

This is Pete Ricketts, heir to the Ameritrade fortune and a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska. He's challenging popular Democrat incumbent Ben Nelson. Probably his most intelligent move of the campaign to date was hiring my close friends, Josh and Nikki Shasserre, to work on his campaign staff.

Josh is in charge of lawyerly stuff and asked for my help on election day and in the days leading up to it. I like Pete Ricketts politics and I really like Josh and Nikki, so I jumped at the chance to help out. Not to mention I'll be meeting up with a few law school friends who have also donated their services. One friend, Mike Bryan, has been partying in Key West for so long I can't remember when he left.

I'm really looking forward to seeing these guys, working hard for Pete and, just maybe, striking a blow for justice. I'll keep you guys updated as the week goes by.