Blog = Love

I've noticed that the political / current events corner of the blogosphere seems to be inhabited by a lot of lawyers (Disclosure: I am one of them; though I am one of the disaffected that has left the practice for another calling). Now, I have no hard numbers to back that up, just a gut feeling. What's the attraction, you ask? Well, what other pasttime gives you the opportunity and even encourages you to cite authority? Badminton infrequently requires citation. Needlepoint is also somewhat sparse in this regard. Landscaping, car repair, cooking, running, golf, fishing each have one common characteristic: all can be enjoyed without a single reference to controlling or persuasive authority (unless you cheat, of course).

Ah, but political/current affairs blogging -- now THAT requires citation! Lawyers who enjoy blogging during their downtime (and, dare I say it, some during their up time) do so precisely because it makes that downtime so much like work. This tendency is learned early in the legal career. Anyone who has gone through the misery of having a relative return home from his/her first semester of law school know exactly what I am talking about: neophyte lawyers-to-be can't constrain their desire to be lawyers 24/7. As they progress through law school, they learn that not everyone in their world is as excited as they are about what Puffendorf had to say about property law or what the 2nd Circuit is now saying about securities law. So they learn to suppress the urge to cite outside of work. Lonely and torn in two, lawyers live their lives in silent despair -- that is,until blogging! Now lawyers can live their passions, even outside the workplace. They can be thought of as merely normal if they cite 2 or 3 other bloggers in their own witty piece. That is, however, until their spouse yells to them to get off the *~&#%$# computer and get something done around the house.

Sigh.

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