Glenn -

I enjoy your articles, and often agree, but I feel like you're missing an important element here. Namely, all of these CIA agents have been convicted in absentia. I'm not an international law scholar, but I do seem to recall that such things are generally frowned upon, and that there are major multilateral treaties prohibiting it (e.g., ICCPR).

What are your thoughts as to that?

As an almost-lawyer who was similarly uncertain about the future in my early to mid-twenties, I feel obligated to give my observations about making the decision to go to law school.

1) From an economic standpoint, the legal profession is not a good alternative for people who don't know what they want to do. Law school is very expensive, and getting more expensive each year - my own school is raising tuition almost 25% this year. As a result, you're likely to wind up with six figure debt. Moreover, the legal job market is terrible. I've been fortunate enough to score a job in a small firm doing the type of work I want, but one of my best friends, who received all the right honors and an offer from a very prestigious D.C. firm, has had her start date delayed for six months. I know many others who have been pushed back a full year, or have lost their offers entirely. And, public perception notwithstanding, most starting lawyers do not have six figure salaries.

2) From a personal satisfaction standpoint, the legal profession is not a good alternative for people who don't know what they want to do. Law school means a lot of longs days and hard work. If you enjoy games and puzzles, and, of course, reading, you'll probably enjoy it. Many of my classmates, however, consider law school to be the worst thing to ever happen to them. They even have their own Facebook group to that effect. Even at a particularly collegial school, as mine was, the competition can fray nerves (and friendships) - in the end, only the best students (top 10% at our school, but probably more at an elite law school) get the high paying jobs at the big firms. But from your post, it sounds like you wouldn't be happy working for the Wal-Marts and Big Tobaccos of the world.

3) Everyone who comes to law school thinks they'll be good at law school. If they didn't, they wouldn't come. Keep in mind though, all of your classmates will have roughly comparable GPAs and LSAT scores. In other words, they're all smarty pants. Remember though, half of them have to be in the bottom half of the class.

4) All that said, law school (and I hope legal practice) can be wonderfully invigorating, and give you an opportunity to make a difference in your community. There are plenty of white knights out there fighting to protect our civil rights, the environment, or any number of other laudable causes. They may not make a million bucks doing it, but they feel great when they go to bed.

I've been a law student at Indiana for the past several years, and though I've never had the pleasure of taking a course with Prof. Johnsen, I have listened to her speak on the subject of Executive power. She is knowledgeable about the subject, and passionate about ensuring that the president remains within his or her legal authority. Furthermore, she appears to be self-possessed enough to withstand the not-inconsiderable social and institutional pressure to conform to a president's desires.

Based on my (admittedly limited) exposure, I would be surprised if she were anything less than vigilant and vocal in ensuring that we don't see a repeat of the last 8 years under the Obama administration.

I interned for a Blue Dog Democrat since the FISA issue has been going, and I can tell you that there's more going on here than meets the eye. From what I understand, this particular individual was opposed to the FISA amendments from the beginning, but was persuaded by Pelosi of its necessity; this person was incensed last summer when she voted against it. This person voted against it this summer.

I can't speak for any other Blue Dogs, nor even for that one really, but I suspect that a more fruitful effort would be in replacing the Congressional leadership.

Since beginning my first internship that put me far from the comforts of home, I've been forced to adapt to new ways of satisfying my movie/tv cravings. First, I subscribed to Netflix, and spent a surprising amount of time watching movies on my laptop with their 'watch now' option. However, at some point, I started using bittorrent to download fansubs of foreign movies and shows I like - it's been like a revelation. All I have to do is find the right torrent and I can pick widescreen or full screen, subbed or dubbed, or any of a number of other options I would associate with DVD watching.

The only drawbacks? Even with cable download speeds it can take days (or even weeks) to download particularly large files, and I'm afraid I'll run out of space on my 500GB hard drive faster than expected.

Maybe it just wasn't funny, and was in fact tasteless.