The commerce clause was originally created to settle a series of disputes about who had the ability to regulate state to state shipping and commercial transactions. The Commerce Clause gave Congress that right and no one else.

In terms of wine, a wine of the month club based in California as an example should theoretically be able to ship their monthly wine selections to people in every state of the country that allows shipments of wine. New Jersey allows direct shipments of wine for their in state retailers, but currently blocks out of state retailers so the state of New Jersey should theoretically be in violation of the clause. In fact, most state Supreme Courts and a few judgments by the high court itself have ruled that the 21st Amendment which allows states to regulate the sale of alcohol, does not allow them or give them authority to violate the Commerce Clause itself.

As a comparison the state of Utah allows no direct shipments of wine and is in fact dry for most of the state. Under every ruling (which is, we’re told also supported by winemakers) the state of Utah is within its rights to stop direct shipment of wine and other alcohol in their entirety.

Given the state of current court and the economy there certainly will be pressure, but when the FTC says that direct sales should not only increase availability but also lower prices, the end result is pretty clear even if it takes years to get there.

None of this is any good. A friend of mine told me recently about toxins. About how they build up in the body and they cause us to feel lathargic and run down. For women too many toxins can lead to irregular periods. My bad skin is partly due to toxins.

I recently resolved to do something about this. I did some research on the internet and discovered bamboo vinegar foot detox patches. It seemed like a natural remedy to toxin build up. I bought a pack for a few dollars over the net. They work on the Chinese medical principal that many parts of the body are connected to the soles of the feet. The liver is where toxins are flushed from the body. The feet are connected to the liver.

As the packet suggested I put a bamboo vinegar foot patch on each foot over night. In the morning i was shocked to discover that the white patches had turned a dark grey! That is all the toxins in my body.

Bamboo vinegar has been used as medicine for centuries in China. It is made from bamboo and has strong absorbency properties. The Chinese use bamboo vinegar to treat cases of poisoning. Toxins are a type of poison. I’m convinced bamboo vinegar foot detox patches work. I now have to address the issue of eating better and joining a gym.

Recently, I have changed my opinion of Mr. Schwarzenegger. This has come about because i did some studying about Claifornia’s green laws. These cover a wide variety of topics. The most startlingly and conterntious is the law that forces automakers to make ‘maximum feasibler reductions’ in carbon emissions for all new cars in the state. The auto industry has bitterly complained saying it will cost jobs, but it seems that only California seems to be serious about curbing carbon emissions.

Hand in hand with this law is laws governing new buildings. They must use compact fluorescent light bulbs or LED lights instead of standard fluorescent light bulbs. All landlords must replace broken thermostats with new programmable thermostats that will reduce waste. Insulation must be of the highest standards. Homes must be designed with water conservation in mind. Many public gardens have scrapped their lawns and gone for cactus gardens. It is a long list of ordinances. The main point is that California has become the greenest state in the Union. And this is all under the leadership of a Republican governor.

I think this is a massive step in the right direction. Many states seek to emulate the economic success of California. Perhaps they will also realize the wisdom of passing green laws. They don’t cause job cuts. In many cases they save the state many millions of dollars. Take programmable thermostats for example. I recently installed a Honeywell RTH7600D thermostat in my parents home. Already my folks tell me they have seen a significant cut in their utility bills. The thermostat is going to pay for itself in a matter of months. It is in things such as this that new legislation can really help. I’m now toying with the idea of becoming a lawyer specializing in environmental issues.

My last trip home allowed me to get in some quality time with my father. For Christmas he had the bright idea to remodel the back yard for my mother’s gift. As he often does, I do not believe this plan was thought out well. With the best of intentions we set off to no less than 7 stores to pick up everything from bricks and plants, to rugs and one of those cool Coolaroo shade sails. Three full car loads later we found ourselves surrounded by equipment and greenery with no real course of action.

We took a few minutes to gather our thoughts before we both decided it was best to get an expert in backyard design to at the very least start us off on our way. It took five seconds for my mother to point to a plant and an area to place it. Before we knew it there was a basic layout where Dad and I only had to fill in the gaps. These made things much easier than two guys standing there looking at dirt with no clue of what to do.

Then to my surprise my father wheeled out a small contraption I have never seen before. Upon closer inspection I found it to be an old ottoman from the living room put onto wheels. He also added an old tool belt to the sides for a place for his “every day” gardening tools. My father has always been a very smart man but I would not call him handy by any means. So I was extremely surprised when he told me he came up with the idea himself.

He went on to explain he was tired of always bending down or kneeling on the floor every time Mom wanted something done in the yard. When they upgraded their living room set he thought it would be a waste to just simply toss out all the furniture so he reworked the ottoman to give him a nice height to comfortably sit or kneel in order to reduce the back stress of gardening. To my surprise he opened the top to the ottoman to reveal gloves, towels, and other cleaning supplies. I can imagine how happy my mom was when he thought up this idea. No more dragging in the dirt!

As simple as this idea seemed I did not recall seeing this anywhere else. My lovely education kicked in and I was intrigued on patenting this invention. Knowing that some 85% of all inventions will never be picked up and marketed to the general public I knew it was a long shot to get my father’s invention out to the people. As we finished laying down the bricks, and hanging our new shade I asked if I could look into patenting this for him. Reluctantly he agreed.

Sadly, after looking into the patents on gardening equipment there were several products on the market much like my father’s ottoman. However, this experience was not a complete loss. I realized how many ideas he had when it came to gardening equipment. By explaining to him his wish list could potentially make him money and solve his problems if he allowed me to become his patent lawyer his ideas are being to come to life. Although currently we do not have a product on the market we are on our way to doing so, and have more to talk about than ever before.

Koh Samui is Thailand’s second biggest island. It is the leading beach holiday destination in the country after Phuket. I had never been to Thailand before. A friend suggested that I try Koh Samui so I got on a 24 hour flight to Bangkok and transferred to a Thai Airways flight to Koh Samui Airport. I booked accommodation in Lamai.

Lamai is the second largest beach on the island. It is a gorgeous stretch of white sand that goes on for 2 or 3 kms. Since it was Christmas it was very busy. The beach was lined with sun loungers full of people making the most of the sunny weather. The sea was a little bit choppy but still pleasantly warm.

I stayed at Weekender Resort and Spa. My room had air-con, hot water, cable TV and fridge. It was clean and the interior while not stylish was clean and comfortable. The resort pool was right next to the beach. And best of all there was wifi so I could Skype home and stay in contact with what was going on in the world. Being a law student I feel a strong obligation to always know what is happening in the world, especially now that the Presidential Race has got started.

Traveling around Koh Samui I couldn’t help notice how the Thais disregard the law. Hardly anyone wore a motorbike helmet. All drivers ignored the traffic lights except for the set outside the police station in Nathon.

In Lamai town and Chaweng town I was informed that the legal closing time for bars is 1am. Many places simply ignore this rule, with, I presume, the tacit agreement of the police. Thailand has recently passed laws banning smoking in public places, and yet people smoke freely in bars and restaurants. My room has a no smoking sign and yet it also has an ashtray.

At first I found this most perplexing. The law is the law surely. What is the point of the law if people ignore it?

However, after a few days on Koh Samui enjoying the beach and the night life I came to realize that this ambivalence to the law was part of Thai culture. I made a few Thai friends who explained that the Thais are proud of their independence and don’t like the notion of strong centralized control or a nanny state. Thailand is the land of the free. On many islands and in small, isolated communities it is often the case that people administer their own version of justice. This might seem like vigilantism but for many it is preferable with having to deal with a corrupt policeman who is keener to collect bribes than keep law and order.

My 10 day holiday in Thailand refreshed my brain and renewed my determination to finish my law studies, but at the same time it made me realize the cultural limitations to the legal system.

He did make a valid point when he asked us if we thought we were eating enough fruit. Not that I avoid fruit but I know that I’d probably benefit from eating more. It just feels like a chore sometimes. What he did get me into though was looking through juicer reviews on the internet so that I can make my own juices. That’s definitely something I’m going to be more interested in. Fresh OJ is always a drink I’ve loved.

I’m still not too sure which juicer to buy but Hilby was telling me that masticating juicers are the best. They’re also not the cheapest! But spending a few hundred dollars on my health is a pretty good insurance policy.

I left the lecture understanding just how difficult it is for a patient to prevail in medical malpractice actions. There are many things stacked against them. Not only is there a central malpractice defense fund that hospitals and medical professionals are supported by, but many States have passed legislation making it difficult for patients to get the “certificate of merit” needed to move forward.

Of course I don’t support a litigious culture or ambulance-chasing by attorneys, but I do think that if a hospital or a doctor has been negligent to a patient and injured them in some way, the right to pursue compensation should be available to them. But patients also need to take responsibility for their own actions. And it’s incumbent on them to follow instructions they receive from the medical community.

The whole notion of “following instructions” led us into an interesting discussion. The lecturer brought up health information that is available online and asked us to discuss whether this should be wrapped into the whole medical malpractice debate.

Most of us in the lecture theater were broadly supportive of the growth in transparency available online about medical issues. This covers the gamut from serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease right through to less serious ones such as nail fungus treatment, skin infections or indigestion. But most of us also agreed that patients should not trust this information blindly. Reading a website is not the same as consulting with a doctor and patients need to know the difference.

Next week we will be discussing the difference between medical malpractice committed by a hospital employee (where the hospital itself may be liable as a result of “respondent superior“) and that committed by a doctor.

You probably have all been there at some time or the other, where two separate parts of your world are meeting for what is a delicate evening and you wonder who is going to say the wrong thing at the wrong time first. The problem is no one has all the background yet. Well, it seemed innocent enough but here is how it went down.

Mom made a comment and you can feel the ire of my girlfriend from across the room. This was just before dinner and the whole family was standing around the kitchen getting ready to eat.

Mom mentions to my aunt that she felt that her hair has been thinning and she was considering getting some hair loss vitamins for women that she saw advertised on the internet. Sounds normal and casual right? This would normally be just a part of a throw away conversation but you have never heard the extent to which my girlfriend has a royal disdain for pill form vitamins.

She read somewhere online, no doubt, that they end up basically passing through your system often times without even dissolving. From that time forward she has made it her mission to carry the message of liquid vitamins to the world.

The long and short of this sad story is that for the next 45 minutes everyone at the table got to hear all the evils of taking pill form vitamins and how there was not choice except liquid vitamins if you want to get your moneys worth.

The moral of my story is that I have a new item to add to the list of “never discuss” topics. You have all heard to stay away from religion and politics… now in my house we have to avoid vitamins too.

If you have ever been to the same situation, then hear me out and you might find some tips in order to overcome that procrastination that is preventing you from get going with your studies.

You probably know the feeling right? You sit down at your desk hoping that TODAY IS THE DAY when you will finally finish that 300 pages long book that you need for your final exams. Well, you can’t even get started because it is simply too much!

What I recommend you doing is to first calm your mind before you sit down to do that. I recommend getting out for a nice walk and maybe getting a nice juice somewhere in the market. If you have your own juicer at home like a Breville 800JEXL, then even better! This way you don’t need to leave home and you won’t end up wasting so much time.

So after you’ve calmed yourself, what you need to do now is to sit down at your desk and say it to yourself:

I’ll only read 10 pages.

That’s it. 10 pages do not sound a lot right? That is precisely where the whole ‘magic’ will happen.

Have you ever started cleaning your desk only to find out that you got into the flow and when you’ve realized, you had cleaned all your room!? Well, that is actually what you want to achieve when you are there with your books. You only need to get started and inertia will take care of the rest – either for good or for bad.

So that’s it. I hope this little tip will help you getting over with your law school exams so you can relax later on knowing that you have accomplished what you set as your goal