Week 7 Pacific Heights: What are landlord’s rights?

There is no better idea in the world to have someone else pay the mortgage, or a portion of the mortgage, on your house. On the other hand, we all have had roommates in past that have just been the biggest pain in the ass, and are impossible to deal with. The major difference between your pain in the butt roommate and a tenant that has leased out a portion of your property is that they have certain rights that you must abide by. In the movie Pacific Heights, the tenant that moves in, turns out to be the worst possible tenant that could ever have moved in. In the movie, the tenant simple bullies his way into the property without ever filling out an application, or giving any kind of deposit. Soon thereafter the tenant changes the locks on the apartment, and calls the cops when he is threatened by the landlord. At this point in the movie we start to deviate from what rights the landlord has in reality and what is portrayed in the film. It is true that the landlord cannot simple just kick out his tenant based on his actions, however, since no deposit was given or formal application was ever filled out the landlord should be able to legally kick his tenant out. This however, did not happen in the movie. As the story goes on, the tenant continues to deliberately cause harm to the property as well as be excessively loud during the late hours of the night. In this particular situation, the landlord lives in the same building and the tenants. Legally the landlord has to provide a peaceful environment for is tenants to live in. This is a two way street however, the tenants must also abide by the same sound rules since the landlord lives there as well. This was also conveniently left out of the film.

Greed Is Good

Our country is currently going through extremely tough times. In the last eighteen months, the US has gone into a real estate meltdown. The unemployment rate has reached its highest point since The Great Depression, and China seems to be the perennial favorite in all aspects of the global market. All of this seemly bad news conjures up thoughts of some new direction that our country seems to have gone down. Wrong. We’ve all heard the phrase, “how soon we forget”, and our countries predicament is a prime example of this. I just watched a select few scenes from the classic Wall Street; you know the one with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, written by Oliver Stone and shot in nineteen eighty-five. There was lots of big hair and tons of art deco, but what many people might miss, is the striking similarity between how things were in nineteen eighty-five, and how they are now in two thousand and nine.
How soon we forget. Greed has been responsible for most of our countries short-comings. Greed, single handedly thrust our country into The Great Depression via the stock market. While everybody was busy pointing their fingers at who caused the collapse, greed was busy plotting up the next attack. We are now currently living through greed’s latest attack on our countries economy. Do we not learn as a country? The answer is no. We remember, but we never seem to get it right.
There is a perfectly good explanation for our countries reliance on greed. It’s called The American Dream, and we all want a piece of it. Part of The American Dream's rules, are that the best man wins, or in Wall Street’s case, the most despicable, cold-hearted individual we can find to invest our money, and line our pockets with labor less money is the man we want running our country’s biggest businesses. It’s that simple people. Greed is forever woven into the fabric of our country, and greed, will be the catalyst that brings our country out of the ruins.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings greed to sign Brett Farve will undoubtedly cost them a shot at anything this season, and for this reason, Brett Farve has unanimously beat out all others for the coveted Whack-a-Doll. Once he throws an interception, simply take out the included five pound football shaped weight, and smash it against the Hall-of-Famer. At least you’ll gain a little enjoyment out Brett ruining your day.

What My Classmates Think Of The Legal System

The business law class that I am currently enrolled in, is filled with a variety of students that all have varied views on what our legal system means to them. Crystal Burrell has used a very cleaver analogy to explain her views of the legal system. “I see it as a collar on a dog’s neck. The collar is used as a training tool that is used to keep the dog in line. You get a new dog and at first, he does not quite understand the rules of your house so naturally he just runs around doing whatever he wants until you establish what he can do and where he can go.” I agree with Crystal, we all must learn how our legal system works, and also must adhere to the rules that are in place.
I next read William Cross's post, and was reminded of the power diffusion that our legal system has incorporated. “Our legal system is like the mythological Hydra. As our society got bigger and bigger the legal system had to “cut off its own head” or separate its power in order to keep up.” Its very important to recognize that when we separated from England as a new country, we did not want a government that was run by a king. The best way to achieve this, was to not give any one branch of government, or agency, to much power. I believe William's quote to be spot on.
My final blog review was from Gustavo Ibarra, and like many of the other students, Gustavo feels there is a need for change. Gustavo believes that the ethical decisions that lawyers make should be the focal point of any changes that are made. “Of course there are many that think that the legal system is a joke and feels that it needs to be changed. I feel that it is not that the legal system needs to be changed but of practice of lawyers and government officials. I feel that a lot abuse makes the legal system not work correctly.” My final review of our legal system is that it is binary. There can only be one winner, and unfortunately, the losers pay a hefty price when the decision is handed down. Because of this we will always have controversy when it comes to our legal system, and because there will always be winners and losers when it comes to the legal system, no perfect legal system will ever exist.

Week 4: Used Cars Joe, Jackie, and Anton

Used Cars: Joe, Jackie, and Anton
1. No smoking –tort
2. Battery-crime
3. Illegal gambling-crime
4. Vandalism- crime
5. Bribery- crime
6. Perjury-crime
7. No contract over $500- tort
8. None license drivers driving- crime
9. Passengers in the bed of truck- crime
10. Tampering with video- tort
11. No seat belts- crime
12. Destruction of private property- tort
13. Breaking speed limit- crime
14. Leaving the scene of accident- crime
15. Driving off road- crime
16. Driving unauthorized vehicle-crime
17. Assault with chain- crime
18. Cursing over radio waves- crime
19. Illegal railroad crossing- crime
20. Fraud- crime
21. Pulling a firearm in public- crime
22. Force full restrain- crime
23. Loitering- crime
24. Sexual assault- crime
25. Illegal towing- crime
26. Drug trafficking- crime
27. Didn’t stop for cop-crime
28. Reckless in danger- crime
29. J-walking- crime
30. No registration- crime