Indiana University - Bloomington students taking questions Forum

[thmgoodw]

If you want a real gym, you have to go here: http://www.ironpit.com. They have been the Indiana state powerlifting champions for many years.

If you just want to ride a stationary bike while checking out co-eds, just to go the main IU facility.

Edit: The ironpit is open 24 hours with your own swipe card, so I used it all the time at odd hours. Also, if you can't deal with 120 pound women squatting more than you, it probably isn't your place.

Not to interrupt lively discourse, but I have another question. And this one is IMPORTANT.

Actually, I was just wondering about the gym situation in Bloomington. My Google research makes it look not so good, but I wanted to collect some first-hand opinions.

Thanks all.

[thmgoodw]

I never picked up the religious part necessarily, but yes I'm almost sure that Hoffmann leans conservative. Not only did he clerk for Rehnquist, but he made it pretty clear that he agreed with the opinions he wrote on Rehnquist's behalf. That, and I went to his office one time and he had a "Confirm Roberts" sticker on the door. Honestly, the only question in my mind is how conservative he is.

The odd part, unless he has changed his position, was that Hoffman was against the death penalty. You wouldn't know that from CrimPro, CrimLaw, or a Death Penalty Seminar I took with him, but if you read his scholarly writing on the subject that was my take away. I always assumed it was the opposite.

[danquayle]

I never picked up the religious part necessarily, but yes I'm almost sure that Hoffmann leans conservative. Not only did he clerk for Rehnquist, but he made it pretty clear that he agreed with the opinions he wrote on Rehnquist's behalf. That, and I went to his office one time and he had a "Confirm Roberts" sticker on the door. Honestly, the only question in my mind is how conservative he is.

The odd part, unless he has changed his position, was that Hoffman was against the death penalty. You wouldn't know that from CrimPro, or a Death Penalty Seminar I took with him, but if you read his scholarly writing on the subject that was my take away. I always assumed it was the opposite.

Come to think of it, I do actually recall him briefly mentioning he was against the death penalty... or stating support for it as hypocritical... or something.

[Unjust Enrichment]

Unlike many other political issues which are inevitably interrelated, the death penalty sort of does stand on its own. To me, a person can take either stance on it without having it be significantly contradictory of the rest of their ideology.

[thmgoodw]

Unlike many other political issues which are inevitably interrelated, the death penalty sort of does stand on its own. To me, a person can take either stance on it without having it be significantly contradictory of the rest of their ideology.

Show me one conservative supreme court justice who is against the death penalty. I'm pretty sure it can't be done. I'm not talking about Joe down the street who seems pretty "conservative" here. But, it is my experience that conservative legal scholars (and those political pundits who like to think they are lawyers), are almost universally pro-death penalty. If Roberts came out and said "yea, the death penalty is bad", wouldn't you be shocked?

[Unjust Enrichment]

Unlike many other political issues which are inevitably interrelated, the death penalty sort of does stand on its own. To me, a person can take either stance on it without having it be significantly contradictory of the rest of their ideology.

Show me one conservative supreme court justice who is against the death penalty. I'm pretty sure it can't be done. I'm not talking about Joe down the street who seems pretty "conservative" here. But, it is my experience that conservative legal scholars (and those political pundits who like to think they are lawyers), are almost universally pro-death penalty. If Roberts came out and said "yea, the death penalty is bad", wouldn't you be shocked?

Well I can't, but in all honesty I don't think I've run into any study of a death penalty case in law school so I'm not particularly well-versed on every conservative justice's view on the subject. Didn't claim to be either. All I said was that it really has no interrelation to the rest of the conservative ideology; yes, conservatives predominantly do favor it, but my statement was simply that opposing it wouldn't cause any domino effect of inconsistency with the rest of their platform.

EDIT: But Catholics are almost always against it, aren't they? I guess, considering that, it wouldn't shock me THAT much if Roberts or Alito at least had reservations against it.

[thmgoodw]

Well I can't, but in all honesty I don't think I've run into any study of a death penalty case in law school so I'm not particularly well-versed on every conservative justice's view on the subject. Didn't claim to be either. All I said was that it really has no interrelation to the rest of the conservative ideology; yes, conservatives predominantly do favor it, but my statement was simply that opposing it wouldn't cause any domino effect of inconsistency with the rest of their platform.

I guess I wasn't talking about a domino effect, merely that pro-death penalty is highly correlated with a conservative legal scholar ideology, and that is why I was surprised when I saw Hoffman's views.

EDIT: But Catholics are almost always against it, aren't they? I guess, considering that, it wouldn't shock me THAT much if Roberts or Alito at least had reservations against it.

One would think...but, there really are two schools of Catholics. There are those who think like nuns. They are almost universally against the death penalty, abortion, etc. Then, there are the Catholics who actually have more in common with born-again Protestants then they do with the Catholic Church. Alito clearly falls into the latter category. He might as well be an evangelical. Roberts I think might actually fall a bit more in the middle, to be fair.

Of course, as an agnostic, I think they are all nuts.

[Bankhead]

Bill O'Reilly is a noted conservative who is anti death-penalty. He's a Catholic, I think.

[thmgoodw]

Bill O'Reilly is a noted conservative who is anti death-penalty. He's a Catholic, I think.

We are talking about correlation here. Most white guys can't jump, yet a few can. If I find a white guy with a 30 inch vertical, that doesn't mean that white guys as a whole have ups. In fact, when I see one that does I take notice.

P.S. I would consider O'Reilly more libertarian than conservative. On the other hand, political commentator Glen Beck is just plain conservative.

[Bankhead]

Bill O'Reilly is a noted conservative who is anti death-penalty. He's a Catholic, I think.

We are talking about correlation here. Most white guys can't jump, yet a few can. If I find a white guy with a 30 inch vertical, that doesn't mean that white guys as a whole have ups. In fact, when I see one that does I take notice.

P.S. I would consider O'Reilly more libertarian than conservative. On the other hand, political commentator Glen Beck is just plain conservative.

He's just plain psycho.

Interesting you'd consider O'Reilly libertarian. I remember him being more of a neo-con, but I haven't watched the show in years.

[thmgoodw]

Interesting you'd consider O'Reilly libertarian. I remember him being more of a neo-con, but I haven't watched the show in years.

I guess part of it is I don't buy most of what he is saying. He comes across to me as a libertarian spouting other crap to get attention and ratings.

Of course, if I was a betting man, I would think O'Reilly would be against the death penalty on the grounds that sometimes juries make f*cked up decisions (i.e., mistrust of his fellow man), rather than an inherent belief that killing is wrong.

[kings84_wr]

Unlike many other political issues which are inevitably interrelated, the death penalty sort of does stand on its own. To me, a person can take either stance on it without having it be significantly contradictory of the rest of their ideology.

I agree with this. I consider myself conservative and anti-death penalty.

Plus you can say its not cost justified on top of the moral issues.

[Spoonmanners]

LOL, buxbaum teaches first year classes? She never did that back in the day. Basially IBT, Seurities, Secured Transactions. You know, the classes that are actually relevant. I should stop wasting your time though, so that you an find that open job flipping burgers at McD's for $9 an hour. Good luck with that. Maybe you can chat with the "fry guy" about how great Williams is.

Sorry 1L's and potential 0L's, but this guy is apparently part of the illustrious IU alumni network.

[LogosEther]

Spoon, you should be a private investigator, dude. I always thought that'd be fun, for real.

As for the gym questions:

I think the gyms are pretty good. The equipment is not the newest cutting edge stuff, but it's not old or run down by any means.And there is plenty of it. At peak time, the gyms can get crowded but not really enough to disrupt your workout and I've seen way worse. I've never seen anyone wait for cardio machines, at least.

There are two main gyms on campus, the HPER and the SRSC. They're both pretty centrally-located.

The HPER is more old school, and most grad students I know go there. It has a lot of bball courts (10, I believe...). It has around 10 racquetball courts. Then it has a bunch of alternative gyms around the building where clubs like Tae Kwon Do and Dance hold practices. There are a bunch of outdoor tennis courts, too. You can rent your own locker for $$ or you can check out a locker every day for free. Towel service is available for a pretty low annual or semi-annual charge.

The SRSC is "nicer", whatever that means. It's a bit more undergraddy and fratty, but hey, that's alright. It also has bball courts and racquetball courts. In addition, the SRSC has a really nice pool. Like the HPER, it has locker rental, locker check-out, and towel service. They have a bunch of classes like spinning, boot camp, etc., which all cost extra money but they're not terribly expensive (spinning is like $3 per session if you buy a pack of 7).

I like how you can check out a bunch of stuff (bballs, tennis/racquetball racquets and balls, etc.) and use those facilities for free. Some schools don't have racquet checkouts and stuff like that. My main beef with the rec facilities is their hours. On weekdays they close at 11:30 (I think), which isn't bad, but I sometimes I like doing late night stuff.

[LogosEther]

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[danquayle]

LOL, buxbaum teaches first year classes? She never did that back in the day. Basially IBT, Seurities, Secured Transactions. You know, the classes that are actually relevant. I should stop wasting your time though, so that you an find that open job flipping burgers at McD's for $9 an hour. Good luck with that. Maybe you can chat with the "fry guy" about how great Williams is.

Sorry 1L's and potential 0L's, but this guy is apparently part of the illustrious IU alumni network.

Hm, do you know who I am Spoon? So much for internet anonymity.

[Spoonmanners]

Hm, do you know who I am Spoon? So much for internet anonymity.

Nope, I'm only certain you aren't Dan Quayle. Most of the time I just find out on accident.

[FromtheD]

Just curious reading some of what's been said-- does the school/student body lean left or right? I hear Bloomington is pretty liberal compared to the rest of Indiana, but what's the word on the law school?

[kings84_wr]

Just curious reading some of what's been said-- does the school/student body lean left or right? I hear Bloomington is pretty liberal compared to the rest of Indiana, but what's the word on the law school?

Its really relative. law school is going to be liberal, but to what extent is tough to really say. If you are comparing to the rest of indiana ( or at least minus Indianapolis, South bend, Gary etc.) then IU is very very liberal. If you are comparing to other law schools Its a little bit different.

Since ive been to two law schools now i can say that Comparing IU to UCLA is pretty night and day, not saying that IU is not liberal, just that the student body at UCLA is far more to the left then IU. I would say IU is more moderately liberal I guess. I do remember in Williams Con law, last year out of the 120 people in the class, only 2 or 3 raised their hands when asked if abortion was morally wrong.

For what its worth the federalist society at IU is pretty small.

As far as profs go, i'd say that a lot were liberal: Shreve, Krishnan, Williams etc. But there were also the more libertarian or conservative profs, Heidt, and we talked about possibly Hoffman. And some I really have no idea, like Steele.

So really from that perspective i think it was pretty balanced, but still what is conservative for a law student or law professor is not conservative for the general public.

[thmgoodw]

I think that is a fair assessment. BTW, i'm assuming we are talking about "liberal" and "conservative" in the social (rather than economic context). On the social issues, the vast majority are what I consider some form of liberal, in that they are pro-choice, don't have any moral issues with gay marriage, etc., and in fact can only think of a couple I would consider true social conservatives. Of course, some of the population borders more on socialist than liberal, but hey, it is the People's Republic of Bloomington.

Just curious reading some of what's been said-- does the school/student body lean left or right? I hear Bloomington is pretty liberal compared to the rest of Indiana, but what's the word on the law school?

Its really relative. law school is going to be liberal, but to what extent is tough to really say. If you are comparing to the rest of indiana ( or at least minus Indianapolis, South bend, Gary etc.) then IU is very very liberal. If you are comparing to other law schools Its a little bit different.

Since ive been to two law schools now i can say that Comparing IU to UCLA is pretty night and day, not saying that IU is not liberal, just that the student body at UCLA is far more to the left then IU. I would say IU is more moderately liberal I guess. I do remember in Williams Con law, last year out of the 120 people in the class, only 2 or 3 raised their hands when asked if abortion was morally wrong.

For what its worth the federalist society at IU is pretty small.

As far as profs go, i'd say that a lot were liberal: Shreve, Krishnan, Williams etc. But there were also the more libertarian or conservative profs, Heidt, and we talked about possibly Hoffman. And some I really have no idea, like Steele.

So really from that perspective i think it was pretty balanced, but still what is conservative for a law student or law professor is not conservative for the general public.

[danquayle]

Just curious reading some of what's been said-- does the school/student body lean left or right? I hear Bloomington is pretty liberal compared to the rest of Indiana, but what's the word on the law school?

Yes, it is relative. Bloomington has the left leaning intelligensia you'd expect of a college town, but I'd actually say the student body at large is fairly conservative for a big college campus... pretty reflective of Indiana itself as you'd expect.

So, relative to Indiana as state, campus is liberal. But relative to Ann Arbor? Not nearly. If you're a conservative, you'll find ears willing to listen.

Of course, the law school is more liberal yet than the undergrad population.

[Bankhead]

I found that most of the faculty and student body leans to the left. I wish there was more balanced discourse and less emphasis on political correctness. Though I did find that when I argued more conservative view points, they were well received so long as I supported them well analytically.

I'd imagine this political culture is true for the vast majority of academic institutions, and law schools in particular.

[LogosEther]

I don't know if I'm just blind to it, but I really have encountered zero political tension so far. Maybe I just don't start up political discussions or anything, or maybe it's because I haven't yet gotten involved in clubs with potential to be super-political (Federalist, Environmental Law, etc.), but it seems to me that most people are pretty open minded. I know openly gay students and I know Mormon students. Neither stand out or are looked down upon, the class generally gets along (so far).

[kings84_wr]

My favorite moment of all first semester was sitting on a bench right after Citizens United came out and listening to Heidt passionately talk to a couple people about it. The guy was practically yelling about the Alito and Obama state of the union conflict and going on and on and about how it didn't overrule hundreds of years of precedent but just a few years of Mccain Feingold.

[beidoun]

This might of been asked already but how difficult it is to get into JD/MBA at IU-B after your first year?