Mondays and Wednesdays, Professor Yoo teaches me Civil Procedure.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, Professor Miller teaches me International Human Rights Law, where I learn why Professor Yoo might be a war criminal.
Friends have explained to me that this sort of synergy would make a natural blog topic, so I'm giving it a shot.
I'm not going to reproduce here any quotes or happenings within the classroom. It seems cheap to position myself as a tell-all reporter within what's supposed to be a learning environment. Instead, I'll be posting some more general musings.
This post will be short, since I'm supposed to be paying attention. I'll start just by saying that the man has a quirky sense of humor; he seems animated by the prospect of sitting on the fence between comedy and malice. And yet that can be charming. In others I would call it a biting wit, indicative of superior intellect. Is he actually being loose in front of this classroom, finding a sort of sanctuary here from legions of activists calling for his head? Or is his biweekly performance a tongue-in-cheek exercise, just one element of his standing proudly up to a society that can't understand him? He chose to teach in Berkeley for a reason, after all. He must have long wanted to challenge people to question their own impressions of him.
In the end I think it's both. Class is solace and purpose for this nearly-indicted war criminal. Salary too - who would hire him?
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