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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Storms!!


Last night, after a delicious trip to Fish Tales to celebrate Mom's birthday, I was driving back to Paris. While we had been eating, a cold front had pushed through, bringing with it a line of storms, along with some fantastic lightning. I decided to drive a little further southeast to get closer and got a couple of decent lightning pics. You can see more here on Flickr.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Update to Kennedy Sucks

Hmm, I figured I be getting some hate email just from the post title alone, ha ha.

Anyway, yesterday the SC issued a decision on the DC handgun ban - they upheld the constitution (GO SCOTUS!!) and affirmed the right for citizens to keep and bear arms, just like the 2nd amendment says. Go figure. Anyway, I got to thinking - regarding the previous post. If someone broke into my house, and I found them trying to rape my child, and I have my handgun (which is protected under the 2nd amendment), I could theoretically shoot and kill the rapist - legally. So why is that okay, but executing a child rapist is not? Just food for thought.

And yes, although I do have misgivings about the state applying the death penalty for child rapists (where no death occurred), if someone was raping my kid, you better believe I would shoot them dead (with my constitutionally protected handgun, of course!)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Oops

Apparently I can't count, but thanks to Dad (he was the one who noticed my goof) I have to admit my mistake. June 17 was the 3 month anniversary of Snicker's death, not her fourth. That would come NEXT month.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Kennedy Sucks!

No, not that Kennedy. I'm talking Justice Anthony Kennedy, aka Ol' Swingy (as in swing vote). Today, the Supreme Court issued an opinion of the Louisiana state law that required the death penalty in cases involving child rape (not necessarily where the child was killed, just rape). The opinion was 5-4 AGAINST, effectively declaring the Louisiana law to be unconstitutional.

Kennedy was the swing vote - just like in the Guantanamo detainee decision not too long ago, granting the rights we enjoy as US citizens to enemy combatants. I won't go into that here. But my point is, I expected Justices Stephens and Breyer and the other 2 to vote they way they did - to declare the law unconstitutional. Since Kennedy was appointed back in 1988, he has been a swing voter in several cases. In my opinion, he tends (somewhat) towards a libertarian stance, rather than a strict liberal or conservative leaning. And because of that, I would have expected him to side with now minority opinion (making it the majority), simply because as a fellow libertarian (lowercase 'l') the federal government should butt out where it has no business being involved.

Here's my case - feel free to disagree. The SC decision today basically says to the states that they have no right to determine when and where the death penalty can be applied - it is a federal issue. Yes, the majority opinion (written by Kennedy, I believe) said something to the effect that the death penalty is not proportional to the crime ( child rape). And although the crime is horrendous, certainly, I tend to agree with that position. The death penalty shouldn't apply when someone did not die, regardless of the horrific nature of the crime committed.

The court, however, (or rather, the majority opinion) is using it's dislike of the law itself (in a fit of judicial 'legislating from the bench') to form it's opinion. The issue here isn't whether Louisiana 's law is a bad idea - it's whether states have the right and the power to decide the punishments for crimes as they see fit. As I read the Constitution, I see a Federal government assigned certain very explicit powers, AND limitations, and anything not assigned to the federal level is reserved for the states. Period. The states are supposed to be laboratories of democracy - each state decides it's laws and how it functions (under the umbrella of the federal govt, of course), and today the SC struck a blow against state's rights and the US Constitution. Louisiana (and the other 9 states who had similar laws) were ill-served by their Supreme Court today - score one for the Federalists.

Just some thoughts.

Friday, June 20, 2008

:)

Something new I just discovered. In Gmail Chat, when you type a smiley ":)" and send it, the smiley appears as sent text, then rotates until it is horizontal. Kinda cool, something you would expect from the Google.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

4 months

Yesterday was the 4 month "anniversary" of the day I took Snickers to have her put to sleep. March 17, 2008.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Update

So it's been practically forever since my last post (May 21 or so). Not alot has happened and I don't fall in with the "posting for the sake of posting" crowd. Today I got the first touch of Road Trip Fever - I was looking back over some of my Arizona pictures and the bug just hit me pretty bad. And then the Eagles started playing on my mp3 player - they are like one of the best driving music bands ever, along with Credence Clearwater Revival. Old school, I know, but still good traveling music.

Anyway, the whole road trip thing isn't looking very likely right now. Especially with gas as high as it is. Later this year, like October or something, I might travel to Sedona, AZ and watch the fall colors. Or not. I wish I was there right now, on the road where it stretches miles and miles all the way to the horizon, with some mountains somewhere. Ahhhh...

I went to see Indiana Jones last weekend - it wasn't that great. Lucas did the same thing to Indiana Jones that he did to Star Wars - the new ones aren't that great, period.

And that's about it. Oh yeah, I think this Saturday I'm going to check out a new church that meets at Paris Coffee - at 7 PM. Church at a coffee shop? At night? I'm am SO THERE, ha ha.