For those of you with a Hipster PDA like mine, you can now have a docking station.
[Via the 43 Folders del.icio.us page.]
Month: April 2005
John Manzione is trying to locate his son Andrew, with whom he has had no contact in 18 years. If you know Andrew, or if for some reason Andrew is reading this, here is John’s e-mail address.
Today President Bush posthumous awarded the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Paul Ray Smith of the U.S. Army. Sergeant Smith, in April of 2003, led a counter attack against members of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard who had ambushed Army troops at the Baghdad Airport. His actions saved more than 100 men. Only three Medals of Honor have been awarded since the Vietnam War.
We are grateful for people like Sergeant Smith, and our hearts and prayers go out to his family, especially his children. Were that more of our countrymen of Sergeant Smith’s mind.
So much for my idea of making a few bucks. This is one reason why he’s my best online bud: he won’t b.s. me.
I guess my copy editing will continue to act as a public service.
Steven Frank is going to have me lusting after the Treo 650 again.
The Divine Tribunal — excuse me, I mean the Supreme Court of the United States, as it’s officially known — has decided, by a 5-to-4 vote, that executing criminals under the age of 18 is unconstitutional.
Where, you may ask, does the U.S. Constitution say that? Well, nowhere, actually. But the Tribunal doesn’t decide what’s constitutional by consulting the Constitution. That would cramp itsstyle.
[…]
Conservatives often accuse liberal justices of “legislating from the bench.” The charge is too kind. The problem isn’t that they legislate; it’s that they lie.
As seen on the Laura Ingraham web site this morning:
“At this point I would rather have a right-wing Christian decide my fate than an ACLU member.”
— Eleanor Smith, a disabled, self-described liberal agnostic lesbian
So the team suffered its first loss of the season today, dropping to 3-1. Against an old competitor, the team collectively couldn’t get much going on offense. Our defense was fairly solid when we got to handle the ball. It was the getting-to-handle-the-ball part which proved to be the problem, as the final score was 13-4. As the old adage goes, “Hit the ball to where they ain’t,” and our opponents proved quite adept at just that.
Personally, it was a pretty good day, though that doesn’t mean much in the end. I was 3-3 at the plate, all singles. No RBIs this game. Batting clean-up, you’d think I would have been able to drive someone in, but that goes back to the team collectively not doing much on offense.
I had little to do on defense during the first two innings. I actually found myself thinking at one point, I wish someone would hit something this way. Be careful what you wish for…
I did have this great play in the 4th inning that I was proud of. One of their power hitters drove the ball right to me on the ground, a hard smack that didn’t require me to move laterally much. I corralled the ball and fired it across the infield to first, getting the out while the hitter was still a couple of feet from the bag. That felt really good, certainly the personal highlight of the day.
This was one of the teams I thought we’d have problems against, and I was right. This church used to field two teams, and it appears that this year, for myriad reasons I’m sure, they’ve consolidated in to one. The week off didn’t help much, either, at least in terms of keeping us in a playing groove, but last week was Easter, so that’s perfectly understandable for a church league. (All the leagues that play on the weekend had last weekend off.)
Nothing left to do now but shake it off and get ready for next week, though the team will have to do it without yours truly. I’ll be coming back from New Orleans next Sunday. We’re heading down to visit my wife’s family, and attend a 10-year law school reunion.
Two Republican Florida Senators could have saved Terry Schiavo’s life by voting ‘yes’ to a law. ‘The death penalty is an authorized punishment for capital crimes designated by the legislature’ (Article I, Basic Rights, SECTION 17, Florida Constitution), not the order of a county judge. The Florida House could have impeached Judge Greer (Article III, SECTION 17) for committing the felony (Florida Statute Chapter 825) of denying nutrition to a disabled person and multiple violations of guardianship (Florida Statute 744).
[…]Instead, George Greer, a black-robed priest-king, ordered that a deputy sheriff stand guard in Terry’s room and prevent her parents from giving her a cup of water. When Gov. Bush had an executive agency exercise their authority under Florida law, George Greer ordered — took executive authority — over all Florida authorities.
[…] The Roman Republic ended when Roman Law was contested by men who said, ‘the law is what I say it is.’ Civil wars begat dictators, more civil wars and dictators until the civilization was a shell to be broken by invading barbarians. American Civilization is at her Rubicon.
People seem to have forgotten that our constitutional republic’s system of checks and balances applies to all three branches of government. The judicial branch is not the final word on what the legislative and executive branches decide to do. The judiciary’s job is to ensure that what the legislative and executive branches are doing are within the boundaries of the respective constitution (federal or state). This is a job in which the judiciary has continually failed, nearly from the inception of our nation.
Likewise, the judiciary is not to engage in making up law from the bench, which has repeatedly done since the 1960s, up to and including the granting of constitutional rights never before voted upon and passed. Law is the purview of the legislature, not the judiciary bench. Rights are granted by God, not the government. The judiciary has no enforcement powers of its own; it has to rely on the executive branch to enforce any decisions it may make.
This is why I don’t see why the deputy sheriff in the Schiavo case mentioned above could not have been removed by a state trooper on orders from Governor Bush, should the governor had chosen to do so. That deputy does not answer to Judge Greer. He answers to the Sheriff, who answers either to the constituents who elected him, or to the elected county government which appointed him. The latter, in turn, is answerable to the people who put them in to office. Unless that deputy committed a crime, or is acting as a baliff in the judge’s courtroom, Judge Greer has no executive authority over him.
Judges are not the final arbiters of what the law is. They are the insurers that the law is followed, and that law does not trample upon stated constitutional rights. It is not their job to “interpet” the law; a good law should need no interpretation. I am continually amazed at how the words “Congress shall make no law…” has been applied to state and local governing bodies. Likewise, “…shall not be infringed” has become “…shall be infringed when deemed necessary.” No, it means shall not. Not then, not now, not ever. Not by a little or a lot. It means not at all. Yet we see it happen all the time, and by and large, as a populace, we do nothing about it.
If a law is unclear, then the judiciary should send it back to the legislature for a do-over. Other than that, they should keep out of the law-making business. The Constitution of the United States is plenty clear-cut on many matters. We have simply allowed what was once clear to our forebears to be muddied in our eyes.
[All emphasis throughout is added. –R]