Where did that week go?
Now Playing: Tour de France
Topic: Physical Well Being
Only 12 miles biked yesterday. New contacts picked up yesterday. OH so exciting. I can see all the way around again. Noticed a glitch in the matrix here, that this blog was set a week behind itself. Me not paying attention to the date made it possible.

Saturday
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Al Jarreau-My Foolish Heart- new 2004
Topic: Physical Well Being
Hey Princess K

Fifteen miles today. Not that great but all at once in the evening. Rained in the morning and threatened the evening but what's a bit of rain. Spent the day at the Bird Shop visiting with my friends there. A couple of big guys-macaws got to go home in the last few days and I watched a couple go home today. Got some of Chapels Saturday chili which was good as always. Like a family there. Of course the bowl of chili was more than I needed to eat for the day but sometimes you just gotta eat a friend's chili. :-)

Edited Out-Persona Non Gratis--

Houston- We Have Ignition Thank You
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Blink 182 -I Miss You / Addicted To You-Simple Plan
Topic: Mysteries of Life
This is where a big picture of a picnic table won't be seen. Although I am fond of it now. Other than that, all systems are a go. After constant exercise that I was motivated to engage in after a bad fright, I find that in a few weeks I am better able to withstand the elements and am able to wander the earth with a bit more confidence. The down side of that is I'm a aching mess at the moment. :-) But sacrifices must be made. I'll be up and biking a good 12 miles early in the morn. Although, I am not looking forward to that bike seat. Thanks goodness for the positive example of Lance Armstrong and the other riders at the Tour de France, - helps keep me going out and burning my thighs.

503 Service Unavailable Slashdot down WTF?
Well that is a surprise and something I have never seen before, the beloved Slashdot being down for some unknown reason, it says 503 Service Unavailable and I have no earthly idea what a 503 Service Unavailable code stands for. I know what it means, - no Slashdot. That's kind of frightening. But then folks are in front of my house digging up a busted water main so just about anything is possible in this here world. :-)


No big whoop- Slashdot is back up, they were doing server maintenance and were gone for three hours according to the article posted on Slashdot explaining why they would be offline for a while. -The ensuing crisis to geekdom is suitably documented Slashdot. And in happier news the water main is repaired. There is only a unsightly big giant hole in the driveway which will be fixed tomorrow. Hopefully.

Your Bike Mileage May Vary
Now Playing: Martine McCutcheon-Wishing
Topic: Physical Well Being
Up at eight in the morning, as I've been for the last week and out to ride at least 9 miles on the bike. I've had to put a softer seat on it, one with a nice little flashing light for those early morning or late evening bike rides when I'd rather not get squished by an inattentive truck driving, trying to get home quickly kind of person. Yesterday was 18 miles in all, the day before it was 18 miles, the day before that was 24 miles. It works out to about 45 minutes on the bike riding a constant pace. Out to the gym at least three times a week- to pump me up, to further work that cardiovascular as well as tone up a bit more. Woohoo.

Response to 'gadlaw knows me'
Now Playing: Renee Olstead-Female Jazz Vocalist
Topic: Law
Someone who knows me but didn't identify themselves commented on the last comment I made about the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. (by the way-it's okay to come out the closet) That person said

"The prisoners at Guantaanamo bay do not have the same rights as you or me, due to the fact that they are POW's."

Um, No. Not correct. If the prisoners at Guantaanamo were called POW's-(Prisoners of War) they would be afforded a good number of rights as per the Geneva Convention concerning prisoners rights. The United States signed onto this treaty in 1949 as have most civilized nations in the world. This treaty provides for humane treatment, certain rights, red cross visits etc. Geneva Convention

The problem is that the prisoners in Guantaanamo are afforded- or have been afforded, no status at all. This means according to the government, they could be held indefinitely. This means, incarceration forever, without a hearing, without a trial. This in itself is not an american value or trait. It is a trait and value of all communist and all dictatorships in the world. The hauling away of people in the middle of the night, no due process, no following humane treatment as per treaty-the actions of 'evil' countries.

What treating people who may or may not be terrorists (remember that they have had no hearings, nobody to speak up for them to defend them) in this 'nonamerican' fashion does, is to denigrate the values of America. Prisoners of War are given rights through treaties that we have signed. American citizens have rights assured to them through the constitution of the United States and their state constitutions and those rights are constantly being shaped by laws that are passed and by judgments by judges and ultimately the Supreme Court. Of course, the use by the Bush administration of the 'Material Witness' aspect of the law which allows them to grad someone and also hold them indefinitely without trial or hearing is also being challenged and will be determined to be blatantly unconstitutional.
Material Witnesses

The people in Guantaanamo are unique in the fact that the Bush administration has decided, against international law, and against the constitution, that no rights at all can be afforded to them. -The Supreme Court has said NO- that is not correct. These are people picked up in Afghanistan, many of whom have been demonstrated to have been completely innocent of anything other than being in Afghanistan, people who have been incorrectly and mistakenly hauled up and put in a prison for years before being let out-people without recourse or rights- if you can tell me why under any circumstances that this is 'American' or demostrates the freedom and rights that we as Americans fight for and die for, then you are indeed a wizard. -

prisoners at Guantanamo Bay- "You Have Rights"
Topic: Law
Only a couple of years late but the people captured in the war in Afghanistan are getting some small level of due process afforded to them. Prisoner Rights RevealedDue Process

In the words of attorney for some 51 of the prisoners, Rachel Meerpool, he described the procedures being contemplated as "inadequate and illegal, and they fail to satisfy the Courts ruling." This is pretty typical when the government feels no great compulsion to comply with court rulings they disagree with. The government will go very slowly and with as little actual progress towards compliance as possible. In the rage that followed the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center it's understandable that any feeling human would act in a vengeful and rage filled way. But the government isn't allowed to do that. It's supposed to be there to protect us and to follow the constitution which is supposed to be our ultimate protection- from the government. When a government goes past the letter and the spirit of the constitution the only thing to seperate us from the dictatorships and totalitarian governments we rail against is our hollow rhetoric. In that case you have China and others responding to our complaints about their human rights violations with valid complaints about us. For every human being that is denied human rights in Guantanamo we are all lessened for it. Yes, we are enraged by the attacks and those people who attacked us attacked our way of life, they attacked our visions of our own freedom and our response to that was to lessen our own freedoms. It's not right, the government knows it's not right and yet they do it. They fight battles in court that they cannot win (if the constitution has any meaning at all) and they defend the idea that rights and constitutionality don't apply to everyone. It's our shame.

Homemade Flamethrower-Smells like Victory


I was dumbfounded when I saw this posted over at Gizmodo.com . Good lord I followed the link and there in all it's geeky glory was the step by step picture history of the creation of this pvc pipe flamethrower. A flamethrower tht shoots 25 feet. Homemade, by a teenager, the one pictured above. Amazing.

Neck Deep in Code-The pains of updating
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: NPR- Talk of the Nation
Topic: Mysteries of Life


I find myself sitting here with my happy DHTML menu software and having to relearn how to write and deal with DHTML. Arrgh. Most frustrating. My email address on the site is wrong and I'm trying to load up a friends biking page, I mean the page is up but I don't have the menu leading anyone there yet. Sort of a good idea. I've put a few pictures of some friends up, recent parties and such. House cleaning stuff, very exciting. Butterflies, a sweet and thoughtful token. I find presents like that to be most meaningful. Time to dive back into the menu problems.

Great News for Constitutionality
Now Playing: Tough Crowd-Comedy Central Show
Topic: Law
Great News for Constitutionality

All kinds of good news from the Supreme Court which comes on the heels of the recent (bad) Hiibel decision (which allows the states to stop you and require you give your name-beyond the Terry Stop rules). There is the MISSOURI v. SEIBERT decision which said that the Miranda warning decision is still quite valid. Police must inform you of your rights to remain silent and that anything you say can and will be held against you. The 'work around' employed by police increasingly has been to question a person, then mirandize them, then question them again and then using the first interrogation to work the confession, information they are looking for. No no no said Justice Souter, joined by Justice Stevens, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer-with Justice Kennedy in concurrence. By saying no to this strategy, the police can no longer use it as a interrogation technique.

HAMDI et al. v. RUMSFELD,- Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen was in Afghanistan when Northern Alliance people caught him. When the US figured out that he was American, he was taken to the US and has been in the Brig for the duration. He had been labeled as a 'enemy combatant' which would give him, according to the government, no rights at all and in fact this designation would make him eligable to be kept in jail, without lawyers and without contact -Indefinitely. Justice O'Connor, joined by The Chief Justice, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Breyer, concluded that although Congress authorized the detention of combatants in the narrow circumstances alleged in this case, due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decisionmaker. The court said that you can't just throw someone in a hole and forget about them, theoretically, he gets his day in court. We know that it takes an interminal amount of time to get your day in court even if there is no question about your right to be there. This guy, perhaps a bad guy, has spent that time in a cell and he is still in a cell. Logically, constitutionally, by every idea of what is supposed to be good about America, you cannot be tossed into a cell indefinitely, this brings to mind the horror stories about the Man in the Iron Mask, -the sorts of things that happen in historically distant times or in third world dictatorships. We could feel superior in the knowledge that we are protected by a constitution and those idiots in other countries weren't. Instead, we are forced to sit here for years and hope that the Supreme Court does the right thing for the constitution and the country.
Having said that, if the government has a case then they should bring it, and if they don't then let him go.


RASUL et al. v. BUSH- Do the Guantanamo Bay people have any rights at all? Again, they've been there for years now with the US government saying of course these folks have no rights and we could keep them detained indefinitely. No review of their detention, of their incarceration, of their situation. Well of course, it's not like they are americans after all with rights, like say, umm, Hamdi? Padilla? Oops, never mind bad argument. Again, late but the Supreme Court does the right thing, Held: United States courts have jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals captured abroad in connection with hostilities and incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay.

RUMSFELD V. PADILLA- Let's see, oops guys, wrong district, please refile again.

Judge Diddles, loses control-removed from Bench
Now Playing: Wallflowers-One Headlight
Topic: Law
I can't let this one pass on by. Courtesy of The Drudge Report, courtesy of The Smoking Gun comes the story of a Judge who found that his own pecker was more interesting and more important than his distinguished life as a Judge. Incredible but true, at least if court filings were to be believed and come to think of it, that does not make them true. Ahem, the allegations though, the ones calling for the removal of District Judge Donald D. Thompson for a violation of Canons 1,2 and 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, 5 O.S. 2001, Ch. 1, App. 4 and for Conduct Constituting an Offense Involving Moral Turpitude in Violation of Oklahoma Constitution Article VII -A sec 1(B) basically said that the good Judge was caught on many occasions whacking off in his seat, during trials and using a number of noisy devices to accomplish this feat. Completely amazing and here is the link Smoking Gun Whack Off Judge

Most folks will find this story funny and shocking. The real thing to think about in all of this is that while hopefully Judges whacking noisily during trials in their courtrooms is rare indeed it is important to note that it went of for a very long time with a lot of people knowing about it. The thing to think about here is the fact that Judges generally have too much power with little oversight to hold their behavior in check. If a man can whack off, dig a whole in his desk, use noisy devices, and fire people around him who are 'cooperating' with the investigation against him what do you think a judge with as few scruples can do when his misconduct is more mundane and his power is so complete? Power in any form is corrupting and we are flawed creatures. Judges, like everyone else need to be under a effective oversight to keep them under the law and under control.

Completely out of the blue comes the long awaited and never expected sequel to Ministry's amazing Psalm 69. Psalm 69 came out in 1992 and I got a cassette copy of it back in the day through my trusty Columbia House music subscription. It was on that list of 3 dollar cassettes you could buy after you had purchased your required one at regular price. I had no earthly idea what it was or what it would be like, I just liked the interesting cover art and heck it was three dollars. I got it out of the mailbox one day and was straight into the car with me and my little pile of new tapes. Strange, I remember where I was, in Colorado Springs, and going to pick someone up when I put that cassette into the stereo. If you've never heard Ministry then I doubt I can describe it with any justice at all. It's a throbbing, screaming, end of the world cacphony which comes at you like a thousand freight trains, thunderstorms and tornados all at once. Relentless, unflinching and still strangely rythmic through it all even as your mind attempts to make sense of the riot in your head. Driving in Colorado Springs, the face of Pikes Peak in front of me and the sun starting to set, I pulled the car over the first time I heard Ministry's Psalm 69. To just listen and absorb the remarkable music the likes of which I had never heard I sat there numb yet with my mind on fire. Very cool stuff.

Now I find out yesterday that a new Ministry CD is out. This has happened before of course, I remember bitterly when Filth Pig came out. The cover art was gross, I said, hum, well let's get it any ways. I remember the Best Buy guy saying that it was different and if I liked Psalm 69 I might not like this one. He was right, it was ordinary. Like a bunch of other stuff out and I was horribly disappointed. I left it at that. The new Ministry CD comes out, ho hum says I. Then I read a few reviews that tell me there is finally a worthy sequel to Psalm 69. Whoa, that got my attention. "House of the Mole" is the name of the new CD. Okay, I get myself a listenable copy, put on those headphones and there, in all it's magnificence is the Ministry I remember. Wow. Ministry is back with some hard music. About time and rock-head bang on.

Let's See Your Papers Old Man- Hiibel
Now Playing: Dulce Pontes-Portuguese Music
Topic: Law
Let's see your Papers Old Man-Hiibel

I read the Supreme Court decision HIIBEL v. SIXTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT OF
NEVADA, HUMBOLDT COUNTY, et al. today. Actually I read some of the news reports, then I read the
decision then I read some more of the reports in light of actually having read the decision.
Naturally, some of the reports were hysterical and others were less so. To me, the Supreme Court
has given up it's fictional mantle of dispassionate decision making ability a long time ago if
it ever really existed except in grade school classes. I know the force and strength of the
court lies somewhat in the illusion that it is the "Supreme Court" and as such it makes the
proper decisions. If this was in any way true then the whole battle over Supreme Court nominees
wouldn't be such a war. But the Congress, the President and everyone else knows that the
decisions of the Supreme Court are less a matter of right and wrong and Constitutionality and
more a matter of right and left. If only Al Gore would have been confirmed as the President
based on his winning of the popular vote and of winning the electorial college vote then perhaps
another Justice would have retired and a different fellow would have been on the Court. This
would have made a different decision today and every other day. Of course, that didn't happen,
the old Justices hold on with a death grip to their places hoping and waiting to be replaced by
someone of their own political and philosophical bent because its really only a matter of
philosophy and political viewpoint. It isn't about what is Constitutional at all. The argument
about what is constitutional starts off with ideology and goes from there in it's many
intellectual trappings. Original intent, living constitution, all just the intellectual
trappings used to excuse the viewpoints. Well, in the Hiibel case welcome to another step closer
to the day when all your rights and all your freedoms are gone. Like an old 30's black and white
movie the nazi police come in and demand everyones 'papers' we are another step closer to that
reality. The use of the image of a nazi policeman demanding everyones papers brought justifiable
horror and distaste when used in the movies. It was another illustration of why the Nazi's must
be defeated by the forces of good and the forces of freedom. Well sorry, what a difference some
70 years makes. It turns out the police can ask you for your papers without any reason. I mean
really, you know and I know that they can make up the justification later on. "That person was
acting suspiciously", "he matched the description of a known bankrobber.

The slippery slope has never been slippier. The slope has never been more inclined. The excuse
of terrorism, the excuse of enemies everywhere that was trotted out in the 50's is now here for
good. We know the truth of it because some terrorists, some jihadists destroyed the World Trade
Center towers. So we know the bad guys are everywhere, taking liberties away for security is
therefore justified. And a big government needs to know what each and every citizen is doing
anyways. It's all so logical and all so insidious. The time of freedom is over, the time of the
illusion of freedom is over as well. Perhaps it never really existed but it did in the ethos and
the mythology of America. It existed in the mind of a man, perhaps not a just and virtuous man.
but a man in Nevada who thought that he didn't have to tell the police his name. A man who
thought that part of being an American meant that he didn't have to give his name to police when
he wasn't driving and wasn't engaged in any crime. Welcome to America where it's a crime to not
tell the police your name. But of course, they already do know your name. They know where you
live, they know what you do, your credit history and the books you buy. Welcome to the future,

Welcome to the present.

The Volokh Conspiracy-Men and Sexy
Now Playing: Dulce Pontes-Lagrimas
Reading the Volokh Conspiracy, as I often do and read the bit that Eugene wrote about how men generally refuse to do anything to make themselves more appealing to the opposite sex. I've been trying to think whether that is true or not. Undoubtedly we want women, we desire women and perhaps we expect them to just fall over on us without any effort on our parts. Humm, I know men are happy and surprised when a woman decides that they are attractive. Then they might start combing their hair but that's usually about the extent of the effort that is made. But then a lot of men would do anything, move heaven and earth to attract women and to keep them. I agree that a lot of men are no good, shiftless bums who won't so much as get a job which is a pretty low standard for a woman to have just to find a fella. A good head scratcher.



Now the music I'm listening to at the moment, the CD Lagrimas by the portuguese female artist Dulce Pontes, is really beautiful. Mellow and with a voice that is clear, she reminds me of Basia. I can't understand a single word but that doesn't matter. It's worth a listen.

A Rainy Dreary Day
Now Playing: Dashboard Confessionals-Standard Lines


A day of great sheets of depressing rain. Hot and humid.
Let's see, the Dashboard Confessionals song, Standard Lines.
"Which of the bold faced lies will we use?
I hope that you're happy,
you really deserve it,
this will be the best for us both in the end.

But your taste still lingers on my lips like I just placed them upon yours and I starve,
I starve for you.

Once in a while you find a new author, a new artist, that speaks to you. Like the Counting Crows when they appeared. Something that is there, immediate and real.