| new . . . |
[Fri 16 May 08|05:49] |
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. . . gywo. |
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| news: Calif. Supreme Court distinguishes Lockyear, applies strict scrutiny, and . . . |
[Thu 15 May 08|13:18] |
. . . "conclude[s] that to the extent the current California statutory
provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are
unconstitutional" (PDF).
Via ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) qwwrty. |
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| what's your "walk score"? |
[Mon 12 May 08|15:42] |
What's your "walk score"? How walkable is the place you live? Can you get to just about everything you need within minutes on foot, or is your place completely unliveable without a motor vehicle?
My "walk score" is 98.
Via Atrios. |
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| awsome lunch |
[Sun 11 May 08|12:32] |
I just made (and ate) the most awesome [1] lunch for me and Eleanor.
- a hunk of mild-because-pasteurized-for-import robiola due latti
- Scandinavian-style crispbread for the cheese
- fresh juice: apples, orange, kiwis, and a carrot
- a quart of Jersey strawberries from the farmers market
Happy Mother's Day to me!
[1] I have completely drunk the Kool-Aid, yea, long and deep, about using "awesome" all the time. I remember complaining about it and avoiding it for a while, but eventually I relented. Sigh. |
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| mosque burial denied on grounds of -- dressing like a woman |
[Thu 08 May 08|10:20] |
One more before I go into law school exile for the next ten days.
The police call that ultimately led to the murder of officer Steven Liczbinski a few days ago was a bank robbery in a supermarket. Afterward, in the robbers' stolen van, police found disguises, including women's Muslim veils and body coverings. The bank robber who killed police officer Liczbinski a few days ago belonged to the Germantown Masjid mosque here in town. The mosque leadership is refusing to conduct services or bury him at the mosque. Here's why:"We don't tolerate that kind of behavior," [director of the mosque, Tariq] El Shabazz said. "Their actions are not from Islam. You don't dress like a woman, you don't rob people or transgress against them or commit murder. On all three grounds, they are dead wrong" (Daily News). Yes, folks, the first reason that El Shabazz gives for denying a mosque burial for the cop killer and robber is that the criminals disguised themselves as women during the robbery. Of course, listing cross-dressing first doesn't necessarily connote primacy. But he has still listed it on a par with robbery and murder: they're all "dead wrong." |
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| gun used in robbery that led to cop-killing was from central Penna. |
[Thu 08 May 08|09:30] |
Steven Liczbinski, a Philadelphia police officer, was killed in the line of duty a few days ago. Three men had just robbed a bank inside a supermarket, and, after a brief chase, one of them basically executed the officer. It turns out that one of the guns used in the bank robbery -- found in the suspects' stolen van afterward -- came from central Pennsylvania.
According to police, this is how the gun found its way to Philadelphia. Levi Swigert, a 19-year-old resident of Duncannon (near Harrisburg), stole the .22 caliber revolver from his mom. She reported the theft in February. Then he bartered it for crack cocaine. The crack seller, who often visits family in Lancaster, was one of the suspects in the robbery (Inky).
Maybe the whole "Pennsyltucky" outrage against gun control isn't a self-defense and freedom to hunt thing. Maybe it's actually an economics thing. As the mines, farms, and factories between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh close down, folks can barely make a living any more. Who are we, the urban elitists on the east and west ends of the Commonwealth, to fight for stricter gun laws that would help prevent illegal but profitable gun sales? Rural Pennsylvanians have to put food on the table, too! |
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| weekend accomplishments |
[Sun 04 May 08|11:19] |
- They're putting a new mural on the firehouse across the street, on the South Street side. I brought Eleanor around after her clay studio class, and she painted a little bit of it. They'd marked it out in a grid then put paint-by-numbers marks on all the sections. Anybody walking down the street was welcome to participate, and there was popcorn, pizza, and a DJ. Eleanor did some "number 5," which was an ocher-brown and will be part of W.E.B. DuBois's desk.
- On the way to the supermarket yesterday, I got yelled at by some jerk outside Whole Foods soliciting money for City Chase, which is some kind of urban scavenger hunt. He said vaguely that he was collecting money for the environment. I apologized and kept walking. He said, "Oh, I know all about the economy." I wheeled on him and told him I'd apologized politely and would appreciate the same courtesy from him. He said, "Oh, you may go," and waved me away. What a jerk. Later, when my cashier asked me how I was, I answered, "Well, I could do without the fundraisers outside," and told her how rude the guy was. Was I rude like that when I tried to get signatures on petitions at that age?
- In cheerier news, Headhouse farmers' market opened today. I got some nice local blue cheese; some thyme, marjoram, and tarragon plants for the window boxes; and a free promo coffee mug exhorting me to eat my 5 fruits and veggies per day.
- Laundry. Basically, my weekends are determined by my laundry schedule. |
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| de-cluttering update: found an old campaign button |
[Thu 01 May 08|09:04] |
Quick update while I get some exam prep done.
Over the weekend, I emptied a "bag of doom" [1] from my last move. I forget what I was looking for. Mostly the bag was irritating me because it was sitting in the way of something else in my bedroom clothes closet. (The bag itself is a travel bag that must have been a promo give-away from some baseball game in the late '70s or early '80s. It's the size and shape of the older carry-on flight bags that you see hipsters carrying, it's red, and it says "Phillies" in that 1975-1990 style, the way they had it back when they last won the World Series.) It's a fun bag, though the zipper is a little wonky, and I'm happy to get use of it again now that it's emptied. It's a good size for carrying sunblock, a wallet, a hat, and a light jacket in the summer.
But my point, now that I'm getting to it, is that in the bag was a CARTER-MONDALE campaign button that glaucon gave me several years ago. It's green and white, and a quick google search indicates that it's from the 1976 election. I've put it on the denim jacket that I wear almost every day, and it's made some people smile. So that's good.
[1] Bags and boxes of disorganized last-minute stuff, from junk drawers and countertops, that doesn't feel right to put in a landfill but doesn't really have a good place to go. |
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| [sk00l] busy busy busy |
[Thu 01 May 08|08:55] |
I'm having a "holy crap, I'm in law school" week.
Go about your business. |
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| rain |
[Mon 28 Apr 08|12:53] |
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Damn. Rain all day and me at school without an umbrella. |
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| news: Roger Waters celebrity political endorsement |
[Mon 28 Apr 08|11:44] |
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At Coachella, Roger Waters played "Dark Side of the Moon" and released a giant inflatable pig into the sky endorsing Barack Obama (AP, via Yahoo! News -- not, in fact, The Onion). |
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| news: three new indicators of the forthcoming American economic apocalypse |
[Thu 24 Apr 08|12:55] |
Costco and Sam's Club are limiting bulk purchases of rice (AP, via Yahoo!). Sam's Club is restricting sales of 20-pound sacks of ordinary rice, and small sacks of specialty rices like jasmine and basmati rice.
By 2012, lenders will have foreclosed on almost 13% of borrowers in the U.S. (Reuters). Do you know ten homeowners? Depending on your socioeconomic bracket -- or maybe not -- you or one of your friends will lose your home sometime in the next four years.
The Commerce Department reports that "[s]ales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years . . . . The median price of a new home in March compared to a year ago fell by the largest amount in nearly four decades" (AP, via Yahoo!). |
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| crowded polling place |
[Tue 22 Apr 08|09:37] |
I arrived at my polling place at 7:40 this morning. I was about the 70th person to vote -- 70 people in the 40 minutes since the doors opened.
Word to the wiser Pennsylvania (or Philadelphia) readers: bring a book and expect to stand in line. |
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| Border Patrol searching passengers on domestic ferry runs |
[Tue 22 Apr 08|08:44] |
Since February, the Border Patrol has been searching passengers on domestic ferry runs in the San Juan Islands (Seattle Times). Not just the ferries to and from Sidney, B.C. -- but the ferries to and from American islands in American territory. Once or twice a week, federal goons herd people off the ferry at Anacortes and pen them into a fenced-off corral, then question them about their citizenship.
To my PNW readers: IANAL (yet), but I do know that you do not have to answer any of their questions. Border Patrol doesn't have the right to detain you unless they have a reasonable suspicion that you're trying to enter the country illegally. And, dude, if you're on a domestic ferry, which by definition isn't coming from a foreign country? Do the math.
Border Patrol's claim of a threat of terrorists on the ferries is a joke. Remember that the guy who supposedly was going to blow up the Space Needle was caught with a trunkload of nitroglycerin entering the country at Port Angeles. He had traveled from Vancouver, B.C.; he wasn't poking around on domestic ferries. Also, it was over seven years ago. And the Administration had to draw some pretty tenuous lines to connect him with al-Qaeda when 9/11 happened 17 months afterward. (He was the one who started talking about "sleeper cells" in the U.S., after he'd been detained for a while. I shudder to think about what inspired him to reveal the existence of sleeper cells.)
The Border Patrol is throwing their weight around for no good reason other than to be thugs. This is completely nuts, but what else to expect from an agency with heads like John "Lady Justice is obscene" Ashcroft, Alberto "Will Shred Constitution for Food" Gonzales, and Michael "waterboarding may or may not be torture" Mukasey? |
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| deck ready for the summer |
[Sat 19 Apr 08|15:43] |
I clean my little balcony deck twice a year, whether it needs it or not: on the first truly warm weekend of the spring, and then on some grim weekend near winter after it's certain that all the leaves are done falling.
This afternoon, I gave the deck its spring cleaning. It's never a really pleasant task, but it was worse than usual this year because I had to literally swab the deck to get the pigeon crap off.
Dinner alfresco, once the chairs dry. |
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