suboptimal information

DC v. Heller

While I’m glad that SCOTUS ruled that the second amendment protects an individual right, as do most of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights, I feel the need to contribute to the ‘nets comments en masse.

First, it was a pleasure to read in the majority opinion the comparison of the occurance of “the People” with other instances of individual rights clauses elsewhere in the Constitution.   It was also nice to see the court make a distinction between regulation and prohibition - that effective prohibition under the guise of regulation that rejects all applications is also contrary to the constitution.

Now the aftermath Continue reading DC v. Heller…

New Phone

New phone. I got myself a Palm Centro (on the deathstar - AT&T) after a coworker replaced his aging/ancient PalmIIIxe with a Centro (Sprint). While he didn’t get a data plan, I was able to get enough of a feel of the device’s interface & formfactor to know that this would have all of the smartphone features I’ve wanted since losing my old OmniSky sevice (to the passing of old telecom tech into the depths of history) - namely a qwerty keyboard that had a good physical feel while still being compact.

The Centro is a good middle ground between a sub-qwerty crackberry keyboard, the wider units like the treo and blackjack, and the thin keyboard sliders from HTC and Helio.

It’s not wrong to call them a narcissist when…

Ok I can’t resist. While the media is already giving these two bimbos filler attention because the media doesn’t like covering real news, I have to contribute. Stuck up teenager Nisreen Swedberg (wtf kind of name is that? “Nisreen”. Sounds like some infectious sci-fi alien species - the Nisreen Hive from the mucous planet Nisre) and her stuck up friend Sarah Williams (yeah, there’s an extra-special name) managed to piss off a South West flight crew enough that after the plane landed they got forcibly escorted off of the flight by law enforcement and held for questioning. Here’s the extra special myspace-generation stupid part. Lacking the upbringing (yes, I’m blaming the parents) required to instill the mental capacity to concieve of any other possible cause, Nisreen and Sarah concluded that the flight crew behavior, since Nisreen and Sarah didn’t like it, is therefore by definition discriminatory, and the only basis for discriminating against the likes of Nisreen and Sarah must be that they’re pretty, since the only reason anything EVER happens to them is because they’re pretty.

What I think really needs to be investigated are…
Continue reading It’s not wrong to call them a narcissist when……

Life imitating CSI: Crime Scene Investigations

In the CSI seventh season episode, Fannysmackin’, LVPD track down a mob of local teens out recreationally assaulting tourists for kicks simply out of a lack of something else more interesting to do.

Life is immitating art, again.  Cincinatti area teens Cheyenne Blanton and Joseph Nagle are in custody accused of several juvenile delinquency charges, pending the filing of formal charges (and I suspect determination of which can be filed as adult crimes) after beating and torturing another teenager who was recovering from brain surgery.  These two shits broke into the womans house apparently intending to steal the family car so they could flee from a court appearance one of ‘em was facing on other unrelated juvenile charges when the victim’s mother drove away in the car.  Left without the opportunity to commit the crime they intended to commit, they raided the kitchen and then went and woke up the victim to begin the assault.

This is what happens when you raise losers repeatedly telling them they’re special throughout their formative years.

Gold Digger as a legally established institution

Go google for “sperm donor child support” and read an article about a Nassau County court case from December 2007.

In the late 80s some doctor donates sperm to a colleague with the verbal agreement that he has no rights or responsibilities toward the child.  Ignoring the whole ambiguity of verbal agreements, it’s already established that paternal liability is a responsibility to the child and minors (or even pre-borns) cannot enter a legal contract and as such cannot be bound by a verbal agreement with the mother.  Now that the child is facing college tuition, the mother is seeking child support.

Here’s where it gets bad…

Continue reading Gold Digger as a legally established institution…

Nice to see a decent SCOTUS decision

In Brendlin v. California it was nice to see SCOTUS kick back a decision in favor of the expansion of Fourth Amendment protections, for a change.

Despite recent decisions limiting bill of rights protections such as Morse v. Frederick (first amendment - limiting free speech for minors, so long as they stay in school) and Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada(fourth and fifth amendments - ruling that arrest for refusal to identify is reasonable and that forced self identification is not forced testimony), in Brendlin the court ruled that all parties in a stopped vehicle are, by the reasonable behavior of the average person, perceived to be seized and that no reasonable person would believe that stopped as such they have the completely clear an unfettered permission to depart and therefore are under Fourth Amendment protections.

Continue reading Nice to see a decent SCOTUS decision…

So I’ll admit it, Bush fooled me again on Scooter Libby.

I mistakenly had thought that George Bush would hold off on springing Scooter Libby. I thought he’d let him spend a token amount of time in prison, maybe saving a pardon for the day after the 2008 election or for the last days of his presidency. But no, he commuted Libby’s sentence before Libby even had to make a Paris Hiltonesque perp ride to jail. Continue reading So I’ll admit it, Bush fooled me again on Scooter Libby….

Whatever happened to liberty?

Genarlow Wilson has been in prison under a mandatory sentence of 10 years for a “crime” that, because of his case and the unreasonable sentence he received, had its law rewritten down to a misdemeanor by the Georgia state legislature.  But they botched it - they didn’t make the legislative change retroactive and haven’t gotten off their asses to fix that mistake either. Continue reading Whatever happened to liberty?…

My camera kit

Since my flickr page links here, I figure this is as good a place as any to document my camera kit.

First, my camera (body only, I skipped the kit lens):
Canon Digital Rebel XT

and the lens I got with it right off the bat, my general lens:
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens

the vertical battery grip, which I use just for the extra grip surface and control buttons, but also provides more battery capacity:
Canon BG-E3 Battery Grip

a macro lens, for pet photography:
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

The classic “standard” 50mm self instruction lens:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens

A wide angle lens, to deal with the sub-frame sensor cropping factor:
Canon EF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens

and the flash:
Canon Speedlite 430EX Flash

How crazy do you have to be to go on Food Network

With all these award winning cooks getting challenged on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, how crazy do they have to be when they get approached for their “Food Network Profile”.  Just once I’d like to see Flay show up at a victim’s faux profile and have the victim immediately blurt out “You’re ON FLAY!  You’re GOIN DOWN!” or something.