Tag: Open Thread

This week and probably one more…but i really am running on empty here…it’s a live performance with not-so-great audio…i used it because it has jackson browne AND bruce springsteen…a bonus…

Texas seizure of polygamist-sect kids thrown out

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 33 minutes ago

SAN ANGELO, Texas – In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group’s compound last month.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

The California marriage decision and basic civics

Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Thursday May 22, 2008 09:16 EDT

That a law invalidated by a court is supported by a large majority is not an argument supporting the conclusion that the court’s decision was wrong. Central to our system of government is the premise that there are laws which even the largest majorities are prohibited from enacting because such laws violate the constitutional rights of minorities. Thus, the percentage of people who support the law in question, and how lengthy and painstaking the process was that led to the law’s enactment, is totally irrelevant in assessing the propriety of a court decision striking down that law on constitutional grounds.

Contrary to Wittes’ extremely confused argument, a court striking down a law supported by large majorities is not antithetical to our system of government. Such a judicial act is central to our system of government. That’s because, strictly speaking, the U.S. is not a “democracy” as much as it a “constitutional republic,” precisely because constitutional guarantees trump democratic majorities. This is all just seventh-grade civics, something that the Brookings scholar and those condemning the California court’s decision on similar grounds seem to have forgotten.

The duty — the central obligation — of judges faithfully applying the law and fulfilling their core duties is to strike down laws that violate the Constitution, without regard to what percentage of the population supports that law, and without regard to whether it would be “better” in some political sense if democratic majorities some day got around to changing their minds about it. It’s perfectly appropriate for, say, marriage equality advocates or political candidates to take into account whether it would be preferable, in some political or strategic sense, to achieve gay marriage incrementally or legislatively, only once there is majority support for it. But that is a completely inappropriate factor for a judge to consider, because the judge’s sole consideration is whether the law is consistent with Constitutional protections.

Constitutional protections are all about minority rights.  Super majorities, Electoral College?  All designed to protect the weak from the mob and the State.

It’s not the system, it’s the people in it.

Found this joke on a site that sells t-shirts.  Since theyre apparently ‘into’ the whole ‘capitalist’ thing ;), ill add the link

President Bush was visiting a primary school and he dropped in on one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion of the word “tragedy”.

Who Won America Idol?

I Don’t Know

Nor Do I Care To Know

As It Is Unimportant

Thursday’s Headlines:   Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts   Different goals take Clinton and Obama to Florida   UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma   Pakistan makes peace deal to end pro-Taliban violence   Mbeki deploys troops as xenophobic violence spreads to Zulu   Uganda: Implementing Tax Amendments   Berlusconi clamps down on Gypsies   The Big Question: Is Iceland the happiest place on the planet, and what can we learn from it?     Israel contemplates giving up Golan Heights to Syria    Lebanon rivals agree crisis deal    Mexico boosts police ethics to fight drugs

Senate reaches deal on Iraq war funding

Tentative $165 billion fund backs Pentagon operations in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The Senate plans to vote Thursday on providing $165 billion to fund Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, under a deal that likely would doom billions of dollars in domestic programs.

A plan announced Wednesday night by Senate leaders would pay for the wars until a new administration take over.

But it would likely kill money for 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits for the jobless, heating subsidies, fighting Western wildfires and aid to rural schools, among many programs backed by senators in both parties despite a promised veto from President Bush.

Thanks for stopping in….

Hang out and chit chat for awhile… and when you’re done

check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

O & Please don’t rec the pony party, another will trot up in a few hours.

(^.^)

It occured to me this morning that I’ve seen some new ‘faces’ around…

And that we’ve probably grown some since I joined in mid-September.

So I went on a search and found that the  last three users to join were

1366~kyledeb on May 19, 2008

1365~YippieAgain on May 19, 2008

and 1364~ohmproject on May 19, 2008!!!  

I’d like to extend a Warm Welcome to these and ALL the {{{new dharmenizens}}}

I’m sooo happy you’ve found your way here!

I urge & encourage, no implore & entreat you to open up, join in the conversations going on… We’d like to get to know you (^.^)

^{we’d love to meet all you ‘lurkers’ out there also…don’t think we don’t know you’re there!}

Please ask questions, jump in anywhere if you don’t understand… Pony Parties & News on the Front Page are always open threads… many people stop by these without commenting- this is a Great Place to put questions! Everyone is very friendly & helpful & will be happy to answer you.

We blog here in what I call 3/4 time… I sometimes re-visit the same essay for 3-4 days having long, extended conversations.

So, know that your question WILL be seen, just maybe not immediately (for immediate help see ‘contact us’)

And this leads us to…. be sure to check in your ‘Recent Replies’ (right side of page under ‘menu’ is ‘your comments’ then hit the ‘recent replies’ tab) with regularity! Sometimes you will get a reply to a comment you made yesterday or the day before.

While you are on Your Page be sure to look over ‘Profile’. This is where you can set your preferences… I’m not sure about comment preferences (see ek hornbeck or On The Bus) but under Display Prefs you can set ‘# of recent comments’ and ‘recent essays  diaries’ to 50 each and never have to leave the front page (^.^)

Also on the right hand side is a ‘Series’ link under DharmaDocs. Most of the ongoing features are listed here….it’s an easy way to catch up on your favorite series!

These are my favorite features at docudharma… I’m hoping others will share theirs ::anyone?, c’mon y’all… help me out!::

Welcome! I’m glad you’re Here!!!

O! & there is only one rule….

Be excellent to each other!

This Tuesday Pony Party is brought to you by Liquid Gold

http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/…

Our music is provided by Green Milk from the Planet Orange.

A Review that I thought was a parody of music reviews.  Maybe not.

Green is the colour of my true love’s milk.

http://betterpropaganda.com/ar…

The myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/gmftpo

Bloggers with pets and small children may not want to play any of these at full volume.  Or half volume.  Or at all..  

These are all somewhat lengthy.  Some start slowly.

Do not rec the Pony Party!

_{Although I suspect there’s only a few that would.}

I don’t suppose it’ll take much to encourage you to read the Front Page, Recommended Essays, and anything else you can find.

Oh, a Special Comment:  I won’t be able to do the Pony Party next Tuesday the 27th because I’ll be moving to a different gutter, and probably won’t have the intertubes cleared that day.  so if anyone wants to PINCH HIT get in touch with pfiore8 or RiaD…or better yet, a bunch of people just start posting essays with Pony in the title at 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 Pacific next Tuesday.  If you don’t, masslass might end up doing it, and nobody really wants that.

conference championship picks:

So I was poking around in one of my boxes of salvage parts today and I ran across an old IBM keyboard.

Not so old because it has one of those PS/2 connectors instead of the older style AT (the main drawback is that people plug their mice into the wrong hole) but old enough that IBM was still making a point about their keyboards and how nice the feel was.

People claim that the IBM Selectric Typewriter had the best keyboard ever.  I know that my Olivetti portable had a real snappy action.  Early on in my computing career I got myself 2 Northgate Omnikey Ultras, THE BEST KEYBOARD EVER, with function keys where God intended them, across the top AND down the side.  Sadly they each need about $50 dollars of repair that is not in my current budget, the last one having gone down a little less than a year ago.

Since then I have suffered with a “Windows” keyboard of the mushiest kind imaginable with innumerable function keys to run your Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.  You have to turn them all off to make it not screw up your whole system.

It worked, but it was like pushing your fingers into squishy memory foam.  I’m quite happy to have snappy keys that push back under my digital control again.