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Saturday, June 28, 2008

CALIFORNIA CONTINUES...

TO BURN

You may have caught Bev's comment about the fire in the Big Sur area. Here is a video story.


While Iran continues its nuclear program, it appears that North Korea is abandoning theirs. If you remember, North Korea did construct one fission weapon and it was a dud. As far as Iraq's, after 5 years, there still isn't any evidence that it ever existed.

Our Supreme Court is a very unique body of our government. The justices are appointed for life by the President and must be approved by both Houses of Congress. They may be political before their ascent but the vast majority have tended to take a broader perspective on the issues. Neo-cons complain that the Court is too liberal in its decisions and yet the ruling, in the long run, seem very well considered. There are 8 Associate Justices and one Chief Justice. Of those 9 individuals, 7 were appointed by the conservative Republicans. One by Ford. Two by Reagan. Two by GHW Bush. Two by GW Bush. The other two are from Clinton's terms in office. So, why doesn't the court lean further to the right? Because the individuals who achieve this lofty post are smart and not easily swayed by the variances of public opinion. Their primary function is to determine which laws infringe on or violate and to strengthen and protect our most esteemed of documents, the Constitution. The process involved is arduous and often provokes anger but is the one stop gap we have to prevent tyranny by the other two branches of our government. Much to the chagrin of their detractors.

And speaking of courts...
Why is it that a guy who stole body parts from corpses gets 18-54 year sentence but another individual who held two women in slavery gets off with just 3 years. Something basically wrong about that.

I don't know how many tons of tomatoes were destroyed because of the salmonella scare but it now looks like they were not the cause. Which makes me wonder who profited the most from this? Or was there another reason that they were targeted in the global mass hysteria? Sumptin' ain't kosher here.

Next weeks Fourth of July celebration is going to be a quiet one. For me at least. California's laws are very different from Hawai'i's regarding pyrotechnics.

Have a fantastic weekend. We celebrated my daughter-in-law's ??th birthday yesterday. She is in the very early stages of middle-age. My son enters that realm in one month. You know you are up in years when your kids start looking middle-aged.

Thanks for your visit. I'll have more later.


"Let's all be careful out there!"