A while ago my lunchbox went missing, and I decided to let you know about the resulting upheaval. Sometimes I'll be clever, witty and insightful, or I'll discuss the mundane and fail to use a semicolon. Sometimes I'll discuss the state of the world, or reference John Mayer lyrics. This is my blog; you game?
And remember how you and Tara were confused? And remember how Nick and I tried to explain the aforementioned tourist trap to you? And remember how you probably don't care anymore, but I still wanted to show you the billboard?
Either Nancy Pelosi is actually a robot who engages in excessive blinking when she hears stuff she doesn't like, or Dick Cheney is a robot whose blinking protocols are malfunctioning. Both are possible, actually.
You see, in response to questioning from Senator Arlen Specter during the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, filled us on in on the writ of habeas corpus:
Gonzales: "There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away..."
Specter: "Wait a minute, the Constitution says you can’t take it away except in case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus unless there’s a rebellion or invasion?
Gonzales: "The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says 'the right shall not be suspended' except in cases of rebellion or invasion."
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our top federal lawyer, a man who says that if the Constitution doesn't explicitly state that a right does exist, then that right doesn't really exist in the first place. As Consortiumnews.com notes, "applying Gonzales’s reasoning, one could argue that the First Amendment doesn’t explicitly say Americans have the right to worship as they choose, speak as they wish or assemble peacefully. The amendment simply bars the government, i.e. Congress, from passing laws that would impinge on these rights."
While no one is saying that the administration is currently planning on restricting freedom of speech, religion, peacefully assemble, etc, the suspension of habeas corpus sets a scary precedent. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly in support of protecting America from those who want to harm it, but the methods and logic used by the administration to protect us gives me pause--and a little concern for our future.
The above is an aerial shot of (as Towleroad has put it) "roads and cleared land caused by loggers and their trucks and machinery in southern Sweden. The pattern they've caused in the destruction has come to illustrate the very thing they have destroyed."
I must say, it's quite an eerie coincidence. It's almost as if the Earth itself is trying to tell us something. Hmmm.
(Plus, not only is it eerie, but it's a pretty cool coincidence as well. And, it's far more intriguing than those people who see the Virgin Mary in their applesauce.)
I love this: the characters you know and love, all distorted and quasi-demonic.
Anime's gravity-defying hair styles have always intrigued me, thus I love that Lisa's hair looks like it could kill if you get too close. Krusty re-awakens anyone's clown paranoia. Mr. Flanders looks gayer than Smithers (which makes sense, kinda), Marge looks oddly ditsy (which makes kinda no sense at all), and Mr. Burns looks older than Methuselah (which really makes sense).
Meanwhile, Otto is a bit vampire-ish, and Sherri & Terri (the purple-haired twins) look downright creppy (kinda "The Ring" meets that stupid Sarah-Michelle Geller movie I never saw).
I have a hunger to know what’s going on in the world, the intelligence to establish an opinion, the understanding that others may and will disagree with me, and the maturity to realize that sometimes the others will be right. But, I have the drive to figure it all out.
