March 20, 2006
UWO law library ::
legal photos — No Tags
10:50 am
Library
Originally uploaded by meg-aphone.
The law library at the University of Western Ontario. I’ve grown to appreciate quiet, well-lit places like the one pictured here.
March 18, 2006
What happens when get-it-out-the-door wins ::
rant, legal — No Tags
10:50 am
What a terrible sentence:
Lawyers for two airlines being sued by 9/11 victims prompted a federal attorney to coach witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui death penalty trial so the government’s case against the al-Qaida conspirator would not undercut their defense, victims’ lawyers allege.
March 15, 2006
Republicans, evangelicals and dysfunction ::
politics — No Tags
9:02 am
Over at Washington Monthly, Amy Sullivan has written a great piece on how evangelicals becoming disaffected with their relationship with the Republican party. The story begins with the story of Alabama’s Bible literacy bill, which the I remember reading about when Jessamyn and I visited the state back in January (I recall that legislators were debating it when we were down there). When I read about the bill, I was somewhat surprised by the fact that the bill was sponsored by Democrats. But after reading the details, Democratic support made a certain amount of sense: it was an elective course (not compelled), and it dealt with the cultural and historical aspects of the Bible, rather than any particular religious ideology. On the surface, it seemed both constitutional and, well, reasonable.
In any event, what I didn’t realize at the time was that Alabama Republicans were fighting the bill. The Washington Monthly article suggests that the opposition stemmed from the Republican desire to not allow the Democrats to even try to help out the cause of Christian evangelicals. This, the Sullivan suggests, is a part of the evangelical’s strange relationship with the Republican party, which of late is becoming progressively more dysfunctional. Note this:
For 30 years, the Republican advantage among religious voters has come from being able to successfully control the definition of “religious,” conflating it with “conservative” and encouraging the media to do the same. Measured against that yardstick, most Democrats come up short. But when the standard is more complex, when being religious also means caring about the environment and poverty and human rights and education, the plane levels. Soon enough, Republicans start to miss the mark, and Democrats get a little closer.
In any event, besides casting the political environment of Alabama in relatively moderate terms (which I observed when I was there, but would never have known if I only paid attention to what the news media has to say), the article also suggests that there is not the political and cultural rift in the United States that some would like to think is there. In the not-to-distant future (I’m thinking this November), maybe the reality of political moderation will be reflected in the people elected to public office.
March 13, 2006
Statue of justice ::
legal photos — No Tags
10:59 am
DVtour15feb 051
Originally uploaded by js_moorman.
I realized that I haven’t posted a legal photo in quite some time. This one is of a statue of justice found at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base.
March 8, 2006
Not really much of a choice ::
rant, personal, legal, music — No Tags
10:08 pm
Not really a choice
Originally uploaded by gjs.
So, I followed EFF’s advice and signed up for the settlement agreement with Sony BMG for the Rootkit software that was installed on many of their CD’s released last year (yes, I bought My Morning Jacket’s Z; no, I did not install the rootkit software on my computer). At Sony/BMG’s site, I jumped through the various hoops in order to sign up for my free album download. Then I came to the above-pictured screen, which has a list of the free albums I had access to (I can only choose one? I asked myself sarcastically). Ultimately, I couldn’t decide which album I would want taking up space on my hard drive, so I quit out and decided instead to post this miniature rant.
Based on these albums, maybe the case should have gone to trial!
Town meeting ::
politics, narrative, personal, photos, vermont, legal photos — No Tags
8:20 am
2006 town meeting agenda
Originally uploaded by gjs.
Yesterday was town meeting here in Bethel (as it was throughout the state). At one point in my life, I could see such a day as being time off from work or school, an extra day to shirk responsibilities. But yesterday, at least until noon, Jessamyn and I went to Whitcomb High School, met with the other Bethel citizens (Bethelites?) and dealt with the seventeen items on this year’s agenda.
In this picture, Jessamyn checks off each of the items on the agenda as we vote on them. Here’s my small Flickr set for the day.
March 6, 2006
My first WikiPedia article: Tapes ‘n Tapes ::
meta, music — tagged meta and music
5:01 pm
You can go over to Wikipedia and see my first attempt at creating an article. It’s for Tapes ‘n Tapes, a hot new band out of Minneapolis, which I, along with Pitchfork Media, have enjoyed quite a bit lately.
Of course, Jessamyn helped tighten up the article quite a bit. Here’s hoping it stays for a bit before getting marked for deletion.
