Deceptive C-SPAN
John Roberts was confirmed as the new Chief Justice of the U.S. Surpreme Court. I looked up the roll-call votes by senators on the
C-SPAN website. I saw that Biden voted "no," no surprise, expected to appeal to the Democratic base. I was happy to see Clinton vote "yes" since I felt that Roberts is immensely qualified to be on the SCOTUS. Then I realized something strange. The N's and Y's line up neatly next to the Republicans' name, but the ones next to the Democrats are slanted. So much so that when I retraced the N's and Y's down to Clinton's line, it was actually a big fat "no." This is obvious because the N's and Y's ran out by the fourth to the last Democrat names on the list. What no one know how to format at C-SPAN? Or is this some Democratic wishy-washy plot to evade criticism by confusion?
Why the gasoline shortage?
People are fleeting Hurricane Rita in Texas. But traffic jam and overheated cars are making the exodus difficult. This all lead to the gasoline shortage in the area. Surprising?
Picture is worth a thousand words. Or rather, in the case of all the SUV and trucks in the picture, worth a few thousand dollar in unleaded gas.
My next car is gonna be a hybrid. Unless of course, we find 100 billion barrels of oil in Alaska.
Sports and politics.
Well, maybe the title is redundant, since politics in today's America resembles so much of the take-no-prisoner, win-at-all-costs attitutdes we often associate with atheletes and sports in this country. Recently, people have been jumping all over the US Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts' metaphor of comparing judges to baseball umpires. I find the post from the
New Donkey especially clever. Here is a snibit:
Worried about Roberts' disposition towards Roe v. Wade? Maybe he should get this question:
SEN. FEINSTEIN: Judge Roberts, it's safe to say the American League's Designated Hitter rule, adopted in the same year that the Supreme Court announced Roe v. Wade, overturned a rule of play that stretched back to the beginnings of baseball. The DH still upsets a very large number of people who view it as a violation of the sacred canons of the game.
We only have one Supreme Court, not one for each "league," not one for pro-choice and pro-life Americans. Do you think as an "umpire" you should have the power to overturn a precedent of more than thirty years, and change the rules? Would you call out every designated hitter?
Brilliant.
Tolerant of intolerance.
Canada abandons plans to introduce sharia law.Sounds like a no-brainer. It started with a report from the former Ontario Attorney General Boyd that recommanded the introduction of Sharia when it comes to settling family disputes in Canadian courts. Surely many, and I myself included, had pointed to this as another example of non-U.S. "western" democracies' tendency for
moral equivalence and the resulting inability to stem the growing militant Islamism by those countries.
However, it appears Mrs. Boyd has us fooled. She argued that sharia should be considered in family courts because these courts already make concessions to Christian and Jewish traditional laws. With the Premier of Ontario rejecting not only the sharia but also those of other two religions, Boyd has forced the hand of the Canadian government to reaffirm the separation of civil legal codes and traditional religious "laws." Yes, I fully expect proponents from the Christian and Jewish sects to argue about the rights of women in their "progressive" religious laws, and to defend against their critics, who would point to examples in the Old and New testaments that denigrate women, by saying such religious laws are "living" laws. But how will that be different from moderate Muslims and their Koran?
I have no idea what the real motivation of Mrs. Boyd's report was. But I am glad that it brought the issue of the role of religious traditions in family courts to the forefront. How many people knew that Christian and Jewish "laws" in the Canadian courts? Is there similar examples in the U.S. courts? And should that be allowed? In hindsight, this is much less to do with government's tolerance for intolerant views, but simply fairness.
Words.
With the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we Americans have come to hear, and perhaps will take a few minutes to learn the true meanings, of some familiar words.
Refugee:
n : an exile who flees for safety
I know some people take issue with labeling the unfortunated people escaping the tragedy in New Orleans as refugees, but I think it is probably appropriate. Does it surprise anyone, that regardless of what one's nationality is, refugees everywhere look so similar to each other?
Diaspora:
n. refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homeland being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture.
I have heard this word a lot on NPR, and it bothered me. Certainly, Diaspora, with a Capital D, is usually referred to the dispersement of Jews. Nonetheless, the non-capital form implies the end of something that was homogeneous and unique, but is that the case in New Orleans? Too often the city is labelled, fairly or not, as the heart of Blues and Jazz or worse, Mardi Gras. Too often, the News anchors proclaim the city's refugees "so poor and so black," with pictures to prove it. But surely, the city is more than its most famous musicians and one week in Feburary, and its suffering occupants cut across all demographic lines. Furthermore, I truly believe that the city of New Orleans will be rebuilt, backed by sound science and practical urban planning, and flourish, and perhaps one day to serve as the model for the some of the world's largest metropolitans that sit gingerly on coastlines where the clash between land and ocean happens so often. It would be fitting for a city that is known for its annual celebration that precedes
"Ash Wednesday", a day that reminds the believers of their human mortality and foreshadows the miracle of ressurection some forty-or-so days later.
Price gouging:
n : pricing above the market when no alternative retailer is available.
Price gouging is essentially opportunistic profiteering, based on short-lived local emergency, by sellers who have monopolized markets. I hear about this a lot, even in places like Michigan or Georgia. What the hell? I thought the emergency is in the Gulf states. Everyone is scrambling to find scapegoats for the spike in gasoline prices, and the need to blame is so big, a category 4 hurricane is not enough. Drivers blame the gas stations, stations shifts it to oil companies, companies to states' gasoline taxes, and now the states are scrambling to suspend those taxes. But the prices for oil and gasoline have been rising for a long time now, and the spike in price the last two weeks is the direct result of a natural disaster. Natural, as in the same word in "natural resources," which petroleum is one. If this is not a wake up call for conservation and moving full-steam ahead into the next energy stage, I don't want to get out the bed tomorrow.
Helluva/
heck:
adj. Slang Used as an intensive.
President Bush caught a lot of flak for saying FEMA director Mike Brown is "doing helluva/heck of a job." Sure that sounds like an undeserved praise for a job not done. But as I have pointed out before, the president is quite the
wordsmith. "Helluva" is theoretically neutral, merely adding emphasis. Since he did not add another adjective to follow the adjective, so it could easily be "Brownie, you did a hell of a shitty job." Fitting considering the state of the water currently the city is stewed in.
