С Рождеством!

So, light blogging lately. Work has been crazy, right up until Friday when we closed the office early but packed in a full day nonetheless! Flights were largely without incident--now I know what First Class is like. Apparently it's really easy to sleep there, at least once your sleep debt catches up with you. Christmas has been awesome! Very relaxing. Off to the Bay Area for more vacation on Thursday.

James Brown, R.I.P. Thank you for "Down and Out in New York City," "It's a Man's World," "Grits," "Papa Don't Take No Mess," "Night Train," and so much more.

And now we've lost Gerald Ford too. "Hark when Gerald Ford was king/We were bored with everything." Thanks for giving me a subject for my 10th grade American History report after that other kid snagged Richard Nixon and then didn't even write a report. You were moderate and pro-choice in a party that was neither, at least not anymore, and did more than you got credit for to heal the country post-Watergate. But you also made Dick Cheney your Chief of Staff--think of the damage you could have avoided by sending him home to Wyoming. You also gave Rumsfeld his first stint as Secretary of Defense. Sigh.

Big Death Penalty News

Wow--a federal judge in California has ruled that the state's implementation of lethal injection is cruel and unusual, and thus unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. As a result, California has extended the moratorium on executions that started with the same judge's injunction in February. It'll be interesting to see what happens when this gets kicked up to the Ninth Circuit.

Combine that with another federal judge ruling last month that Missouri's lethal injection methods are similarly unconstitutional, and Jeb Bush's moratorium on executions in Florida after a botched lethal injection this week, and it seems that we are getting slightly closer to my prediction: capital punishment will be gone from the United States in my lifetime.

Stories here and here.

I'm so tired

Not much new to report. I've got plenty of opinions, but I'm perpetually tired. I commend to you "The Time Is Now" by Bob Herbert, which says better than I ever could why we should pull out of Iraq anon. One more week, then I'm on vacation--off to warmer climes like Chicago.












toothpastefordinner.com

Want one!

This table . . . so cool. Check out the videos.

Old, so old

Just celebrated a minor milestone birthday a few days ago. Woohoo! A good friend flew up to visit--that was pretty awesome. Also had a great week at work. But I'm most looking forward to vacation in a couple weeks--Christmas with the family, New Year's in San Francisco with good friends. Gettin' a little stir crazy in this town!

My country has the highest incarceration rate in the world: one out of every 32 of our citizens is behind bars. We're ahead of China, Russia, anyone in the Axis of Evil, and any other "rogue state." Yet we keep hearing about how low the crime rate is. Hmm, there's a lot I don't know, but those trends don't seem to add up.

I'm only 2 months late picking up on this, but I would love to see Nancy Pelosi's 100-hour plan become a reality after the new Congress opens. I can see parts of it getting stalled in the Senate, but if it makes it that far, I can't see Bush vetoing a minimum wage hike, a reduction in student loan interest rates, or the 9/11 commission recommendations, among other things.

Don't get sick. Don't get sick.

Tired, oh so tired. Must keep up the ironclad immune system, so that I can party it up on my birthday.

Fun Chris/Hanu/Kwanzaa shopping here.