Wednesday is Haiku Day

The Princess is sad
'Cuz she wants a cough drop, but
She's not six. Or sick.

As always, I look forward to your contributions!

Voir Dire

Most states pronounce this in the French fashion, "Vwah Deer," but Texans know better. Here, it's pronounced like it looks, "voy-er die-er"

That's what we did in Advocacy today. It was fun. But I don't know if I'd like doing it "for real."

Lots of good stuff, though. There's a lot to jury selection and deselection than meets the eye.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Superman was an illegal immigrant. The police never arrested him. The Daily Planet paid him. Discuss.

Memo to Self

I don't like writing memos for class. They are difficult for me to focus on for any great length of time, and I get frustrated because what I want to say in 7 words I have to spread out over nearly 7 pages.

Anyway, I finished my memo last night at about 10:30, and I wasn't happy with it, but I was done with it.

Then I read for Criminal Trial Advocacy, where I play a lawyer tomorrow (again) with my partner and then maybe I'll get to sleep a little, and get over my cold.

Stupid Memo

It's for a 2-hour class. I spent 2 hours on it Friday, 4 hours yesterday, and so far, 5 hours today, and I'm not even halfway through.

This is frustrating. Even more so because it only goes towards part of my class participation, which is only 15% of my total grade. Why am I so concerned about this, and why can't I get myself to finish it?

Why should this matter?

I don't care for Mitt Romney. I don't think he would make a good president. I think he's polarizing. I think he played both sides of the gun issue.

But all of my opinions are based on my impression of Mitt Romney, not Mitt Romney's Great- or Great-great grandfathers. Seriously, I could give a crap if his great grandfather had five wives. That does not mean that Mitt supports polygamy; in fact, he has gone on the record as being against it. He doesn't practice it. I don't see how what his ancestors did has any bearing on his qualifications to lead this nation. In my mind, this is as asinine as it would be for an article to come out saying "so and so, a candidate for the presidency, has in his (or her) family tree members who owned slaves. Candidate, however, has spoken out against slavery." It would be seen as stupid, which it should.

As idiotic as this article's topic is, I'd almost be willing to believe that the Romney camp had it released to garner airtime to attack its relevancy in his campaign for president, to get people talking about him, in his defense, to garner support... almost.

Maybe I should join the ACLU...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation will be in oral argument before the Supreme Court next week, challenging President Bush's Faith Based Initiative.

I hope they succeed, though I think they won't.

I want them to succeed not because I oppose charities, or because I oppose President Bush. I want them to succeed because government funding of religion can easily lead to government direction of religion (or a state-run religion), which is what I think the First Amendment sought to avoid.

This is the same reason I oppose religious intrusion into government - because I fear government intrusion in religion. I don't want the government to tell me how I should pray, or to whom I should pray. I don't want it telling me which version of the 10 commandments is right. I especially wouldn't want the government to tell me that my representation does not matter if I am not of the same faith or denomination as those in charge, as would be the implication for all the Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, Wiccans, and others in America.

I think one of the overarching goals of our government, based on the representative democracy principles, is to help ensure that the minority viewpoint can be protected from the oppression of the majority, and I think that one aspect of this is the Faith Based Initiative, which, though perhaps noble in intent, runs contrary to how I view the First Amendments proscription on establishment of religion, and the Lemon Test's Endorsement test.

I hate CSI Miami

At one point in time, I enjoyed watching it because it was bad. Now, it's just bad. The crimes are too ridiculous to consider viable, and the solutions are almost as laughable.

The dialogue seems like an afterthought, as though the producers (thank you, Jerry Bruckheimer) said "let's get some good special effects going here, oh, but they need to say something." Cheesy one-liners by David Caruso with his insanely stupid sunglasses, unlikeable characters, convenient "brainstorming" sessions, where one of the members seems to be an expert on whatever unbelievably obscure situation exists (non-native tree leaves, for example), even more convenient SINGLE HAIR OR FINGERPRINT SAMPLES that get through DNA testing or other matching in about 25 seconds, not to mention all the blatant 4th, 5th and perhaps 6th amendment violations.

I'm actually upset now, just thinking about that stupid, stupid show.

Mysterious Ways

I woke up this morning and didn't feel like going to my morning class. My second class in the morning was cancelled, and I was tempted to use that excuse to just skip my other morning class. But, at the last minute, I decided it would be best to save my absences for when the children were sick, or some other issues come up. So, I dropped the daughter off at pre-k and headed downtown to school. 45 minutes later, I arrived at the door of my class, where the sign was posted: Class Cancellation - International Environmental Law.

I'm not quite sure why He did that to me, but at least y'all get a chuckle out of this.

Wednesday is Haiku Day

I don't have any
Compulsive disorders; that
Assertion was mean.

As always, I look forward to your submissions.

Playing favorites

The daughter has a new favorite song - Good Vibrations, by the Beach Boys.

I will allow this to be her favorite song, on grounds that it is the single greatest rock and roll song ever written and/or performed.

Being Nice

Jamie has accused me of being mean to her. So I'm going to be nice to her, because I am a nice person.

Jamie, you are better at getting us cardiovascular exercise in New Orleans in the evening than anyone I've ever been in New Orleans with.

Maybe I AM a Democrat...

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 83%

You are a terrorist-loving scoundrel who hates our dear leader and the values he defends. There are few redeeming qualities about you. You most likely celebrated when the evil-doers hit us on 9/11, then opposed the Iraq war when we tried to pay them back. You hurt us at every step and cause troops to die in the field by questioning Bush's decisions. You are most likely a lost cause, doomed to be a brainwashed victim of free thought and liberalism forever. No dose of Ann Coulter's prose can save you now.

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Family Update

I'm still alive and well; I've got an internship at a bank as a Contracts Analyst, which potentially could possibly maybe lead to full time employment with the bank if they decide to open a permanent position and would like me to fill it, maybe.

The wife is working hard; and still does the bulk of the laundry (I help around with other things but have proven to be more harm than good with respect to laundry). I think she's pretty much ready to have a husband who's NOT in law school for a change. She needs a trip to a spa.

The Boy has his benchmark tests at the end of this month... the scores on the benchmarks and TAKS testing for caucasians in his school have dropped over 30% since last year, while scores for the other demographics have improved about 5%, give or take. Just something my wife noticed. Thank goodness for No Child Left Behind. Actually, The Boy has only missed one benchmark question this year. He's smarter than NCLB would like.

The daughter got a fat lip today. She fell and bit into her lip as she hit the back of my chair. She's tough, though. Can't faze her with a little blood (ok, she cried a lot, but she got over it). She also got new shoes today, so she's happy.

The little boy used the potty 3 times today. This is cause for celebration. He also watched Monk about 30 times (he starts it then goes and plays). Right now he's playing Harry Potter with his brother. It's cute.

The cat peed on my jacket today. She pooped on the landing last night. She peed on something else yesterday. I changed the cat litter yesterday morning. I think it's time to change the cat.

That's all - goulash is almost done. Talk to ya later!

Mardi Gras

New Orleans is back to normal. They have fixed everything. How do I know this? Because on Yahoo! this morning, I found an article bemoaning the lack of toilets for Mardi Gras. You see, people can't find toilets during the festivities, so they end up going wherever they can find a spot. This ends up being bad for the landowners on the parade routes. This problem made the top headlines for today, which must mean that everything else has been fixed up all hunky-dory like. Of course, the tourists aren't the only ones who are having trouble finding a toilet in New Orleans.

There are the residents of the Lower 9th Ward who live(d) here:
And here:


And the people who live(d) here:



And the residents of the Lafitte Projects who used to live here:


But they don't matter, because they're poor and don't bring money in to the city. So who cares where they pee?

Saengil Chukha Hamnida!

Today is the Chonger's 65th Birthday! The dear leader is honored to have your well wishes, and he knows you thank him for being the lodestar leader for the 21st Century. Everyone should take a moment to remind yourselves how lucky we are to have him leading the pride of Northeast Asia.

UPDATE
Check out this link to the good people at the Gun Toting Liberal who celebrate the Dear Leader's guidance as well.

Class Assignment Help

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am enrolled in a National Security Law class this semester. This class is outstanding; I'm so glad I elected to take it. Currently, we are looking at the War Powers Resolution as a result of the struggles of the Separation of Powers issues during Vietnam. One of the assignments we have for Monday is to re-reread the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and consider its strengths and weaknesses. We are to figure out how to "fix" the War Powers Resolution to make it better than what we currently have - what would you add, what would you rewrite, what would you strike altogether?

While I will be doing this over the course of the week, I thought I would take this opportunity to ask those of you who are interested in manners such as this to put your thoughts on this subject in a reply to this post. I am interested not only in forming my own opinion, but seeing how my opinion matches and diverges from other opinions, and I see this as an opportunity to get input from a variety of sources while developing my opinion - which can be of great help. You can get to a link of the War Powers Resolution by clicking here, and then clicking on the section numbers at the Cornell law website that comes up.

The thread is open to all commenters, and I encourage civil debate. Thank you for your help.

Diplomacy inaction

I've written about North Korea once or twice on my blog. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The good folks at the Gun Toting Liberal have a collection of links regarding the recent agreement reached in the six-nation talks regarding North Korea's nuclear program, and a quick rundown on why it's ok to negotiate with Asians but not Persians.

I don't have time to get into detail on any of this, but suffice it to say, I think negotiating with the Chonger and North Korea to get them to agree to not do what they were supposed to not be doing in the first place is just fueling the fire of their regime (and this is a regime, if ever there was one).

Anyway, if you have a minute, click on some of the links above and see what the good folks have to say. And if you want to know what I think, you have over a dozen links above, as well.

Unforgettable-Natalie Cole/Nat King Cole

Happy Valentine's Day, Kirsten

We fear change

We're getting new Dollar Coins. And apparently, we still don't like them. Why? Because.

I honestly have no idea why we are so reluctant to use dollar coins. They cost less and last longer than dollar bills; they don't tear up; they are almost always going to be accepted in vending machines (once we change the vending machine coin slots)...

Perhaps the problem is that Canadians have been using them for years already. God knows we can't ever do anything that appears to be following what someone else does - it's an affront to our sovereignty. Kyoto? Hell no. Trade Unions? Hell no. UN? Screw them; Americans know best what's best for the world. But back to the Canadian dollar coins... why should we do what Canadians do? They negotiated NAFTA provisions that protect Canadian culture, yet did nothing to ensure the protection of our culture. What culture do Canadians have, anyway? Why should we bother copying something from a nation that is so afraid of getting real culture that they negotiated accords keeping our culture from them? We shouldn't.

But seriously, is there really any REAL reason for rejecting dollar coins?

Things you learn while avoiding studying

Actually, to be more accurate, things you learn while taking a break from your 8th hour of preparation for Criminal Trial Advocacy.

Anyway, I was surprised to learn, that I will be graduating in 3 months from the same law school that Dan Rather attended, and from which he received a law degree. (source: wikidpedia)

Still no GI Bill

I don't mean to harp on the same thing over and over again. But, I've been in school for almost a month now and the GI bill still hasn't been processed by the VA. The first part of this blame goes to my school; they were the ones who held on to the paperwork for 3 weeks after school started before starting to process the paperwork. The excuse I got was that the new system our school put into place is hard to understand - no disagreement here - 3Ls have pretty much conspired to never use STANLEY.

The second problem, though, is with the VA. I swear the program is designed to make it next to impossible to use. The GI Bill is set up to reimburse your education expenses each month, which means that in order to get the GI Bill benefits, you have to be able to afford to enroll in school in the first place (i.e. pay tuition). Then, after each month, you confirm the enrollment and get paid for the previous month (provided the school gets the paperwork in and the VA processes it), so you need to have been able to afford your living expenses for school before you get compensated as well. If you can meet these hurdles for as long as it takes for the school and the VA to get their respective acts straight, then you get paid between 7 and 10 days after you've confirmed your enrollment.

For many people, this might be somewhat easier, but the amount we spend on daycare is pretty close to the amount we get paid for the GI Bill, and without that money, we end up hurting a lot more than we should.

Now, the school does have options for emergencies similar to this. There is an emergency loan program set up in the school. Admittedly, I know very little about this program, but, since everything the school does is geared towards making money, I'm fairly confident in the assumption that the school would charge me some sort of fee for taking out this emergency loan (i.e. I would have to pay back more than I received). I'm not going to do this. I'm not willing to pay the school money to be able to tide myself over for the time I'm not getting paid the money I'm owed due to the school's negligence in either training their staff or processing the necessary work to ensure its students are able to afford the costs of attending class.

I hate my car.


UPDATE

I called the GI Bill yesterday and to my surprise, they had processed the paperwork finally. I am disliking the VA less today.

Criminal Trial Advocacy

I will be playing the lawyer again on Tuesday. The exercise this week is expert witness testimony. I know we're the plaintiff, and I think we're trying to establish that the drowning was murder, not an accident. The expert is a medical examiner who will be testifying on the expert work product that was produced by a different medical examiner.

There will be 3 of us on the prosecution team - myself and the two minitrial prosecutors from the first minitrial.

My minitrial partner will be doing voir dire in three weeks with the minitrial prosecutors from the third minitrial; I think I am the more fortunate of the two. Jury selection is a valuable skill to have, but I have already sat in on it once for a Courts Martial, so I'm looking forward to doing the direct and redirect of the expert witness.

Time to get back to work.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, I gave in and moved to the new blogger. I did this mostly because blogger told me that the next time I logged in, I'd have to switch to Google blogger.

Since I made the change, I decided to change the name of my blogspot, as well. No more (myname).blogspot.com. Instead, I've changed to binjoditch.blogspot.com. This was partly for privacy reasons, and partly because I wanted my url to match my blog's name a little more closely, and now seemed like the best time to do so.

So, I'll stop by all my regular readers' blogspots to say howdy, but everyone needs to update their links, if they want to keep me around.

It's Aliiiiiive!

I got my new A/C adapter. I'm back in business.

Strangely, the woman who backed into me has not been seen (ok, not strangely, but expected)

Still no GI bill.

Start work tomorrow.

gotta figger out dinner for tonight - I'm thinking cheeseburgers.

I hate my car.

The morning after

So after I finished my post complaining about the recent spate of bad luck, I called Dell tech support and actually got to talk to a live person after only about 3 minutes (woohoo!)

I explained the situation, explained how this has happened several times both to myself and people I know with the same computer, and then the operator proceeded to do a troubleshooting process for me. I'm not too upset about that; it's her job, and I was going to end up getting my AC adapter on warranty (no money to pay, yay!).

So long story short (too late), I will be getting a new AC adapter in 1-3 business days. So I just have to live without a computer at home for that long. Taking notes by hand can be tough with my handwriting, but I think I can manage.

We're still waiting on GI bill and daycare compensation, but at least I have a power cord coming. Small victories.

Complaint session

So I got hit by a car yesterday by a woman who has no insurance and who speaks no english. My GI bill has not yet come in - in fact it has not yet been processed by the VA because the school did not send out this semester's enrollments until last Friday, even though we'd been in school for 3 weeks by that time, and we need that money for such frivolities as food, transportation, diapers, and daycare. But the GI Bill isn't the only thing we're missing out on. We also have yet to receive the daycare reimbursements for January, because the people in charge of that somehow lost their paperwork. In all, we're currently running about $1000-1200 short on a budget that has about $90 to spare in a month. As if this all isn't bad enough - my battery charger for my laptop chose today to quit working. I don't know what it is with Dell Inspiron 5150 battery chargers, but they seem to have a shelf life averaging about 9 months. This will be the fourth time I've replaced my battery charger since I got the laptop back in June of '04, and I don't know that the warranty is even going to cover it this time. It should - I am not the only one who has experienced problems with the battery charger/ac adapter with this model, so it appears to be a design flaw, and I can't see how it makes sense to charge us for a problem that is ingrained in the design itself; especially if it was unforseeable by us, the consumer. I know, I'm getting pissy about something that I don't know will happen, but 2007 hasn't exactly rung in completely cheerily for us - I mean, my wife's grandmother died a couple weeks ago as well, the little boy got pinkeye, etc.

But, I might have a job for after I graduate, so there is a silver lining on this cloud that is winter 2007.

I hate my laptop's battery charger
I hate my car.

Exercise in Futility

I had the heat on in my car this morning because it was cool (spring-like weather for the rest of the country, but cold for Texas - 40 degrees). I had the heat on from the moment we left to take the kids to school until the moment I returned sans kids. I then got out of the car. The temperature was warmer out of the car than it had been in the car with the heat running for half an hour.

I hate my car.

Apparently, I'm boring

This is evidenced, apparently, by the lack of Jessica Simpson content in my blog posts.

I have a reason for this, and it's not just because I find this stuff interesting. It's because I would sooner gargle with pureed dart frogs than mention anything associated with that bad-acting-full-body-convusion-singing-overhyped-undertalented-annoying person (note - these are opinions, not facts - author makes no express or implied statement of truth for any of the aforementioned adjectives).

But, since I am so boring, I thought I'd take the moment to write about something a little more interesting. About a walk I took one damp evening. You see, my friend and I had been trying to get to this restaurant called Bacco's, and I knew it was on Chartres in New Orleans. So I told her we had to go to Chartres. And we eventually got to Chartres, thanks to my navigational skills, i.e. being able to read street signs. So while we are on Chartres, where I knew the restaurant was, and made clear mention of said fact on numerous occasions, my friend took it upon herself to move OFF of Chartres, because she recognized a building. Knowing that I can't leave a friend unattended in New Orleans, especially at night when she's not been to New Orleans before, I alter my route to stay with her. Eventually, we end up back on Chartres (naturally) at a corner where I recognize a plaque on the sidewalk. I make note of this plaque and say that we are almost at Bacco's. She insists that we have to leave Chartres again, because she sees the building "right there," and so she takes off in a westerly direction. We then finally come up on the back of the building she sees, and she needs to get in the front of it so that she can get her bearings. I try to walk up the alley (north), but she refuses, instead going around another building (North, then East) and ending up right where we would have been had we gone up the alley I'd started down. Then, knowing where she was, she proceeds to lead us further east until we get to the street she knows we have to go down. I look at the street sign. it's Chartres. We head south on Chartres, PASS THE CORNER WHERE I SAID WE WERE RIGHT AT THE RESTAURANT, walk another block south, and there's the place. Unfortunately, because we went for a trip around the block, we got to the restaurant just 10 minutes after they'd finished seating for the evening, so we didn't get ot eat there. Then it started to rain. And I with no umbrella, and my friend with hers breaking.

Not all stories have happy endings. I've still not eaten at Bacco's. It probably is the best restaurant in New Orleans.

Moral of the story, never let a friend who's never been to New Orleans look for that building. It's like trying to find the end of the rainbow.

Ow, my neck!

I dropped off all the kids today, as I normally do on school days. The Boy first, then the little boy at daycare. Then the daughter and I went to get some gas - I was down to half a gallon left. Finally, we go to her bus stop, which is fun in a car with no heat. Anyway, we get her dropped off, I head back to the apartments. Due to timing, if I get to the complex a minute or two later than normal, I end up having to wait for the middle school kids to get picked up by their buses, which happened today, so I'm stuck about 30 feet from the entrance to the complex, with two cars in front of me. Well, as I'm standing still, since I can't go anywhere, the car in front of me decides it might be a good idea to put her car in reverse and back up. At first, I think she's just going to go back a few inches, and then I realize she ain't stopping. And sure enough, she backs right into my car, which was at a complete standstill. I had tried putting it in reverse, but being an Escort, it doesn't respond to desperate pleading, so I hit the horn, which sounded pretty much at the same time the car made contact with mine.

Of course, the lady doesn't speak English, doesn't have insurance, doesn't want me to call the police because she has other tickets, and wants to pay for my damage - which fortunately is rather light - just a broken bumper and a scraped up turn signal. She looks at it and suggests to her friend that it might cost about $50-60. Her friend, apparently a little more pragmatic, said it would probably cost a couple hundred. In the meantime, I now have to miss half a day of school to go get my car's damage estimated so I can get the money from her so I can get it fixed, which I don't want to do because it's an Escort, and I still hold out hope that you good readers will surprise me with my graduation present.

I hate my car.

10th amendment issues

Maine was the first to issue a resolution opposing the Real ID Act of 2005. Several other states quickly followed suit - Georgie, Wyoming, New Mexico, Vermont, Montana and Washington all rejected it.

I oppose this Act, in part because of 10th amendment issues - state's rights. I also oppose it because of the rashness of it - conceding to federalism under the terrorist scare. Our Constitution was written to limit the powers of the Federal Government, to keep it from becoming too strong. Yet, we have stretches, where the Federal Government tries its best to take control of issues that are fine staying with each individual state. I favor smaller government, which would mean that I oppose acts that would pass more control to the Federal Government, which means that I oppose the Real ID act - it's unnecessary, and insulting to the states to suggest that they can't be trusted to regulate something as small as an ID card.

We shouldn't get involved

When we attacked Yugoslavia in defense of the Kosovar Albanians, one thing we said was that we were not pushing for independence for the region that has been a part of Serbia for 2000 years.

Apparently, we lied.

In my mind, this would be no different than Europe, or any large nation going on the record pushing for the return of Manhattan, or the breadbasket to the native Americans who sold it for $26 in beads. We would consider that an assault on our sovereignty. Why then, do we push for the same in another country? The Albanians are pseudo-sovereign as it is - different language, different schools, no taxes, etc., under the premise of CALLING themselves part of Serbia. Why do we support them? Genocide can't be the answer - we supported Croatian independence, and they commited acts of genocide in the name of Nazism during WWII against the Serbs. So, why? It's got to be because Serbia is a communist nation, and we eschew communism. And that is a horrid reason to tear apart a nation that has done us no harm.

The Intent of the Founders

I attended my first CLE conference yesterday. I got no credit. However, I rather enjoyed the session. Professor Erwin Chemerinsky came out to our school to discuss the religion clauses of the First Amendment, along with our own Professor Kathleen Bergin.

I think the course was named improperly, as there was little discussion as to what the Founders meant with regard to religion. Thomas Jefferson's statement was brought up, as was a comment from Roger Williams (from the Constitution era), who once noted that the concept of separation of church and state helps protect the autonomy of religion.

Professor Chemerinsky first commented that historians could very well note that the keystone issue of the late 20th/early 21st Century is the rise of fundamentalism worldwide - be it Christian, Islamic, or Jewish. He also noted that one thing fundamentalists have in common is the desire to use the government to push their agenda, and one of the barriers to that in the United States is the "wall of separation" that has served as our country's backbone for so long. He mentioned how in the 1940s and 50s, the big push was to keep religion and government separate.

Where to go from here...
Let's see - there are basically three approaches (theories) to what the founders meant with the religion clauses. I will cover the first approach on this post, and come back to the other two later.
1: Strict Separation - (this is the approach Professor Chemerinsky prefers) That the government should be as secular as possible to the greatest extent possible. Professor Chemerinsky notes that as an absolute, this is impossible without encroaching on the free exercise clause, with chaplains in the military and prisons, for example. The concept is that if the government stays out of affairs of religion, then religion does not have to fear the government controlling it. An example of where this could come in handy is with the concept of subsidies for religious schools. There is a push in some circles to require that if the government provides monies to secular private schools, then it should do so with religious private schools. If the government gets into the church schools, then it can use the money as leverage to coerce the church to educate according to the state's agenda, not the church's. If the government feels that a Baptist-based methodology is best, then that's what the church schools, be they Catholic, Methodist, Jewish, or whatever, would end up having to follow that curriculum. If the state wants to endorse the Lutheran ten commandments as opposed to the Jewish or Catholic ten commandments, then that's what's going to happen. Finally, the Professor notes that if the Government finds a way to start giving subsidies to church functions, then the U.S. taxpayer will end up having to spend his own money (through taxes) to finance a church whose philosophy he disagrees with. For an example of this, consider what would happen if a Satanic church started a school and asked for government funds - the government would use your money to finance a school that the fundamentalist Christians would likely most abhor - yet is entirely consistent with what the fundamentalist movement is pushing for. Tax dollars should not go to fund religion, the argument goes, and as such, the government should try to remain as neutral as possible.

Interesting sidenote - the ten commandment displays such as the one at the Capital Building in Austin were placed by Cecil B. DeMille to promote his movie The Ten Commandments. He placed these all over the country, at least 60 of them.

Intented Consequences?

A Michigan appeals court ruled that the state's marriage amendment "prohibits government agencies and public schools from providing health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of employees if the benefits are modeled on those provided to married couples," according to this Detroit Free Press article. The article notes that almost all of the involve parties agreed that whatever the outcome, there would be an appeal to the State Supreme Court.

I like to hope that these were unintended consequences of the gay marriage ban. I also think that it displays part of the problem with these amendments. Apparently, even though everyone is created equal, they are not entitled to reap the same benefits for the object of their affections, if the object of their affection happens to be the same gender as themselves.

This same problem comes up in the case of wills - and is one of the most common challenges to the validity of wills - that a gay partner is not a natural object of one's affection. As such, the family of the deceased often succeeds in having the wills declared invalid.

I don't care if you approve or disapprove of homosexuality. I do, however, think it's wrong to use the government to hold down a demographic, particularly in the absence of a valid public policy.

I'm troubled

Since I've been on blogger, I have had stretches where certain words I've used have generated more hits than others. For example, when I placed some "Black Water" lyrics up here some time back, I had several people stop by for that. My comments on Yu-gi-oh (june 25) still get hits fairly regularly, as does my post on Max Schnelling having passed away (some 2 years ago now).

But the most common search term people have found my site with recently is "preteen," which I used in a post last month. For whatever reason, people keep doing searches on blogger/google/etc. using just the word preteen, and ending up in the binjo ditch. Are there really that many preteen bloggers out at 11:24 at night, or is there something more underhanded (I won't use the word sinister to mean bad - I'm a lefty).

Look, if your head is in the gutter, that's one thing, but keep any pedophilic tendencies out of the Binjo Ditch. They're not welcome here.