Consider it a 'Motion for Rehearing'

I tried really hard, but I just couldn't pass up this story. . . .

Remember last week when the Supreme Court shook up the entire area of Eminent Domain by ruling that private economic development could constitute a public purpose that would justify the taking of private property? (If not, you can see this article.) One advocate disagrees with the Court's ruling and has found an interesting way of forcing the Justices to reconsider. The tactic: See how the Justices like losing their own property.

As the article states, the CEO of Freestar Media wrote a letter advocating replacing Justice Souter's home with a hotel. While this is certainly an amusing tactic, some how I doubt it will be very effective. How likely is it that a town would replace a Supreme Court Justice's home with a hotel? (Unless the selectmen, and probably most of the town, disagree with the Court's ruling) Second, is there any sort of proof that the hotel would be successful and generate greater tax income for the town? (Wait a minute, what am I talking about? This is government, they don't need no stinkin proof.) Doesn't it seem likely that even if the town takes Justice Souter's home he will just use the compensation the town would be required to pay him to buy a similar house?

We're heading into the long Independence Day weekend. The smell of food, Sousa music, and American flags are sure to be everywhere. If you're planning on displaying the flag this Fourth, please do it right. robin has a few reminders from the flag himself, but I would like to point out a few others.

(a) Display on buildings and stationary flagstaffs in open; night display
It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset
on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic
effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly
illuminated during the hours of darkness.

(h) When the flag of the United States is displayed from a staff projecting
horizontally or at an angle from the window sill, balcony, or front of a
building, the union of the flag should be placed at the peak of the staff unless
the flag is at half staff. When the flag is suspended over a sidewalk from a
rope extending from a house to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, the flag
should be hoisted out, union first, from the building.

(i) When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the
union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the
observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the
same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the
street.

(j) When the flag is displayed over the middle of the street, it should be
suspended vertically with the union to the north in an east and west street or
to the east in a north and south street.

You can find the entire flag code here. Have a safe and fun Fourth.

"All I want is my fair share! All I want is what I have coming to me!"

I'm not quite sure what I think about this article, tossing out yet another generational label. However, I would have to say that I probably do expect more from a job and an employer than my parents did at my age. Whether my expectations are reasonable, of course, is open for debate.

So Who Gets the Stats for the 1st and 2nd?

This is one crazy promotion. But that's the whole point. Be wild and outlandish to get the fans in the stands and generate interest in the teams and the league. Also check out the other strange promotions listed in the article.

Quote of the Day

If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.
--Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat, New York

Full Story

513, on Dad's Day, of course*

Junior smacked his 513th career homerun yesterday. The shot put him past Mr. Cub Ernie Banks and Eddie Matthews for sole possession of 16th all-time. The homerun was also the fifth time in Junior's career he has hit one out on Father's Day.

Junior always seems to come through and hit one for his parents. His mother's birthday, his father's birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, all days when it has been a good bet that he would hit a homerun. Can we start inventing holidays to boost his total? Mothers of 'juniors' day? Fathers of Sons who are named after them day? Major Leaguer Father's day?


*info in first paragraph taken from Reds' official website

Uuuuugggghhhh

ThatWunWife and I went house shopping yesterday afternoon. After that 5 hours, I don't really feel much like thinking a lot about it over the next couple days. But I will say this: It was dizzying, especially near the end of the day. And after 5 straight hours things started running together.

Bah.

More posts later. Maybe.

Yea!!

Reasons I can be happy: It's Friday; No Bar Review lecture tonight; I get my first paycheck!

Think she'll marry a scruffy-looking shepherd named Han?

Reuters reports that a Norweigian princess was named "Leah" after Star Wars' Princess Leia because her mother was such a big fan.

And now, a few rejected titles for this post:

If she becomes queen will she change her name to Padme?

Is there an alliance with King/a general named Obi-Wan?

How long till she gets the hairdo?

If only all MBE questions were this simple

If the witnesses corroborate the intent in this story, then it's clearly battery. I can see the question now, "If the jury believes the witnesses, then it should find Student:..."

Anti-Pollution Innovation

This is an. . . interesting way of dealing with pollution. But it leaves me with a couple of questions.

Does this create a different smell? Because that could be worse than the bus pollution. Or almost.

Could this be a possible solution to the "trucker bombs"? You know, just set up deposit boxes or bins at rest stops for truckers to contribute and refill tanks on their trucks with the refined liquid (which could also be provided at other locations).

Those One Things

As promised, here is the newest feature of Those One Thoughts.

Those One Things...

You should do while you live in Indy

1. Visit one of the many monuments. You could climb to the top of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on the Circle, stroll through the Medal of Honor Monument and watch the videos or reflect at the USS Indianapolis Memorial on the downtown Canal...
2. Visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You now have 3 chances a year to watch cars on the track, but if none of those tickle your fancy, you can just walk through the IMS Hall of Fame. It has been 18 years or so since I was there, but it was pretty cool then.
3. Attend at least one game of one of the following: Pacers, Colts, Indians, Fever, Firebirds, Ice. Pretty much something for everyone.
4. Catch one of the Indiana Repertory Theatre's shows. The historic Indiana Theatre is a great place to watch a show, and IRT is fabulous. BTW, Inherit the Wind is showing in September. Great play for the legal and aspiring legal types.
5. Catch a show at any of Indy's other theaters. Again, you should be able to find something to excite you.
6. Visit the Indianapolis Zoo/Botanical Gardens. Plenty of animals and plants, and a cool new dolphin exhibit. Also, see this post.
7. Visit the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I know, you're not a kid. That doesn't mean it's not still a fun place. And the 3-story water clock is almost worth the price of admission. It gets a little crowded around the clock as 1:00 approaches because everybody wants to see it drain. But trust me, the filling is cool too.
8. Visit one of Indy's many other museums; the Indiana State Museum, the Eiteljorg Museum, the Crispus Attucks Museum...
9. Talk a walk, bike ride, or boat ride on a canal. Downtown or in Broad Ripple.
10. Check out Mass Avenue.
11. Take advantage of the opportunities to try the cuisine of a new culture or find a bar or club to have some fun.

This list is not intended to be exhaustive, just a list of some of the top things I have done while living in Indy/would like to do before I move. It is also not intended to be any sort of ranking. But feel free to debate it anyway if you like.

512

In the Interleague series rematch of the 1970 World Series, Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 10th and 11th homers of the season. That's 511 and 512 for his career, tying and passing Mel Ott for a 3-way tie for 16th all-time. Junior should be pushing 600 or so by now, but those nagging injuries took away precious time, and made for lots of unproductive swings. I know A-Rod just broke Junior's mark of youngest to 400, and Junior is no longer a serious threat at 755, but you can still track the milestones here.

Feds can play Supremacy trump card

All right, dammit. I'm tired of seeing these piddly little short posts on my blog, so I'm going to do my best to write a long, substantive post. I'll see how well that goes and how long it takes...

The Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Gonzales v. Raich (formerly Ashcroft v. Raich). The 6-3 decision, written by Justice Stevens, upheld the prosecution of users and distributors of medical marijuana under the federal Controled Substances Act (the CSA). California allows patients to use and possess marijuana when directed by a doctor, and other states have similar laws. The defendants in the federal prosecution challenged the law as applied because they grew the marijuana themselves and did not affect interstate commerce. (At least one defendant simply gave the marijuana away.) Without this connection to interstate commerce, Congress would have no power under the Constitution to regulate the activity.

Justice Stevens' decision was based heavily on Wickard v. Filburn, where the Court held that Congress had the authority to regulate a farmer's growing wheat even though he did not intend to sell it and only used it for his family's substinence; such Congressional authority stemmed from the fact that the activity, although not interstate commerce and non-economic, because the aggregate of such activities across the nation have a substantial impact on interstate commerce. The growing and distribution of medical marijuana could not only have a substantial impact on interstate commerce, the Court said, but, with the possibility of fraud, could completely thwart the regulatory scheme created by Congress. The Court distinguished United States v. Lopez, in which a law prohibiting the possession of a firearm near a school was struck down, because the activity in question in that case was not related to commerce and the distribution of the marijuana is typical economic activity: growing and distributing a marketable commodity.

For some reason, (and this is really odd, trust me) I agree more with O'Connor's dissent. The distinction between Raich and Lopez doesn't seem very meaningful. And, while the argument that the decision deprives the states of their roles as laboratories of democracy doesn't seem very strong, I agree that it seems like the majority is allowing Congress to bypass the Commerce Clause by saying that regulating intrastate activity is necessary to maintain comprehensive regulation over a large area of activities.

Upcoming

I know you're all missing me and waiting with baited breath for my next post. Well stop it. You're starting to turn purple.

But seriously, I have a post in the works that should have been finished last week. I'll do my best to publish it today. I'm also working on a new feature. Yes, I know I haven't followed up on What Were Their Thoughts? but I haven't found a suitable subject yet.

Anyway, stay tuned, or what the hell ever the blog equivalent is, new content is on the way.

I'm number 1! I'm number 1!

I just checked my list of visitors and saw that someone got here by searching for "those one." First off, I have to wonder what ones this person was looking for. Kind of an odd search. Anyway, I thought if I was reading the link right (and I probably wasn't) that T1T was site #22 on the list. I thought Hey, that's pretty cool to be that high on such a generic search. So I thought I'd try running the Google search.... T1T was not in the top 30. So for the hell of it, I tried putting the two words in quotes. POOF! There's my blog listed first. Feels kinda cool being the top search result for something. Even something so generic and lame. =P

What a difference a day makes

I took a practice MBE Tuesday night and got 58 of the 100 questions correct. I know I'm only shooting for 60-64%, the average, but that's still a little disheartening. I'd been doing a little better on the practice questions from the bar review materials. I also missed 9 out of the last 10. Still, if I had scored 58% on all 200 questions from that exam, my raw score would have been around 135, over half-way to the magical 264.

I took another practice half exam last night and just graded it. Last night's score: a whopping 67. HOLY CRAP! I didn't study Tuesday night, and I pretty much only glanced over the questions I missed from Tuesday night. Wednesday's questions were easier. The scaling was not as high as for Tuesday's. But 67% on Wednesday's would have still been about 146.

Woo-hoo!!

The Simpsons movie has begun production. Whether they finish it is a different issue.

Note: The title of this post is not meant to convey enthusiasm but is merely a clever title stolen from the series.

I think my brain just melted

To anyone else out there studying for the bar exam: Be careful which news stories you read. And don't read this one. I actually started considering the validity of the contract and then I'm sure I head a sloshing sound in my cranium. You were warned.

Ewww

I have sympathy for truckers sometimes, but this is just wrong. The pun in the headline is just as bad.

Century Mark

I noticed that I've had over 100 visitors to my blog the other day. Not bad for about a month. Well, maybe not when you think it's only about 3 visitors a day. Then again, I thought I'd be lucky to average one visitor a day. And if you subtract last week's traffic explosion I'm much closer to that figure.

Pricing by Big Brother

Maybe you've taken the coupons that print after your receipt at the grocery store and thought, Well, its better than getting a bunch of coupons for stuff I'll never buy, or Hey! 10 cents off the ravioli I buy 100 cans of each week! Awesome! Either way, this is creepy.

Admit it, you kind of suspected it was going on in the background. Doesn't it kind of remind you of those signs that say "Prices subject to change based on customer's attitude?" I guess it's just one more example of the cost of the Internet. Another trade-off we make for convenience. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.