Emily Barker - Wallender theme

So, thanks to Wallender w/Kenneth Branagh, I'm now hooked on Emily Barker, and quite thankful for it.  A small selection of her work is available for download on iTunes, enough to call a self-assembled album if you like.  Good stuff.

Now it Feels Like Christmas

The requisite meltdown by young person - overstimulated chemically and experientially - has occurred.

It's been a pleasant Christmas.  I found time to do a little yoga today, which is particularly good since I won't have acupuncture this week.  I could feel myself calming and becoming more centered during certain poses.  Bonus - worked kinks out from sleeping on foldout couch!

And now, some work.

10 Arguments Gun Advocates Make

Ten Arguments Gun Advocates Make, and Why They're Wrong

As an attorney, the one that catches my attention the most is the following:

6. The Constitution says I have a right to own guns.
Yes it does, but for some reason gun advocates think that the right to bear arms is the only constitutional right that is virtually without limit. You have the right to practice your religion, but not if your religion involves human sacrifice. You have the right to free speech, but you can still be prosecuted for incitement or conspiracy, and you can be sued for libel. Every right is subject to limitation when it begins to threaten others, and the Supreme Court has affirmed that even though there is an individual right to gun ownership, the government can put reasonable restrictions on that right.
And we all know that if this shooter turns out to have a Muslim name, plenty of Americans, including plenty of gun owners, will be more than happy to give up all kinds of rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Have the government read my email? Have my cell phone company turn over my call records? Check which books I'm taking out of the library? Make me take my shoes off before getting on a plane, just because some idiot tried to blow up his sneakers? Sure, do what you've got to do. But don't make it harder to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition, because if we couldn't do that we'd no longer be free.

Aside from the sarcasm towards the end, it's a really valid point.

Snow in D.C.!

It's snowing right now - so, a little White Christmas, which is always nice.

For everyone else travelling as this year draws to a close, here is Frigga's blessing for Odin:  Unharmed go forth, unharmed return, unharmed safe home.

Incredible

My uncle Charlie had a massive stroke recently and received an innovative treatment being pioneered at the hospital in Tennessee to which he was taken, and now he's fine.

Yes, that's what I wrote. Fine.

You can watch him play guitar in his hospital room on this TV clip. WZTV Exclusive: Man Goes From Suffering Stroke to Making Music in One Day.

Word of the day: gobsmacked.

Birthday!

Attention Internet! Today I am the Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Odd Realization

I was listening to NPR this morning on the new NFL labor agreement, and I suddenly thought to myself that this is probably the first time I've heard of a labor dispute where the general consensus is that the workers got what they wanted. Hopefully it's just me. Or just recently. But I doubt it.

[ETA: See? Moments later I hear of how disappointed Atlanta Symphony musicians are that they are shouldering the brunt of making up a deficit after making $5M in "concessions" (or maybe the deficit is $5M), losing jobs, and how Management isn't shouldering anything.]

Latest Quantum Muse is out!

The latest issue of Quantum Muse (http://www.quantummuse.com) is out!

Sudden Thought About Tweety Bird

Sudden thought:

Is the poor grammar shown by Tweety Bird of Looney Toons (I thought I thaw a puddytat.  I did, I did thaw a puddytat!) precurser to LOLCat grammar?  (I can has cheezburger?)

There's your conundrum for Sunday!

On the Set of 'Captain Blood, The Series'

My story, "On the Set of 'Captain Blood, The Series'" is available now for your persual in Issue 11 of Luna Station Quarterly. You can read it, free, on the website.

For only $2.99 if you download it in various epub formats, this magazine contains a heckuva lot of good fiction. Available in multiple electronic formats, and payment via Paypal accepted - makes it easy for you to get to the fic!

DOD Opening Land for Renewable Energy Development

“The U.S. Department of Defense plans to open up 16 million acres of its land for renewable energy development, which it hopes will create a boom of solar, wind and geothermal projects and provide clean power to military bases, the department announced Monday.”

“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on promoting renewable energy generation projects on public land that has historically been restricted for military uses. About 13 million of those 16 million acres are located in western U.S., where a lot of solar, wind and geothermal power development already has been taking place on private and other types of public land.”

16 Million Acres

Living Fences Benefit Farmers, Livestock, Environment, in Costa Rica

Living Fences in Costa Rica a Growing Idea

Farmers across Central America plant living fences because these green barriers are a more economically feasible and readily accessible method for containing livestock and protecting crops.

....

By providing some shade and serving as windbreaks, living fences can significantly decrease the amount of energy farm animals need to regulate their body temperatures. As livestock allot this extra energy to growth and, in dairy cows, producing milk, farmers experience higher yields, whether in meat or milk, for planting living fences.

This is simply cool.  (Ha!  Literally, too!)

Mars! Mars! Mars!

Hooray, Curiosity!  Curiousity Touches Down on Mars!

Uranium Mining in Inuit Territory

Uranium Territory: Inuit campaign for referendum over mine in far north

The struggle against uranium mining dates back to the 1970s. At that time, Inuit in Baker Lake unsuccessfully initiated legal challenges against uranium exploration near their community. In the late 1980s, Inuit successfully opposed a proposal by German company Urangesellschaft to mine the same Kiggavik uranium ore body that AREVA plans to exploit. In a local plebiscite in 1990, over 90 per cent of the residents of Baker Lake rejected Urangesellschaft’s proposal.

Reading the Supreme Court's Decision re: Affordable Care Act

From the opinion of the court:

Our permissive reading of these ["police" or "governing"] powers is explained in part by a general reticence to invalidate the acts of the Nation’s elected leaders. “Proper respect for a co-ordinate branch of the government” requires that we strike down an Act of Congress only if “the lack of constitutional authority to pass [the] act in question is clearly demonstrated.”  United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629, 635 (1883). Members of this Court are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments.  Those decisions  are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them.  It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

and, very next paragraph:

Our deference in matters of policy cannot, however, become abdication in matters of law.  “The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.”  Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 176 (1803). Our respect for Congress’s policy judgments thus can never extend so far as to disavow restraints on federal power that the Constitution  carefully constructed.  “The peculiar circumstances of the moment may render a measure more or less wise, but cannot render it more or less constitutional.” Chief Justice John Marshall, A Friend of the Constitution No. V, Alexandria Gazette, July 5, 1819, in John Marshall’s Defense of McCulloch v. Maryland 190–191 (G. Gunther ed. 1969).  And there can be no question that it is the responsibility of this Court to enforce the limits on federal power by striking down acts of Congress that transgress those limits.  Marbury v. Madison, supra, at 175–176.