Archive for June, 2007
James Madison
“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
James Madison, 4th president of the United States.
Filed under politics : Comments (0) : Jun 28th, 2007
Cheney v. Constitution
Is anyone else bothered by the blatant contempt for constitutional law held by our current vice president? In order to justify the vice president’s obsession with secrecy at all costs, he now claims that he is actually part of the legislature and not subject to laws governing the executive branch.
THIS IS A PROBLEM!
We’ve already seen that the Bush administration isn’t terribly fond of rules and laws that restrict the power of the executive. The difference now is that they won’t even bother to make a halfway decent excuse.
No genuine legal scholar or lawyer would agree to such an absurd claim that the vice president is immune from laws regulating the executive branch based solely on his responsibilities as president of the senate. This is plainly absurd.
The reason we keep a constitution is to prevent an overstepping of powers by any administration or president. The last 7 years have seen this legal theory stretched to the breaking point. It’s high time we stood up for our beleaguered constitution and demanded that the executive comply.
I, for one, am disgusted.
[read a good summary on Slate]
Filed under politics : Comments (0) : Jun 27th, 2007
Shift happens
I saw this video today. It’s a little too long and has some weird background music, but it raises some interesting points about the wild times in which we live. Worth a 5 min investment of your time.
Filed under culture, education, technology, work : Comments (0) : Jun 26th, 2007
I’ve decided to jump on the twitter bandwagon. What is twitter, you ask? It’s sort of like a micro-blog–your answer to the question “what are you doing?” (in 160 characters or less). You can find my twitter feed off to the right, or directly at twitter.com/tadfad or via RSS.
I’m not sure what the value is just yet, but in my quest to keep up on the web2.0 trends I figured I had to try it.
Filed under Uncategorized, culture : Comments (1) : Jun 24th, 2007
Let your kids explore
When I was a young kid, I had the luxury of living a block away from Carleton College. The campus was full of great spots to explore, including a pair of tiny islands rich with climbing trees and treasures to find. My parents trusted me and allowed me free license to wander (so long as I was home in time for dinner) and I am certain that I am better for it.
With the rise of suburbs and our hyper-fear culture, children are trapped. In the case of your typical suburban neighborhood, there is nothing within walking distance worth exploring. I grew up in Northfield, MN and lived within walking distance of my school, the grocery store, shops downtown, the college campus, and many of my friends. Contrast this with a suburb where the only features within a walkable radius are more houses. Until they can drive, children are forced to rely exclusively on mom and dad to chauffeur in the family SUV.
Combine this geographical limitation with the hyper-inflated sense of fear and danger in our culture today and you have a recipe for trapped, unhappy kids. But don’t take my word for it, read this article.
Filed under culture, suburbs : Comments (0) : Jun 23rd, 2007
