Little o' this, little o' that.

[shirenomad]

1) The church has this room they set aside for prayer and meditation during Lent (that's the 40 days leading up to Easter). It includes some exercises if you want to contribute. One's a jigsaw puzzle; if you want to, put in a few pieces, then use it as an inspiration to think about how you're contributing to the larger church, and how each piece is important.

Well, I go in there every week for about an hour and spend at least ten minutes on the puzzle every time. (Often more; it puts me in a good zen mode.) But the past few weeks I haven't seen any noticeable difference between visits. Just my contributions. If anyone else is trying to help complete the puzzle, they're being subtle about it. I was almost annoyed at first, but I had a bit of an epiphany while mulling that over. There are several situations where I've contributed without seeing anything resembling an end result. And I've just got to give what I can and trust that others will step in to keep things going when I'm not available. I may not see their contributions, but that's not my job to worry about; my job is to do what I can do.

2) There was some Chinese radio station playing at the restaurant I ate at tonight. I was largely ignoring it, since I didn't understand the words, but then... *geek sense tingling...* I know those opening bars. Can't place them; what are they? *lyrics begin* ...Oh my God, they're playing Eyes on Me.

3) For those who think Republicans all think with one mind (or no mind), there's a fascinating debate going on over a recent Supreme Court decision at The Corner on National Review Online. From what I can tell, the positions include Good Decision, Bad Decision, Good Decision With Bad Justification, and Good Decision That Was Nonetheless Not The Court's Business To Decide.

Also, in between the debate you can find Jonah Goldberg griping about the continuing decline of Star Wars, commenting on fun tech developments, and making references to the Treaty of Algernon.

Comments

[chubbypanda.livejournal.com]

The geek side is strong in this one...

Dude, when you coming down for a visit?

[shirenomad]

Dude, when I have money! ^^;

[surgo.livejournal.com]

Which decision was it? If it was the execution of juveniles we're talking about, I would hardly call Kennedy and someone else whose name escapes me conservatives in today's sense of the word.

[shirenomad]

Kennedy isn't. He's pretty far left, in fact. Doesn't mean conservatives can't agree (at least partially) with him on particular matters.

There's a good number of people against the death penalty, especially for the under-18 crowd, at the Corner. I fall in the same camp; all studies indicate that people simply haven't developed their decision-making ability completely at that stage of their life. We don't even let them DRINK until age 21.

Of course, for the same reasons, I find it outrageous (as Scalia noted in his dissent) that the same Supreme Court thinks the same 17-year-old DOES have the decision-making power to have an abortion without parental advisement. As several Corner posted noted, logic and consistancy doesn't enter into the Court's thinking processes; it's just "abortion good, death penalty bad".

Other complaints include Kennedy not justifying his argument with anything in the US Constitution or Court precident, instead resorting to two unratified international treaties that the US is not involved in. And the general feeling that nine unelected guys in robes do not have the right to define morality for the entire nation, no matter the subject. That's, at best, the job of the 400+ elected guys in Congress, if not the state and local legislatures.

[surgo.livejournal.com]

Well, the difference is that abortion is not legally recognized as killing someone, whether you think it is (I don't) or not.

But also...
Kennedy left? Haha...only in today's sense of the word. Just proof that America has gone ridiculously far to the right. The man was put in by Reagan!

[shirenomad]

Reagan's mistake. Remember, Earl Warren was appointed by Eisenhower.

I'll admit Kennedy isn't that far to the left (there are certainly people on the bench further that direction), but he has a tendency to think more in terms of his gut and his personal opinions than what's actually stated in the Constitution.