Private Property Seized by the Government and Given to Another Private Owner?

Is economic development a public use?

I think this is the real question at issue in this case. It’s a question I’m not sure I have the answer to, or that anyone has an answer to. I know that as a homeowner, I don’t feel that it’s right for my local government to have the power to take my home from me, even with monetary compensation. I’ve worked hard for my home.

Okay.. I’ve tried..

and I can’t do it. I am removing “I Am Charlotte Simmons” from my summer reading list. Tom Wolfe’s writing makes this story about as interesting as watching grass grow (and while my grass has been growing like crazy lately, and it actually has been kinda neat to watch it grow this doesn’t redeem the novel much in any way). The novel has bored me to sleep no less than six times. I guess Wolfe just isn’t for me. Sorry Dave. I’ll return your book tomorrow

Protecting the Flag?

Ban on Flag Burning has Chance to Pass Senate?

Note again, that I’m a conservative by and large. I don’t favor this initiative. I don’t care who burns the flag for whatever reason, as long as they paid for it out of their own pockets, rather than stealing it from someone else, it’s theirs to do with as they see fit.

Yes, it offends me to see a flag being burned on TV, but it’s not my right to tell that person they can’t and it’s not the government’s job. It is my right to say “Hey! I think what you’re doing is wrong and I don’t like it.” I don’t need congress to speak for me, I can be plenty loud when I choose to be, thank you very much.

The idea that congress feels the need to pass this law offends me almost as much as flag burning itself. They are putting far too much faith in symbols. There’s more to freedom and democracy than a flag. That’s part of why protecting freedom of speech is so important. It’s a very vital part of what this nation was founded on. As long as we are able to speak and act as we choose, in a peaceful manner that brings no other individuals or their rights harm, we are supporting what makes this nation great.

In light of this, the idea of banning flag burning seems more and more like socialist agenda, rather than an expression of a vibrant democracy at its best.

Update: Check out this post from The Anchoress. Some interesting points of view from here, that are similar to my own beliefs on this subject.

More here: from the Volokh Conspiracy. Eugene Volokh makes an interesting point about the confederate flag versus the US flag and how one should not be treated differently than the other, and I think he’s right. Also see this post from Citizen Smash.

The Power of Coffee

So.. I went in for my hair appointment today. Just stepping outside was enough to cause my eyes to go bloodshot and clog my sinuses. I was miserable. The whole time I was in the salon, my stylist kept handing me kleenex. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bad in June.

It’s allergy related. I normally only get hayfever or things like that in years where Beaker blows up like a hive riddled balloon, but this year the pollen count in our particular area has reached levels never before seen and it’s causing everyone issues, including people who are normally not affected by allergies.

So.. there I am, trying to just relax and get through my hair appointment so I can get home and get back indoors away from the pollen, and my stylist became my savior. She ran over to starbucks (no, I don’t like their coffee that much, but it’s better than nothing) and after I’d finished half my mocha, I felt tons better. My eyes started to clear up, I was able to breathe again.

God I love coffee, but I can’t use it as a continual medicinal substance for the entire summer so.. OTC Claritin.. here I come.

Chick Flicks

I woke up to this.. beautiful and horribly sad movie on television. I didn’t catch the name of it, but it was about an older couple. The husband moved into a nursing home to be with his wife, even though she had a condition that meant that she didn’t remember him or their children. Every day, he would tell her a story about a young couple as they fell in love around world war II. And then, he finished the story, leaving it off at a cliffhanger and he looked at her and said, “What happens next?” and she remembered everything. For five minutes, he had his wife back.

When she was gone again, he’d start telling her the story over from the beginning. He lived his life for having those few minutes with her. It reminds me of my great-aunt and great-uncle. She has alzheimer’s disease. The last time I saw her she didn’t know who I was, but my great-uncle just smiled and held her hand and told her my name. Alzheimer’s disease is kind of scary to me. My great-aunt is perfectly aware of her surroundings, it’s not as if she’s a doddering old biddy, quite the contrary. She’s as sharp as ever, but she can’t remember things. I don’t know that I’d want to live like that, but if I do, I hope that my husband has the patience to hold my hand and smile and tell me people’s names.

Gah.. I hate chick flicks. They require too much kleenex and chocolate for a person who’s trying to get past allergies and drop 15 pounds. *sigh*

Sleeping Hollywood

From Roger L. Simon via Instapundit

I do have something to say here. I looked, and I looked hard for a movie to take my kids to see this summer. The kids and I talked about it, the only thing that we all wanted to go see with any small degree of passion is Episode III. Note that I said a small degree of passion. There’s only one other movie we want to go see this year. I think you can guess what that is, but if not, I’ll tell you. It’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We MIGHT go see the Fantastic Four, but that’s a real big maybe. For the most part, we’d rather stay home and watch anime if we’re not playing video games.

To make a point, I’m a 30 something mom. I’ve been a gamer since I was 16. I started playing video games on my boyfriend’s sega genesis in high school, and then when I moved in with my hubby.. well.. we’ve always had a game console. Currently, we own two, an xbox and a PS2. I also have a PSP that I port around with me for various reasons, and because we have kids there are a variety of gameboys in the house. My plans for this summer include, the summer reading list you see on the sidebar. Finishing Xenosaga 2, .hack//quarantine, and Jade Empire for my console games, and finishing Myst: Revelation, and Syberia for the PC games, and cleaning my house. Note that movie going is not on the list.

There was a time when my husband and I would go see a movie once or twice a month, even to the point of hiring a babysitter so that we could go see movies that didn’t start with “Walt Disney Presents”. I loved that time. It was great to be able to see a film like “Event Horizon” that pushed the envelope in the minds of the viewers. And man.. that flick gave me nightmares for a month after we saw it. The horror movie that does that to me is rare, and only one since “Event Horizon” has had me looking around doors for a few days after I watched it, and that was “Ju-On: The Grudge”. I love the scene where the face of the ghost biting at “Karen” in the movie is reflected in the window of the bus they are riding on. That really got me.

These days, I’d rather sit at home and watch the cool movies that I really love on our home theater screen. And since we’re on the subject of movies at home, here’s my recommended list for you to sit down and watch with your tweens.

“Spirited Away”. Miyazaki’s best in my mind, but a possible second to
“Laputa” or “Castle in the Sky”.
“The Star Wars Trilogy”
“The Lord of the Rings”
“The Iron Giant” (cause it’s cool, who doesn’t remember him saying “Superman…”).
“Secondhand Lions” (”That lion is defective!” *giggle*)
“Big Fish”
“The Hunt for Red October” (the tweens can handle it, and they need to understand the coolness that is Sean Connery)
“Indiana Jones and..” (Watch them all with your kids, widescreen in surround.)

And there we have it. Positive proof that a home DVD collection is filled with far better movies than your average movie theater is showing right now.

Update: Bill@Reason’s Edge has more on this. I agree with what he has to say on this for the most part. It doesn’t make sense to cycle movies into the video stores so quickly. A family of four can watch movies for an entire evening and spend maybe 15$ at the video store, and on popcorn. The expensive snacks at the movie theaters actually make sense. The theater itself makes very little off ticket sales, this information comes to me from Taralon an employee at a large theater chain, most of their income comes from concessions sold at the theater. I agree that expensive popcorn and soda can be very daunting, but I also think that to be honest, since the tickets themselves are so expensive, families have to decide very carefully which movies they want to see. The question becomes one of: “Do I really want to spend 50$ on going out to a movie, that probably won’t be very good with my family, or would I rather spend that 50$ on something that they will get more value out of?”

Something to think about.

Wow.. this isn’t a surprise..

I imagine this will come as a shock to no one I know either..

hat tip Reason’s Edge

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable – and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You’re witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends’ ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

Quashed Nagasaki Report

George Weller’s 1945 report of the Devastation of Nagasaki

This report was censored by General MacArthur (according to this report on /.). Some things should be told. The horror of Nagasaki is one of them. I still think that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do at the time. I firmly believe, that we would not have used those weapons if there had been an alternative that would have saved more lives, both Japanese and American. But, in dropping those bombs we took on a responsibility that remains with us until our Empire falls. We have a duty to understand what it was that we did that day in August 1945, and a responsibility to make sure that no one ever finds a need to use such a weapon ever again. Weller’s report serves as a reminder to us of that duty.

In fall, I read a beautiful poem on the bombing of Hiroshima that moved me to tears. I imagine that most of my friends look at my love of poetry and either laugh, or chuckle, but like this story by Weller, poetry has a power to inspire us, awe us and humble us in the face of things that we were not able to experience first hand. In my mind, reading poetry is just as important as reading books, in some ways, even more so.

Below is the aforementioned poem by Ronald Wallace (via this site, reposted here for reader convenience).

“The Hell Mural: Panel I”

Iri and Toshi Maruki are “painting the bomb.”
Their painting, they say, will comfort the souls of the dead.
“It’s a dreadful cruel scene of great beauty,”
Toshi says. “The face may be deformed but there’s kindness
in a finger or a breast, even in hell.”
The Hell Mural spreads over the floor.

Iri stretches naked on the floor,
painting. He remembers Hiroshima after the bomb–
the bodies stacked up, arms outstretched toward hell,
nothing he could see that was not dead,
nothing that cared at all for human kindness,
nothing that wept at such terror, such beauty.

Now a brush stroke here, a thick wash there, and beauty
writhes and stretches from the canvas floor.
He wants his art to “collaborate with kindness,”
he wants his art to “uncover the bomb.”
But no lifetime’s enough to paint all the dead
or put all those who belong there in hell.

“Hitler and Truman,” he says, “of course are in hell.”
But even those of us who live for beauty
are in hell, no less so than the dead.”
(He paints himself and Toshi on the floor.)
“All of us who cannot stop the bomb
are now in hell. It’s no kindness

to say different. It’s no kindness
to insist on heaven; there’s only hell.”
Toshi adds bees and maggots to the bomb,
and birds, cats, her pregnant niece, the beauty
of severed breast and torn limb on the killing floor.
“In Hiroshima,” she says, “we crossed a river on the dead

bodies stacked up like a bridge. Now the dead
souls must be comforted with kindness.
Come walk in your socks across our floor,
walk on the canvas. (A little dirt in hell
almost improves it.) Can you see the beauty
of this torso, that ear lobe, this hip bone of the bomb?”

Iri and Toshi Maruki, in “Hell,” are painting the bomb,
the mural on their floor alive with the thriving dead.
Come walk on their kindness, walk on their troublesome beauty.

The PSP has gone.. “global”

Porn for your PSP!

Portable porn! Wow! Now everyone under the age of 70 will have to have a PSP! W00t! Good job Sony!

Summer Reading

I’ve posted my summer reading list to the sidebar. As I finish books on the list, they’ll be struck through, as more get piled on, I’ll add more to the bottom.

Thanks to Dave for my birthday gifts of “The Lovely Bones”, “Strike Sparks” and “A Room of One’s Own”.

I just finished “The Lovely Bones”. This is an absolutely wonderful book. I nearly cried at the end of it. It’s a really great story of hope, oddly enough, told from the perspective of a dead girl who’s looking down on her family from heaven. The storytelling aspect is really interesting, you spend a lot of the book wondering about the dead girl and whether her family will ever find the man who murdered her, but in the end, that part of the story is just a backdrop. It’s about family and warmth and love and how it carries on, even long after you’re in your grave.

A worthy read, I recommend it.