It's only a paper moon

This is the beach, last summer, just south of Newport OR. This weekend though, we're going in the opposite direction: to Yakima, Washington, for a choir-thing (I'm not sure exactly what- convention or something).

I've never been to Yakima, so I don't know what to expect. Hopefully I'll return with new pictures.

Here's some shocking stuff you might not have heard about the housing finance crisis. Governor Spitzer's article is linked from within- I find WinterPatriot's annotation of this one to be more readable than the original though, fyi.

In music history, today is the birthday of Michael Praetorius (1571) and Harold Arlen (1905- "Paper Moon," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Stormy Weather," etc).

It's also Matt Groening's birthday.

And in 2002, some 300 corpses were found in buildings and woods on the property of Tri-State Crematory, in Georgia. The parent company in question would later receive a no-bid contract to dispose of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005 (exact number of dead still unknown- are you surprised?). I kid you not.

V-Day

This photo-a-day thing is harder than I thought! I'm trying to follow these criteria, in this order of importance: 1) Use only my own work. 2) Don't repeat. 3) Try to provide contrast day -to-day (i.e., try not to use things like studio shots of tools, two days in a row). 4) If taking a picture that day is not possible/feasible/whatever, try to find a recent picture that's interesting.

I've been delving deeper and deeper into last summer, lately. Hopefully that will change soon.

Today is the feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe, evangelizers of the Rus, and legendary fathers of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Idyll

Another from last summer. This is on Mt. St. Helens.


In 1959, Barbie hit the shelves for the first time.

In 1996, "RENT" opened off-broadway.

Presumtion of guilt

Say whatever you want about torture, but this fact remains: We are innocent until proven guilty. Using torture to prevent a crime is therefore unethical and unconstitutional.

You cannot punish someone
before they commit the crime
for which you are punishing them.

Scalia talks about a hypothetical situation in which a suspect has hidden a bomb in L.A. But he's pulling a fast one, like every one else involved in the Bushcheney torture fest. Follow me here:

We're in L.A. Suddenly, the news reports that "a credible bomb threat has been reported... bomb... somewhere in the train system...." Or something like that. Cops run out to round up some suspects (Problem 1: seven years later and we're still looking for Osama bin Laden, so how effective will this round-up be? Dubious at best). The cops bring in some guys, maybe legitimate suspects, maybe not (doesn't matter for our game today), and proceed to interrogate, but find that the subjects won't talk (they claim they know nothing... right!). Interrogation continues, with no progress, and the cops get agitated. There's a bomb under the city, and people are about to die! The FBI is called in, and serious interrogation begins.

But wait, full stop- no crime has been committed. An anonymous bomb threat was issued. No bomb has exploded, or even been found. No one in custody is guilty of anything, but someone is being tortured, punished for crimes they not only did not commit, but may not even have planned. This is punishment before a crime; punishment for thoughtcrime, if the people being punished were even the ones who planned the thing (presuming there is a bomb at all). Let this sink in a second: Someone, possibly your friend, has been stripped of their humanity, has been strapped to a table and subjected to things you wouldn't do to your worst enemy. Remember: the suspect is innocent. It might well be you.



In another scenario, let's say there IS a bomb, and that it goes off. NOW a crime has been committed. But if the suspects have already been tortured, then we have a problem on our hands: their constitutional rights were seriously breached, and the whole case will have to be closed because the evidence was soiled by improper collection methods.

Scalia is a nutjob. For this interview, for this stated position on torture (and therefore legal ethics and our Constitution in general), he should be impeached and removed from office.

Torture IS unconstitutional: it presumes guilt.

Specifically, it contravenes our fourth, fifth, sixth, and fourteenth amendment rights (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; due process of law guaranteed to all; right to a speedy and public trial; guarantee that all citizens are protected by same), not to mention any number of ratified international treaties.

Our constitution may not survive Antonin Scalia. Our country -our freedoms-- will not outlive the constitution. Brace yourselves.

***
In 1924, George Gershwin premiered "Rhapsody in Blue."

Miracle Max

Today is the traditional anniversary of the founding of Japan (663 ce).

In 1858, Bernadette Soubirou saw the figure of a woman in white, whom she later identified as the virgin Mary, near Lourdes, France. The two girls with her at the time reported that they saw nothing.

St. Scholastica's Day Riot

I have a lot of work to do! It never ends! Like this is news...
Administration, marketing, production, website maintenance/development, and did I mention production? And gardening season approaches... I think I need to add a day to the week, at least for the duration of spring and summer. That, or eschew sleep entirely. Yeah, I said eschew-- when was the last time you used that word in a sentence?!


In 1355, the St. Scholastica’s Day Riot broke out in Oxford, England, after a dispute which started between students and locals over a beer, escalated into armed conflict. The riot raged for two days, leaving 63 scholars and almost 30 locals dead. The dispute was settled in favour of the university with a special charter, according to which, on February 10, the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed. The penance ended in 1825 when the mayor refused to take part.

Oh! And as I predicted, the GOP seems to be entering full Self-Destruct Mode. Go, boys, go!