Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Three Good Things: 12-01-2006

Fire. "Sugar Free" Chocolate. Dogs.

It was "cold" out today. It was colder earlier this week, but even so, it was below freezing when I left work to come home. It was really nice to come home to a warm house with a fire in the fireplace. Now there's some anthropomorphic local warming!

Is the house warmer because of the greenhouse effect caused by the CO2 released by burning the logs? Or is it the liberation of chemical energy converted into infra-red radiation and increased molecular kinetic energy which is then conducted through the body of the wood stove and distributed throughout the house due to convection?

Whatever it is, it was about forty degrees warmer in the house than it was outside. Now that's a suburban heat island that I can really enjoy!

I'm a diabetic. That can be a real bummer at times, but I've got a lot easier life than diabetics of times past had. I don't know how I'd get along sometimes without chocolate.

Now chocolate by itself isn't bad for a diabetic. But chocolate by itself isn't something that would be very enjoyable to a great many people without some form of sweetening. I'm partial to dark semi-sweet chocolates myself, but the sugar that goes into sweetening chocolate does horrible things to me.

I really miss a good old Snickers bar or some M&Ms. Thank God someone discovered sugar alcohols. Sure, they eventually convert into sugar in the blood, but they do it a lot more slowly than starches or just plain sugar.

Atkins has a low-carb bar with nougat, caramel, peanuts, and chocolate that while it's not exactly a Snickers bar comes close. And WinCo (a local mega-grocery) carries bulk candies, including a sugar-free or low-carb line. One of my favorites from that line is the ones that are just like peanut M&Ms without the edible white inked "M"s.

Even people with metabolic diseases can take some pleasure now and then with sugar substitutes. Thank God and science!

Dogs are wonderful creatures. Especially dogs that appear to love you. Like my dog. We call her Snoopy, and there's a story behind her name, but that's not what makes her special.

She's a West Highland Terrier, but not exactly a "show-quality" dog. What she lacks in "show" she certainly makes up for in affection. Every night when I come home from work, she runs to the door to greet me and does a little dance until I pick her up.

She's not doing it for food, because she's well fed, and can eat just about anytime she wants. I believe she's genuinely happy to see me when I come home.

That makes me happy, and it makes here a special dog as far as I'm concerned.

Fire. "Sugar Free" Chocolate. Dogs.

Three more simple things that make my day better.

High speed video nets $1,300 fine.

You've heard about the Darwin Awards: Posthumous awards for the stupidest way to remove yourself from the gene pool. There aught to be an equivalent for stupid scofflaws. From FOXnews.com:

OSLO, Norway — Police took up pursuit in cyberspace after a young Norwegian posted on the Internet video of his wild car driving.

Following an electronic trail that he left online, police caught him and slapped him with real-life fine $1,300.

...

The recording showed the car's speedometer hitting up to 150 miles — 240 kilometers — per hour on a public highway near Oslo.

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Police said they could prove only that the man had driven an average of 86 miles per hour and based the fine, which the motorist accepted, on that speed.

Norway's speed limit is as high as 62 miles per hour, though lower on most roads.

Pretty dumb.

Linked at 123beta.

"High" court

From CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court entered into a free-speech dispute Friday involving a high school student suspended over a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.

Frederick was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner -- a reference to marijuana use -- just outside school grounds as the Olympic torch relay moved through the Alaskan capital headed for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"Bong," as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, "is a slang term for drug paraphernalia."

Even though Frederick was standing on a public sidewalk, school officials argue that he and other students were participating in a school-sponsored event. They had been let out of classes and were accompanied by their teachers.

Principal Deborah Morse ordered the 18-year-old senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy by promoting illegal drug use.

He filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed upon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, agreed, concluding the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the school's educational mission by showing a banner off campus.

It seems to me that the kid has a case. I don't agree with illegal drug use (anymore). But I also don't agree with the school, especially since Alaska, where this incident happened, has decriminalized marijuana use and possession. I also don't buy the school's argument that the Olympic torch relay was a school sponsored event.

I don't exactly agree with Mr. Frederick either. "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"? Somehow that message seems more than a little confused. While the Bible doesn't say anything explicitly about marijuana consumption it has a lot to say about drunkenness, and none of it is complementary. Sure, getting stoned isn't "exactly" the same thing as getting drunk, but a Christian should never come before his Lord in such a state.

We're taught to avoid the appearance of evil as Christians, and to be a beacon of light to the world. Mr. Frederick's actions hardly fit that standard. That's not the point in this case though. The school has trampled upon his rights to free speech, and it did so in a public place that clearly wasn't school property. The school-sponsored event justification is pretty weak too.

Linked at 123beta.

Serial killer begs for his life...

Robert Yates Jr. thinks it's not fair that he has received the death penalty when Gary Ridgway didn't. Boo-hoo. Just because he plea-bargained for his life in Spokane, Walla-Walla, and Skagit county over the murder of thirteen women he thinks it's unfair that he received the death penalty for the two other women he murdered in Pierce county.

Was it fair to the fifteen women he murdered? Does it matter that Gary Ridgeway killed 48 women and escaped the death penalty but this murderer didn't escape? Both of these bits of offal deserve to die in horrible and brutal ways.

OLYMPIA -- Convicted serial killer Robert Yates Jr. asked the state Supreme Court Thursday to throw out his death sentence and take a fresh look at how capital punishment is applied in Washington.

...

Yates was sentenced to die for fatally shooting two Tacoma women, not for killing far more victims elsewhere.

...

During a hearing that ran well over four hours, all nine justices weighed in repeatedly, peppering both sides with questions.

The high court gave no indication how or when it will rule.

...

Under a plea agreement put together by Spokane County, Yates pleaded guilty to killing 10 women in Spokane County, two in Walla Walla County and one in Skagit County. The death penalty was off the table, and Yates, 54, was sentenced to 408 years in prison.

But John Ladenburg, then the Pierce County prosecutor, decided to prosecute Yates separately for the two Tacoma-area deaths. The jury convicted him of aggravated murder and Yates was sentenced to death.

Source: Supreme Court hears death sentence case

Isn't it sickening how someone can brutally murder and murder again, but suddenly thinks it's unfair that they themselves have to die? Some people may find life in prison a harsh enough sentence but I don't. I only regret that Robert Yates Jr. doesn't have fifteen lives to give for the ones he took.

Death isn't good enough for these inhuman scum.

Three Good Things: 11-30-2006

Quilts. Rain. Back Rubs.

My mother has been a quilter for quite some time. Recently my wife has taken up the hobby. There's a lot of cloth getting cut, trimmed, and sewn together around our house this past week. Some of it's looking really good too. My mom's happy because she gets the chance to show my wife how to make "perfect points". My wife's happy because she's having a lot of fun. I'm happy because they're happy and the quilts are warm.

The snow was mostly gone this morning, thanks to a little bit of warmer air turning the snowstorms into rain showers. The roads cleared up quite a bit, so I drove to work this morning. Lucas went to school too.

The school opened two hours late, but he was back in school. That's a good thing because every "snow day" has to be made up when the summer gets here. He wasn't too happy about having to go to school again, but what's so unusual about that?

After a long day at the sewing machine, my wife's muscles start to knot up. I suppose part of it is because she still hasn't completely recovered from her rotator-cuff surgery. Anyway, she really, really appreciates a back rub at the end of the day.

Quilts. Rain. Back Rubs. Sometimes it's simple things that make the day great.

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