Richard Albert – … a graduate of Yale, Oxford, and Harvard, is an Assistant Professor at Boston College Law School, where he specializes in constitutional law and democratic theory. He writes about constitutional politics, the separation of powers, the role of courts in liberal democracy, and religion in public life.
Richard Albert – “But for the moment, if anyone can articulate a good reason why Supreme Court appointees should not be bilingual, I would be curious to hear it.”
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Guardian – A Conservative-run council has defended its decision to pursue legal action against a pet shop owner who was prosecuted for selling a goldfish to a child.
Globe&Mail – “We’re just starting out with seven [million million electronvolts] Tuesday and Wednesday. When we run at 14 million million electronvolts, we’ll recreate the universe as it was in this little teeny region of the collision..”
Reader Tips
Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) Late Nite Radio.
Every note of music, every voice that ever stirred the air prior to advent of the earliest sound-recording technology is gone forever. No one will ever hear Chopin playing his nocturnes, or an ancient Greek bard singing of the exploits of the gods as he strums his lyre, or hear the ringing voice of an 18th century Scottish balladeer. Because of a unique confluence of particular circumstances, though, tonight’s featured performer moves the line back – just a bit – and provides a tantalizing window into the pre-recording era sounds of mid-19th century American music.
David Harrison Macon was born in 1870 in Tennessee, the son of a distiller and former Confederate civil war captain. When he was 12 his father purchased Nashville’s Broadway Hotel, a famous hub for an assortment traveling minstrels and vaudevillians, where Macon would soak up hundreds of songs and lyrics and styles from older performers, some of whom had been playing their songs continuously since well before the civil war. After his father was stabbed to death the hotel was sold, and Macon began his 30-some year career as a muleskinner. Hauling goods between the towns of Woodbury and Murfreesboro, he always had his banjo with him as he sung to his mules and entertained passersby. By the time the voluble, musically deft and wisecracking Macon entered an early studio for the first time when he was in his mid-fifties, he was a real-life character, first and foremost; his recordings weren’t carefully-scripted studio creations but rather a documentation, replete with foot stomps and shouts and hollers, of a lifelong entertainer whose sensibility and music had been forged in an earlier era.
This wisecracking, entertaining, human-jukebox known professionally as Uncle Dave Macon takes us as close as we will ever get to hearing the sounds, styles and mannerisms of the US civil war-era music. In this 1926 recording mash up of “A-Monday Was My Courtin’ Day” and the 1844 song “Old Grey Goose”, he avows with a wink that he won’t get drunk no more Way Down The Old Plank Road.
You are invited, as always, to provide your Reader Tips in the comments.
Reminders Of Civility Of A Time Gone By
More.
Between The First American Prime Minister In Waiting
… and the diplomatic gift horse formerly known as “Bill’s wife”, Stephen Harper may come to look back at this week as one of his best ever.
“Whether it comes to our role in Afghanistan, our sovereignty over our Arctic or ultimately our foreign aid priorities, it is Canada and Canadians who will make Canadian decisions,”
Forty years of Liberal cultivated anti-Americanism finally put to good use.
“…mentioned by exactly zero mainstream media outlets.”
On March 18, with very little pomp and circumstance, president Obama passed the most recent stimulus act, the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act […] if anyone had read it, the act would have been known as the Capital Controls Act, as one of the lesser, but infinitely more important provisions on page 27, known as Offset Provisions – Subtitle A—Foreign Account Tax Compliance, institutes just that.
In brief, the Provision requires that foreign banks not only withhold 30% of all outgoing capital flows (likely remitting the collection promptly back to the US Treasury) but also disclose the full details of non-exempt account-holders to the US and the IRS. And should this provision be deemed illegal by a given foreign nation’s domestic laws (think Switzerland), well the foreign financial institution is required to close the account. It’s the law. If you thought you could move your capital to the non-sequestration safety of non-US financial institutions, sorry you lose – the law now says so. Capital Controls are now here and are now fully enforced by the law.
Y2Kyoto: I Miss The Arctic Ice Cap
The Sound Of Settled Science
NYT stumbles upon a well known scientific phenomenon;
A study released on Monday by researchers at George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin found that only about half of the 571 television weathercasters surveyed believed that global warming was occurring and fewer than a third believed that climate change was “caused mostly by human activities.”
More than a quarter of the weathercasters in the survey agreed with the statement “Global warming is a scam,” the researchers found.
The split between climate scientists and meteorologists is gaining attention in political and academic circles because polls show that public skepticism about global warming is increasing, and weather forecasters — especially those on television — dominate communications channels to the public. A study released this year by researchers at Yale and George Mason found that 56 percent of Americans trusted weathercasters to tell them about global warming far more than they trusted other news media or public figures like former Vice President Al Gore or Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate.
[…]
Several well-known forecasters — including John Coleman in San Diego and Anthony Watts, a retired Chico, Calif., weatherman who now has a popular blog — have been vociferous in their critiques of global warming.
I Can See The Offshore Rigs From My House
Dear Independents, sorry about the health care thing. Would you like some candy?
h/t
In case you’d forgotten…
And while all the talking heads are chattering about Obama’s supposed pragmatism, the EPA will release today its final rule to allow California to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles under the Clean Air Act. That’s the real story, because once a “pollutant” (remember, we are talking about carbon dioxide, the stuff we exhale) is regulated under the Clean Air Act, it becomes subject to further and further regulation. The President will have the power (the obligation, according to well funded environmental lawyers) to regulate anything larger than a mansion — your small business, your office complex, your apartment building.
Get ready for the green police.
Speaking of Sarah – “Stall baby, stall”
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Maybe it’s hyperbole.
The Most Important Chart Of The Century
But probably not.
Here’s some other stuff to cheer you up.
Related: Last month, something extraordinary happened…
Great Expectations: – Companies in the U.S. unexpectedly cut payrolls in March, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.
Free Mike Duffy!
“Mr. Speaker; Honourable Senators,
“I rise to join my colleague, Senator Finley, in support of an inquiry into the state of freedom of speech in Canada. “I share Senator Finley’s love of freedom and his concern about the growing phenomena of censorship. “I approach the subject from the perspective of someone who, as a journalist for more than forty years, has used freedom of speech every day of my life, and has seen its essential role in keeping our democracy healthy. “And that’s my first observation: freedom of speech is much bigger than just politics.
“It’s about our right as free men and women to express ourselves in any way we choose – not just politically, but socially, musically, artistically and through every other human endeavour.
“Our freedom of expression is inextricably linked to our right to think for ourselves, to choose our place in the world, to talk back to the world, and even to fight against the world. “If you doubt that, ask any high school rock band why they do what they do! “So while it’s often political speech that grabs the news headlines – we should never forget that millions of Canadians put freedom of speech into action every day, from film-makers to authors, to stand-up comedians, to advertising agencies to PTA meetings and Rotary Clubs. “Free speech is a thread of personal liberty that is woven into every part of Canadian society.
Reader Tips
| Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here is the inimitable Miss Dolly Parton performing PMS Blues ¤ (5:33). | |
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Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
But Glenn Beck Is The Crazy One
But He Was Already A Dipper
So, wouldn’t this make him a triple dipper? Double dipper Dipper? Dipper3?
We Don’t Need No Stinking Inquiry
To be told what it is we do not have.
But it’s the thought that counts. (Press Release)
Today, Senator Doug Finley (Ontario South Coast) will introduce the Senate inquiry on the Erosion of Freedom of Speech in our Country on the floor of the Senate at approximately 4:00pm. Afterwards, Senator Pamela Wallin (Saskatchewan), Senator Mike Duffy (Cavendish – Prince Edward Island), and Senator David Tkachuk (Saskatchewan) are scheduled to share their thoughts on Freedom of Speech.
If you are unable to attend, you can access audio here.
Tony Blair’s Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and I bet you all wish you had that “give up your guns” thing to do over again…
Pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, was snared together with her son, Mark, in an undercover sting after the pair unwittingly sold the fish to a youngster, breaking animal welfare laws.
They were subjected to an eight-month court ordeal and threatened with jail before being fined. Mrs Higgins was also ordered to abide by a nightime curfews while her son was handed 120 hours of community service.
The prosecution has cost the taxpayer an estimated £20,000.
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Fasten your seatbelts, folks – here comes that post health reform bill bounce!
Obama’s approval rating was 47%-50% — the first time his disapproval rating has hit 50%.
[…]
There was a strong reaction against the tactics Democratic leaders used to pass the bill. A 53% majority call Democratic methods “an abuse of power;” 40% say they are appropriate.
And when asked about incidents of vandalism and threats that followed the bill’s passage, Americans are more inclined to blame Democratic political tactics than critics’ harsh rhetoric.
Hey, they’re getting what they voted for. Plus, he’s for the children!
What went wrong? Basically we have witnessed a communications breakdown between people who speak English (like Barack Obama, who is not a student of insurance arcana) and the people who speak “Insurance”.
And now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose! Yesterday’s announcement from the Cradle Of Universal Health Care: “To shorten surgical waits: Third-party delivery of out-patient surgery and MRI/CT scans within the publicly funded and administered system will be introduced…”
Indeed
“As I said before; they have real options, a real chance to outflank the conservatives…”
Africa’s Forever War
Need a pick me up?
What we are seeing is the decline of the classic African liberation movement and the proliferation of something else — something wilder, messier, more violent, and harder to wrap our heads around. If you’d like to call this war, fine. But what is spreading across Africa like a viral pandemic is actually just opportunistic, heavily armed banditry. My job as the New York Times’ East Africa bureau chief is to cover news and feature stories in 12 countries. But most of my time is spent immersed in these un-wars.
I’ve witnessed up close — often way too close — how combat has morphed from soldier vs. soldier (now a rarity in Africa) to soldier vs. civilian. Most of today’s African fighters are not rebels with a cause; they’re predators. That’s why we see stunning atrocities like eastern Congo’s rape epidemic, where armed groups in recent years have sexually assaulted hundreds of thousands of women, often so sadistically that the victims are left incontinent for life. What is the military or political objective of ramming an assault rifle inside a woman and pulling the trigger? Terror has become an end, not just a means.
If only they had more condoms.
A Lawyer And A Lesbian
Walk into a courtroom….
Update:
I’d like to stress… that I find it’s difficult because of my obligation as a lawyer and my commitment to the courts, the tribunals. I’ve practiced for 30 years and never been in a situation quite like this…
You’re not listening to me. You’re not interested in what the Supreme Court of Canada has said, you’re not interested in what the BC Supreme Court has said on this issue – [Geiger-Adams begins to interject but stops] – and I’m saying to you, that I’m put in this position, and you have put me in this position. You’re proceeding illegally, I have to leave this proceeding because it is an illegal proceeding against the rule of law.
You can’t wait to decide your jurisdiction, you can’t put somebody through this for three years, go to the Supreme Court, not follow what the Supreme Court judge said, put this guy through it – put these people through it – for three years and not even make a decision concerning your own jurisdiction.
Talk about an abusive process, this is high-handed and I have to – I cannot consent to it, because my staying here would show the respect that I have for the Tribunal. But I would be consenting to what is an illegal process and as a lawyer I don’t think that’s a very good way to go. So I have to leave the proceedings. I do so regretfully, and I do so with the greatest respect for the Tribunal. And I look forward to the reasons of the telephone conference which will permit me to file…
[putting on coat, leaving room]
I do so very regretfully. It’s too bad you wouldn’t listen.
More, including video here.