I should have gotten into a huge fight with my brother. The kind with screaming and stomping out and the whole nine yards. Not that I had anything to be particularly angry about, but it might have protected my sister from being the person who came into conflict with him. Which would have saved her from the follow on conflict with my mother.
Its always the small things, it began with my sister trying to articulate that she wasn’t going to sit there for four hours and go over holiday photos on her laptop (not that anyone besides myself or my sister has the sleeping habits to actually do it). Then came my brother’s favorite phrase: “You have to.” I don’t think he has yet to figure out that his desires are not binding on those around him. Being on the receiving end I can vouch that there are few forces that make me less cooperative than my brother’s belief that I am bound by his whims. When a personal interaction is stretched thin, my brother’s dependable reaction is to throw gasoline on the fire and act all surprised that people are upset. In his mind, if not reality, he was being all polite.
So after spending hours with my sister after the conflict, mere minutes before leaving for the airport, my mother gets into it with my sister. I wasn’t present for this one. From my sister’s telling she was told she wouldn’t be welcome back. My father suggested that this was overstated. He said that was her interpretation, but ultimately it is all perception and interpretation. Claiming that something else was said is all fine and good but as far as my sister is concerned it didn’t. Unless an attempt is made to change the interpretation and perception, it is reality.
In vacuum maybe my sister over-reacted, but I have been where she is. I have a fundamental distrust of family events, I don’t deal with my brother unless I have an escape route planned. Old friends didn’t even know I had a brother, I freely admit hating him to new friends.
I should have gotten in a huge fight with brother. Maybe I could have protected her.
Life
So bush has claimed by virtue of Congress authorizing him to take military action in Afghanistan, he as commander and chief has the authority to violate explicit laws and and constitutional prohibitions against search without so much as informing anyone, much less any oversight. As patently ridiculous as that claim is the more frightening one is that the claim taken to its conclusion grants the commander and chief the right seize anyone off the street and perform a summary execution.
Maybe it’ll be with a bit of cover: I believe someone in this mosque is affiliated with terrorism, I’ll send in my special operations team (i.e. death squad) and kill them all. Don’t forget to dig the mass grave.
Or perhaps as political intimidation: Mr. Senator you voted incorrectly in that last vote, I think you are giving aid to terrorists by not giving me unfettered power. Sgt. kill this traitor. “bang.” Good now do the rest of you want to check to make sure you voted th right way?
There is nothing more sacred about the laws covering murder than the laws covering surveillance, his belief that one sort of laws don’t apply to him if he doesn’t want them to suggests he will equally throw aside other laws when they are inconvenient.
Bush’s interpretation of law have consistently been incompatible with 200+ years of freedom. He isn’t satisfied being a president he want full military dictatorship powers. Unfortunately since the senate is control by his party and since party loyalty seems to trump actual law and what is good for this country, impeachment proceeding are not underway.
I wonder how senators who impeached for lying about an affair justify not impeaching a president advocating and secretly carrying out both torture and domestic spying without judicial oversight.
When Bush first starting making his powergrab, I had discussions with people who were of the opinion that it only affected the “bad” people and non-citizens so how was I affected and shouldn’t I shut up now. Now we see where it leads and how we all are affected, the question is whether anything legal can be done to stop it?
Justice, News, Politics
I seem to like rain. I just got back from my walk… yes that is my midnight to 1am ish walk what’s your point? It was raining, according to various sources it’s in the 30’s and I’m going to have to say I liked the rain. I always thought it was only warm rain, and thunderstorms I truly loved, but today certainly met the criteria for cold and rainy, but it seemed nice to me even as my pants seemed on the verge of developing frost.
It was really more enjoyable than the snow I was wandering through earlier during lunch, not sure why.
Life
I’m not used to being the center of rumor, it truth it is rare enough that I notice that rumor happens in my environs, much less when it concerns me directly. But I seem to find myself in that place which is odd enough, but it is odder in that I thought I escaped that position. Now it seems I’m at the center and even without a life to warrant it. Ah well it is interesting enough for the moment I suppose even if it does engender thought that isn’t particularly productive.
Life
“Finally, we kindly [ask] that our attendees refrain from summoning Elder Gods. Poor manners…Devouring our staff…Rifts into the Netherworld. That sort of thing. (All rights and respects to Mr. H.P. Lovecraft)”
– Katsucon (animation/japanophile convention) website
Quote
So before the I went on my walk I was at the company holiday party. I had to get all dressed up in the suit and everything. What is distressing is that I was in the suit just a couple of months ago, this is getting to be a far too common phenomena.
But anyway went down to the Grand Hyatt downtown, had some wine, salad, steak and chocolate torte in that order. Even after having it, I’m not sure what a torte is, except that it is a sub-genre of cake. It was all fairly good. Interspersed in that was the requisite speeches and door prizes. When the first two door prizes went to people on my team I thought I had the xbox 360 locked up, but apparently not. Oh, well. The other decent prize was a video ipod. Didn’t win that either.
Had some pleasant enough conversation with some decent people. Overall not a bad evening though not a particularly special one.
Life
So I was on my walk a bit late because I’m a lousy planner and I encountered an unexepected problem. There was a deer standing on the sidewalk between where I was and my house. I got within 40 or so feet before I noticed it.
Didn’t know quite what to do, I could of continued and it probably would have bounded off, but it might have decided it could take me. I could see it now charging with razor sharp hooves a flashin’. I know the deer work hard at cultivating a reputation as being gentle and harmless, but you have to wonder why they work so hard at that reputation if it isn’t to hide a mean streak a mile wide?
I did this big semi-circle through the boat yard to avoid getting much closer. During that bypass I lost sight of the deer and he was gone when I got back to the road. Which means I had to wonder if he had moved to be ahead of me again or hiding behind a tree somewhere. You just can’t trust them deer.
Life