Sunday, November 20, 2005

New Look

To whom it may concern:
We are experimenting with the blog's look right now. We could do some killer stuff, but since our support is limited to readers who don't like to buy things from us, we are limited to what blogspot will let us do for free. The design right now is called "Retro; circa '96" because is looks like the first web page I ever designed using html--and no, my skills have not improved much since then. Leave comments as to your interest in the blog's aesthetics, and what you would like to see as far as layout.

Israel's Judicial System

I spent yesterday evening listening to a judge in the Israeli court system explain the judicial system of Israel,
and was astonished to find out that ALL the judges are appointed by a committee, patterned after the United
States process, yet politics is strictly forbidden in the selection process, AND judges are NOT to impose
their personal policy preferences as they shape the law.

In Israel, there is no written constitution, so the judiciary has taken Turkish law, English Common Law,
and the European law (as well as US and Biblical law) and melded them all together into a living breathing
constitution, that is just not written down. Right now lobbyists are trying to get the Parliament to write a
constitution, but I don't know if it will happen any time soon.

As far as the lack of personal policy preferences in the Judiciary branch, one would think that in a
country without a written constitution there would be even more personal judicial policy pushed upon the
people than somewhere where, say, there is a written constitution that the judges are only supposed to
uphold and not change to meet their own personal or political needs.

On a side note, Israel also recognizes all other religions and have special tribunals to decide
conflicts within each faith.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

A creation of pure evil

One day, Satan woke up and said, "Baseball is pure and good, I must do something about this." He thought long and hard, but could not find a way to introduce evil to baseball. He turned his attention to other things, wars were fought, presidents and princes were killed, history continued on.

Then, one day, a demon in one of the lowest rings of hell came to Satan and said, "Master, I have an idea... a way to introduce evil into baseball." Satan listened to the idea and a smile grew across his face.

"Yes," he said. "Set this plan into motion."

And so the designated hitter was born.

UPDATE: There are rumors that Astroturf was also spawned by Satan... but as it turns out, that was just man being stupid all on his own.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Spring fever

As my last post (and those of the last few days) may make somewhat obvious... I've got a bit of blog fatigue. It's hard to blog about "important stuff" when it seems so trivial. It also doesn't help that it's spring in Southern California, something that means mini-skirts and belly shirts. Every day in the last week (or two) has been a bonafide beach day - sort of the antithesis of a snow day: it's too beautiful to go to work or school, let's go to the beach.

I'm not going to take a break, per se... but I'm going to lay off a bit, spend some time in the real world - outside the echo chamber that is the day-to-day political commentary.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Pipe Dream

I was thinking, very briefly, about the Delay mess and the ever expanding list of politicians with family on the payroll, and something crossed my mind that brought a smile to my face.

What if every incumbent in the 2006 congressional election that ran for reelection lost? Either in the primary or in the general, doesn't matter which one.

I know it would never actually happen, gerrymandering has made Congress unresponsive. But I can dream, can't I?