Just a peek at our meal Friday June 18 in Boston, MA (Legal Seafood)
A pink Crustacean …
Suddenly, it all makes sense … !
God may (also) be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration’s lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue threaten freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite. West Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft "the Blues Brothers" because "they’re on a mission from God."
See
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
Found on GMS Legion’s LiveJournal – a link to this blog –
http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/001713.html
Bush Seeks Papal Support
The New York Time carried a story about an report published Friday in the national Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper
Bush Asked for Vatican’s Help on Political Issues, Report Says
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: June 13, 2004
On his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues, including same-sex marriage, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper.
Supreme Court Audio files online
BoingBoing today has a link to The Oyez Project. The Oyez project is releasing US Supreme Court oral audio of historic cases in streaming and MP3 format. This audio is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. This license allows listeners to download, share, and create derivative works using these audio files.
I did a search through their archives and soon Emma and I found ourselves fascinated listening to the oral arguments in the 1967 case of Loving V. the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Its a significant decision about Virginia’s inter-racial marriage Law that anyone looking into Gay Marriage should know about …
Loving v. Virginia
388 U.S. 1 (1967)
Docket Number: 395
Audio Resources
Oral Argument and MP3 form
(The streaming audio is 2 hrs & 15 minutes)
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/214/audioresources
The United States Supreme Court, Mr. Chief Justice Warren, held that miscegenation statutes adopted by Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on basis of racial classification violate equal protection and due process clauses of Fourteenth Amendment.
Equality Fairfax Meeting
Last night Emma and I went to the June 7th meeting of Equality Fairfax. It was a
chance to meet local candidates and to let them listen to our community speak about GLBT issues. I expected mainly Democrats, so I was suprised and pleased to see two Republican representatives. However, a few minutes into the meeting, I was most surprised to see Senator Devolites enter. I was encouraged for a moment that, perhaps, just like other representatives from both parties who had supported
HB 751, she came to the meeting last night "to listen and to learn". But my feelings quickly turned into even greater surprise when, during her edgy introduction to the roomful of 120+ people, she suddenly asked if Heather and Emma were attending.
Classic Bikes in the Orchard
We went to the Classic Motorcycle Days show up in Maryland – tho we took the car (I’m not ready to ride the bike any real distance until I get time to check it out further). It was a VERY hot day – in the 90s!
There were a 20 or so vendors selling all those esoteric bits of Britanium needed for classic bike repair … tho I got off cheap … What was even more impressive was the 200 or so classic bikes there. Not everything was British – there was a European catagory which included Beemers, Benellis and Guzzis (Oh my!) ….
Lots of neat bikes, but because it was so hot we didn’t stay more than 1 1/2 hours … and I didn’t do much more than take some closeups of a few 500s to help with sorting my bike out …
But I do have a few more pix I’ll try to post later …
Movable Type 3.0 D
I read this morning that the Trotts just released Movable Type 3.0 D (Developer). I’ve enjoyed the ver 2.6 software in the past, and they offered a great discount 33% off, and I got credit for my previous payments(!), so the price was real reasonable, and I bought it. I just did the download and upgraded the site. It all went real smooth, and seems fine – time will tell!
Read more in Mena’s blog
Reading the Trackbacks to Mena’s posting, I see a lot of complaints that its not free, or that people can’t run more than 3 blogs without paying. Hey – what’s to keep people from running version 2.6 further. The terms don’t change for that version, just for version 3. I came to Movable Type from GreyMatter – and MT2.x was much easier to deal with!
Spring Triumphant
Click to enlarge
One of the folks at work just bought a new Harley V-Rod, another has a new Harley on order … and the weather has been very nice lately.
I’d ignored the bike as I still need to get it through inspection and winter caught up to me before I finished that task last year. But … Its time!
So after a lot of yard work this weekend, I rolled the bike out of storage, tickled the Amal with my thumb, and gave a few solid kicks – nada. Didn’t sound like it even fired, so I hopped off and flipped the headlight on, watching the ammeter for any signs of life. (Glad I made a point when I wired the bike to install an ammeter, even if its not "authentic" for that year, its a handy tool!)Nothing. Battery must have run down during the winter. Rolled it up to the house, and checked it with a voltmeter – 7.5volts … I flipped up the seat, connected a trickle charger, and left it alone for two days.
Yesterday after work I disconnected the charger and checked the voltage again … 13.5 – great! Rolled it outside, tickled it, and gave it a kick. Fired up and died.
Did that little ritual a few times and as it warmed up, it ran longer and longer. I had to feather the throttle to keep it going, but finally it was running on its own, tho a bit uneven. Put my hands at the end of the pipes and could feel the right cylinder was missing occasionally. Guess I ought to install a new set of points – or at least file the surface a bit – maybe that will help.
But I couldn’t resist any longer. Went inside and swapped my shorts for a pair of jeans. Grabbed my helmet and papers, and my cellphone, and headed back outside.
Started it up again – first kick, now that it was warmed up, so I flipped the kickstand back and rode it through the gate and up the driveway … Yeehah!
Yes, I know it was just a short ride around the neighborhood, and I know I have work to do yet … but it was such a rush of energy just riding it around, knowing I’d rescued it from a rusty fate …
VA Bigots pass hateful amendment
Well – the bigots of the Virginia House and Senate passed the hateful House Bill 751, an Affirmation to the Virginia Defense of Marriage Act today. … here’s what they passed
Summary as passed:
Affirmation of Marriage Act for the Commonwealth of Virginia. States that a civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited and that such an arrangement entered into in another state or jurisdiction is void in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby are void and unenforceable.
Looks like we’ll make that trip to Massachusetts in June after all to test the law – P’town here we come!
Devolites – A Family Morality
After Emma and I made calls to VA Senator Jeannemarie Devolites, asking her to vote against Virginia HB751, Emma and I got a letter from her afterwards that stated “I voted for HB751, as I do not support marriage or civil unions between those of the same gender”. Link to her scanned letter
So I thought I’d google her to see what kind of strong moral fiber was behind such a bold position.