Over 750,000 people have signed on to a letter urging the Senate to reject Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. If you sign on, we’re that much closer to making it a full one million: Sign the letter, (I did).
You can also use MoveOn.org to send a letter to your senator about Alito.
Personally, I think the lifetime apointments of Supreme Court Justices is dangerous in it’s own right, but I can understand it to some extent… I just think it’s dangerous that the court can sway – and then be stuck in it’s sway for so long.
Before we went to Houston, Anita and I spent some time in Louisville.
We were able to see some friends and a good amount of family. We missed out on the big family events, as we were in Houston then… but we still got to play some games and relax and eat and all the basic events of together-hood.
I worked in the Louisville office, but because most people weren’t there, I was able to get more work done than I usually do when I go into the office… but still less than I can get done at home… weird, huh?
Phil sent me a link to the article [Appalachian town mining for land] which is talking about the removal of mountains by a coal mining company as a positive thing… to some it may well be – but as coal mining companies are notorious for their environmental horrors, and as we are already starting to “run low” on mountains that have been created (tectonically) for thousands of years — perhaps people ought to think about keeping their mountains around as long as they can (which is basically until a mining company finds something they want in said mountain).
I spent many full and well populated days in Houston. Anita and I spent nights at various family houses, ate some of the best food we had eaten all year, and most importantly – got to spend good time with our family together.
Here are some of the highlights:
Great quality time with family (can’t mention it enough – strange that just spending time is so important, so simple, and so rare) Got to meet Scott’s girlfriend, Ilah (ee-lah) Good but sad visits with my grandmother [Penny]1 Games played : rummykub, canasta, hearts, pictionary, balderdash, ping pong (I won at ping-pong and sometime I won at canasta, but lost everything else) Food, food, and food (including some mango salsa I made, which everyone appeared to appreciate) Ikea blitz – a 1 hour run through ikea resulting in a total bill of less than $150 for Anita and myself (incredible for us consumer sheep) One of the important parts which gets a bit of a review is my visit with my grandmother “Penny”, who has Alzheimer’s.
So, when flying to Houston, early on Monday the 19th of December I ran into a slight problem.
I went through security without issue, and my laptop bag had to go through… and I overheard security people being called over, waited, and heard a couple of other security people being called over. About this time I get nervous and soon overhear something I would rather not have heard.
Apparently, I had forgotten that I had put some gifts in my laptop bag, that I got for people at work in Japan… They were very unimpressive, unassuming, decoration-only, ummm, throwing stars.