It's another rant-y day in the neighborhood...

Have a look at this article about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who apparently said during an interview in the UK that "it would be absurd" to say that inflicting pain on terrorism suspect is wrong. This creature, who is supposed to be looking out for my rights under the US Constitution actually said the following:

I suppose it's the same thing about so-called torture," he said in the interview. "Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited by the Constitution?

Well, Your Honor, I would start with the Bill of Rights, and the part about protection from unreasonable search and seizure; cruel and unusual punishment. And from this article, I can't even determine if he's talking about terrorist suspects or someone caught in the act of performing acts of terrorism.

I absolutely despise how militaristic and violent the US has become. I don't know that we've evolved from the days of the "Wild West." We treat everyone who enters this country like a potential terrorist (come on people, retina scans?) but our terror alert rating has fluctuated between high and elevated since it was enacted. I've yet to see any proof that we're safer than we were in August of 2001. I know that the President likes to say that the proof is in the pudding - we haven't had attack of 9/11 proportions since then. We never experienced terrorism to the extreme it reached in September 2001 before then, and we had no Department of Homeland Security to provide for our safety. I'm not pretending that the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 where six people died, or the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, in which 168 people died, didn't happen. But we can't go back in time. We'll never know if the DoHS would have prevented the nearly 3,000 deaths of 9/11.

Today, the Senate voted to expand the country's power to spy on people, with no direct protection for US citizens. (According to the New York Times, the bill only provides for checks to see if those the government chooses to watch are US citizens after the fact.) We're still holding people prisoner without trial or charges at Guantanamo Bay, and we're still inflicting capital punishment. The US executed 42 inmates in 10 states during 2007. I am pleased to see that the trend is declining. However, according to Amnesty International, "In 2006, 91 per cent of all known executions took place in just six countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the USA." Check out the human rights abuses in these countries. I'm not happy to see the US listed in this grouping.

Check out our newspapers and the local news. We're using violence against each other at an alarming rate. I can hardly bring myself to watch the local news anymore.

As a nation, why are we so aggressive? Where are we hoping it will take us? Why are our own officials supporting this image to the media, and why are we, collectively, representing ourselves in this way?

Vindicated!

Long-time readers and personal friends living in Chicago might remember that once upon a time in Edgewater, when the traffic was annoyingly in my way, I walked on the front end of a car to cross the street

I was feeling especially fierce that day, for whatever reason, and some car was waiting for the light to change right IN the crosswalk. And having the right-of-way as dictated by the little white "WALK" sign, I thought outside of the box (pun intended, New Yorkers) and crossed the street.

Sure, the driver of the car cursed me out, but sticks and stones, you know? Yet I remember that when I told this story, people reacted like I'd just told them that I'd eaten a kitten.

Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this article right here about someone getting arrested for doing the exact same thing.

Of course this didn't happen in Chicago, but in Greece. But who knew they had laws in Greece? Anyhow, the point of this blog has nothing to do with Greeks. It has to do with the universality of anger, traffic, and walking on cars. They do it in Chicago, and in BFE Athens.

It may be illegal, but hey, it's a natural human response!

Oh Christ...

This is a link to a story in the Chicago Tribune. I don't know which is sillier - the fact that we have a group of people who call themselves the "God Squad," the fact that they need to bolt statues to the ground, or that the reporter and/or the people in this story refer to plastic statues as "the baby Jesus."

Somehow I feel a bit like I've been challenged to a dare.

In Their Natural Habitat

Now this is a creative blogger. I too noticed the proliferation of these empty snack bags all over the north side. In fact, I can even add that the official snack of the northwest side are Doritos. And the fact that I live there has nothing to do with it. At all.

I don't litter.

New Arrival

Please welcome my new cousin Lauren:


I think she' s my cousin in any case - she's my first cousin's daughter. Anyhow, she looks like the cutest little peanut and I can't wait to meet her.

Her mom doesn't know that I know that she reads the blog from time to time- so I know she'll be surprised when I offer a public CONGRATULATIONS!

Unplanned Hiatus

So roundabout last week, I was doing a little home-improvement project while making the copies of my CD for the CD Mix Challenge #4, when, in a particularly Dick VanDykesque moment, I tripped over the power cord for the laptop and dropped the poor computer right on its face. Lucky for me, this happened just after I made the last copy of the CD.

In the fall, my hard drive was obliterated. Although I called Dell right away to order a new one, it took an entire week to actually receive it. This experience is worth its own blog, really.

So not only am I behind in my blogging, but I've got 130+ emails to go through. The good news is, I back up my files often enough that I didn't lose much. However, I guess I haven't been backing my address book up right, because it's gone. So if you're ever hoping to get another email from me, please drop me a quick line.

Please do this even if you think I've got your email address memorized. Because I don't memorize anything. I have lots and lots of electronic crutches, and as a result, I remember nothing.

For a change, there is lots to blog about. But not now. I just spent the last FIVE hours reinstalling software and settings and files, and I'm just all geeked out for today.

Documentation of Postal Crappiness

People from outside of Chicago always give me that doggie-cocked-ear look when I complain about the US Postal Service in town. I suppose it never made national news that delivery of the mail in Chicago is an issue. Over the past 10 years there have been numerous stories about mail carriers just not doing their jobs.

Mail has been found in homes of postal carriers' in crawl-spaces, locked in trucks, misfiled, on fire ... the list goes on. When I saw this article in the Sun Times I wanted to post it for all of you out-of-towners to read.

You see, when it takes me two months to answer a letter, it isn't always my fault! When I thank you for your presents weeks after you send them, it's because it is really taking that long for me to receive them. And forget about postcards. Rubycat sent me a postcard from Germany last year that took three months to receive. Curiously, a friend sent me a postcard from Sydney, Australia last month that took under a week to arrive.

In fact, just this December our street had a huge problem: Between December 10 and December 20 we got no mail. None. No advertisements, no fliers, no bills, no greeting cards - nothing. At first I thought this was just my mail. I got a notice from the post office to come pick up my mail a day or so before Christmas, ostensibly because the bundle was too large to fit in my box. I went to go pick it up and got a kind of small bundle. When I asked why the mail hadn't been delivered, the helpful, cheerful postal worker told me that she didn't know, delivering the mail wasn't her concern, and did I want my mail or not? But for 10 days in the height of greeting card season, I knew the amount of mail in the bundle just wasn't right. And this bundle would have easily fit in the box. When I asked her to double-check for another bundle, she got all annoyed and asked me to consider the long line of customers behind me.

This is also the same wonderful, helpful, cheerful postal worker who suggested, that when the post office lost a certified letter, that I go find my postal carrier en route to see if he or she had it. But that's another story.

Several people from my condo association called the post office to complain about the lack of mail, until one day in early January the Postal Police came. Did you know Postal Police even existed? According to folks on the block who stay home during the day, the Postal Police showed up at about 8 in the morning with a couple of trucks. Groups of officers stood on the street watching the mail get delivered, building by building. The trucks were here when I got home at 6pm that night, and I had mail in my box postmarked as early as November. The next day brought a lighter bundle of late mail.

My mail still tends to come on Sunday rather than Saturday, and almost never on Thursday. The mail ends up on the floor of the building lobby instead of in the mail boxes about once a month, and there is still the issue of receiving mail for other people on a weekly basis. So unfortunately the Postal Police didn't do much for the regular crappy service. According to this article, the Post Office is 'aware of the problem.' Well good. Let's see if they are moved to action.

The moral of the story? If I fail to pay a bill, answer a letter, or send a thank-you card, I'm not being rude, nor am I dead: I'm just in Chicago.

All Hail The Virgin Lizard King!

Ok, so this turns out to be a relatively normal phenomenon in lizards, but it is seasonal, it is easy, and it made me laugh.

I have the next five days off from work, and won't that be interesting? I can't remember the last time I took this kind of time off. Although I'm receiving visitors and not going anywhere, this will be good practice for the SIX WEEKS of vacation I have in 2007.

Do not adjust your monitor - you read that last line correctly. I have six weeks of vacation in 2007.

And me being me, I just can't relax about this. I am now worried about where I'm going to go. A week or two for family, a long weekend each in Boston and Cleveland, and then what?

Europe?
Africa?
South America?
Middle Earth?

Now if only I could get a very large windfall of tax-free funds to help me on my way.