In working on an upcoming post I decided to include a reference to something I’d written on before and was quite surprised when my search for the item came up zero. I was sure I’d used some very specific terms in the post so I started to search for them individually. Still no dice. Finally, I just filtered my posts to a specific time frame in late 2007 and figured I’d troll for it manually until I found it.
I selected November 2007. Number of posts for that month? Zero.
Ummmm….. No. That’s not right. In digging around further, I found that my import of posts from my Wordpress.com post managed to drop an entire year of posts, from January 2007 through January 2008. After spending a couple of hours isolating the posts from that year, I just finished importing them here at the new place and have verified that they are, in fact, present and accounted for. My apologies for the oversight. If you’ve been searching for something you just knew I’d said but couldn’t find it, try it again. You might find it now.
June 29th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Blogging |
no comments
My heart bleeds:
More than two years since leaving her prison cell, the woman who became the grinning face of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal spends most of her days confined to the four walls of her home.
Former Army reservist Lynndie England hasn’t landed a job in numerous tries: When one restaurant manager considered hiring her, other employees threatened to quit.
She doesn’t like to travel: Strangers point and whisper, “That’s her!”
In fact, she doesn’t leave the house much at all, limiting her outings mostly to grocery runs.
England tries to play the “I was just a pawn!” card. So did the guards on trial at Nuremberg and I have every bit as much sympathy for England as I do for them. That she tries to beg off on any responsibility by claiming her responsibility on this amounted to a few seconds of time that just so happened to be photographed is just so much more smoke she’s trying to blow into the air. I’m not buying it
June 29th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Crime & Punishment, GWOT, Military, Politics |
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“Between them and us, there isn’t enough runway…”
– Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
There are, it’s said, 3 useless things in aviation. Altitude above you, runway behind you, and fuel sitting in the truck. A pilot at Leesburg Municipal Airport got to see the truth of that second maxim yesterday, although the details of why this happened remain rather slim.
The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday while attempting to take off. No one was injured and no property was damaged during the incident. The airport was reopened after an hour, during which airport staff assisted in removing the private plane from the runway and moving it to a safe area.
The NTSB will investigate, of course, but I doubt this one will make the papers. It looks like the pilot went a little long and probably dinged up the landing gear and the paint job. If I hear more, I’ll post on it.
June 29th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Aviation, Human Interest |
no comments
Today is the end of the latest term of the Supreme Court and there are 3 major decisions to be decided:
(Links to case write-up are courtesy of SCOTUSblog, who was running a live blog of today’s end-of-term session.)
As I was beginning to write this post, I was notified via Twitter than the Court has issued a ruling in the Ricci case and has overturned the 2nd Court of Appeals, a ruling that was decided partly by current SCOTUS nominee Sotamayor. The case deals with the matter of a group of New Have, CT firefighters who were taking a test for advancement. The City threw out the test completely because the white firefighters all scored higher than the black ones. Rather than let the results of the test stand, the City simply tossed the results with the result that none of the white firefighters advanced, either. The City’s contention was that they were afraid they’d get sued for using the test results. The white firefighters used exactly the law the City cited to sue them for not using them. The Court agreed with the firefighters that this was illegal. The decision can be found here in PDF format.
I recommend heading over to SCOTUSblog if you’re interested in this kind of stuff. They’ve got good people who are all over this!
Update: As I was writing this the decision in Cuomo was announced. Again by 5-4 the Court rules in favor of the States’ right to police discrimination in mortgage lending. The opinion is here.
June 29th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Law, Politics |
2 comments
The Loudoun Scoop points out one of many stories about the new laws going into effect here in Virginia effective Wednesday, July 1. The one that’s drawn the most attention is our new ban on texting while driving.
Seriously.
Drivers used to getting some work done or making plans while in their cars will have to find another way to communicate beginning next week. A law championed by Loudoun representative Del. JoeT. May (R-33) now will prohibit drivers from composing or sending electronic messages while in a moving vehicle.
The bill, which passed the House by an overwhelming majority, makes it illegal for drivers to “manually enter multiple letters or text in the device as a means of communicating with another person” or “read any e-mail or text message transmitted to the device or stored within the device.” Citing concerns for safety and calling texting and e-mailing the most dangerous things a driver could do, May championed the legislation for three years before it was signed into law by Gov. Tim Kaine March 30.
I certainly don’t agree with Delegate May that reading a text message qualifies in the class of “the most dangerous things a driver could do” considering the behaviors I’ve seen on the road but it’s clearly one of those obviously avoidable issues. Frankly it’s one of those things I never thought we needed to make a law banning since it’s just common sense that if you’re poking at your Blackberry you’re not watching the road you’re eating up at 65+ mph. But, we all know that unless there’s a law banning it there’ll be people who do it to dangerous excess. I don’t really have a problem with the law especially since there’s a clause in there stating that it only applies to moving vehicles. When you’re stopped at that red-light-that-takes-forever on your commute, you’re allowed to read that text message thread that’s been pinging you. Just stay aware of your surroundings so you’re not the guy holding up the turn lane with the green arrow on the traffic light finally comes up for you.
My biggest surprise in reading this was the fact that it wasn’t already in effect. I thought it was effective back when it was passed. Oh well.
Other laws include more serious penalties for teen drivers, including for issues that don’t have a damned thing to do with driving. Example: a minor with a driver’s license can have that license suspended for having 10 or more unexcused absences from school, and that license can be suspended until he or she is 18. I understand what they’re trying to do, here, but the notion that a person can have their license suspended for offenses that didn’t even involve riding in a car, let alone driving it, sets a bad precedent in my mind.
One of the new laws, in fact, restricts the types of violations that a school can cite in support of a suspension or expulsion of a student. The law explicitly denies the school the ability to suspend a student over issues of truancy or tardiness. So, let’s get this straight: the school is not permitted to suspend a student from school for multiple unexcused absences, but they can suspend his driver’s license.
Other laws deal with issues of bullying and harrassment, particularly in cyberspace. The assessing of fees to students for damage or loss of school property (read: textbooks) is also being permitted for the 1st time.
Drunk driving penalties are also becoming more serious and the requirements to compel the installation of an ignition interlock have been lowered.
June 29th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Law, Politics, Technology, Virginia Politics |
no comments
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