Posts from — June 2008

CNN reports that At l[e]ast two die as 6.9 earthquake rattles Japan

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — Two people were killed and at least eight others injured Saturday when a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

Machimura said one man was killed when he was buried in a landslide in Fukushima Prefecture and the other was struck by a truck as he rushed out of his house in Iwate Prefecture.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda sent priority orders for rescue operations, Machimura said.

The quake, which struck at about 8:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m. GMT Friday), was centered 100 km (60 miles) north of Sendai in southern Iwate prefecture. Aftershocks of 5.0 and 4.4 magnitude followed, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

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… or possibly “Indecent”.

“The Constitution is not a suicide pact” is a rhetorical phrase in American political and legal discourse.

It is most accurately attributed to the rhetoric in a dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago 337 U.S. 1 (1949), a case involving a $100 fine for disturbing the peace, that had been reviewed by the appellate and supreme court of Illinois before reaching the Supreme Court of the United States.

[Justice Robert H.] Jackson’s dissent in this case is most famous for its final paragraph:

This Court has gone far toward accepting the doctrine that civil liberty means the removal of all restraints from these crowds and that all local attempts to maintain order are impairments of the liberty of the citizen. The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.

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Another Kryten42 Recipe:

Genoise Cake Tiramisu

Part 1: Make the Genoise Cake

Ingredients:

3 whole large eggs
1/3 Cup + 3 tablespoons Sugar, granulated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (NOT syrup)
1/2 cup cake flour, sifted
2 tablespoon butter, melted

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Yes, it’s Friday the 13^th again. The 13^th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the week, so get over it. It’s only valid in in English and Portuguese speaking countries, so go visit a Spanish-speaking neighborhood for the day.

If you want to blame someone, it’s the calendar of Pope Gregory XIII that created this imbalance.

Pass and ID

It’s me…really, I’m too small to lie!

[Editor: The Lone Ranger checks on her sister’s kitten to be sure it’s allowed to eat with the group. These checks are a constant feature of the feral’s society.]

Friday Ark

After almost six months of looking Elayne is once again Gainfully Employed.

The job hunt can be a very depressing time, and costly in both time and money.

Congratulations, Elayne.

Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer writes on the latest Supreme Court decision: Gitmo detainees can challenge detention in U.S. courts

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Suspected terrorists and foreign fighters held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in federal court, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The decision marks another legal blow to the Bush administration’s war on terrorism policies.

The 5-4 vote reflects the divide over how much legal autonomy the U.S. military should have to prosecute about 270 prisoners, some of whom have been held for more than six years without charges. Fourteen of them are alleged to be top al Qaeda figures.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system reconciled within the framework of the law.”

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NBC reports: Soggy Iowa sees another night of rising rivers

DES MOINES, Iowa – Cities and towns along the Cedar River in Iowa prepared for another night of waiting and watching to see if sandbags would hold back floodwaters slowly moving south and eventually into the Mighty Mississippi.

Hundreds of people in Cedar Rapids and small towns evacuated earlier Wednesday.

With more rain falling upriver Wednesday in parts of Iowa, crests at Missouri’s Mississippi River towns could be higher than currently forecast, said weather service hydrologist Jim Kramper.
…

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CNN reports on the latest Midwestern tragedy: 4 dead after twister tears through Scout camp

(CNN) — At least four people were killed and another 40 injured Wednesday when a tornado struck a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, a state safety official said.

Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Gene Meyer said the four were killed by a storm that slammed into the Little Sioux Scout Ranch near the Nebraska state line.

Meyer said about 120 people, including 93 campers, were believed to be at the camp at the time of the storm.

About 40 people were injured, said Sheri Bauwens, a nurse with the American Red Cross.

Lloyd Roitstein, president of the Boy Scouts of Mid-America Council, said the Scouts at the ranch were advanced Scouts between 13 and 18 years old and were there for a week of training.

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CNN reports on the expected tactic that Madame Speaker used to avoid reality: Kucinich effort to impeach Bush kicked into limbo

WASHINGTON (CNN) — An attempt by Rep. Dennis Kucinich to impeach President Bush was kicked into legislative no-man’s land by members of his own party Wednesday.

The House voted 251-166 to send the Ohio Democrat’s impeachment resolution to committee, a maneuver that allows the Democratic leadership to freeze the measure indefinitely.

The vote largely followed partisan lines, with 225 Democrats voting to punt the measure to committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said she would not support a resolution calling for Bush’s impeachment, saying such a move was unlikely to succeed and would be divisive.

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The the current cost of gasoline, there is something you should keep in mind: the temperature when you buy the gas matters.

The meter on the gas pump is keyed to volume and gasoline expands a good deal more than water in response to high temperature. If you mow your lawn with a power mower you have probably seen it happen and missed the significance. You filled the tank on the mower to the top and then started it up. After a couple of minutes you will see the tank overflowing. As the mower heats up, the gas expands and is pushed out of the tank.

The best time to buy gas is in the early morning, the coldest part of the day. Don’t fill the tank all the way to the top, leave room for expansion.

If you make a practice of buying “cold gasoline” you will see an improvement in your mileage.

I have mucked about in the PhP code for this turkey, and you can now use super- and subscripts in comments.

Don’t everyone cheer at once.

If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it. On the scale of importance it is only slightly above a Hedgemony domestic policy proposal, as it does no harm and is real.

Believe it or not CNN acting like a news outlet: FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found.

The material — from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities — sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s giveaway to federal and state agencies this year.

James McIntyre, FEMA’s acting press secretary, told CNN that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so “we needed to vacate them.”

“Upon review of our assets and our need to continue to store them, we determined that they were excess to FEMA’s needs; therefore, they are being excessed from FEMA’s inventory,” McIntyre wrote in an e-mail.

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The Associated Press reports on the new standards for high school graduations in South Carolina: 7 busted after cheers erupt at S.C. graduations

COLUMBIA, S.C. – When Rock Hill school officials tell commencement crowds to hold their applause until the end, they mean it — police arrested seven people after they were accused of loud cheering during the ceremonies.

Six people at Fort Mill High School’s graduation were charged Saturday and a seventh at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School was charged Friday with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Police said the seven yelled after students’ names were called.

“I just thought they were going to escort me out,” Jonathan Orr told The Herald of Rock Hill, about 70 miles north of Columbia. “I had no idea they were going to put handcuffs on me and take me to jail.”

Can we just admit we have a police state and stop kidding ourselves. I don’t remember having to go to a bail hearing after my high school graduation.

[update: I just noticed the misspelling in the title.]