On the recent ruling about removing the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance:
President Bush found the ruling “ridiculous,” saying today it was “out of step with the traditions and history of America” as he promised to appoint “commonsense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God.”
Okay, this man CANNOT remain in office after making a statement like that.
This really sums up, better than I can do it, what I feel about Gay Pride celebrations, and why we should change ours in Indianapolis.
9th Circuit Court Judges Ban Pledge of Allegiance From Schools, Citing ‘Under God’
A federal appeals court here declared today that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because the phrase ”one nation under God” violates the separation of church and state.
In a decision that drew protest across the political spectrum, a three-member panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the pledge, as it exists in federal law, could not be recited in schools because it violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against a state endorsement of religion.
In addition, the ruling, which will certainly be appealed, turned on the phrase ”under God” which Congress added in 1954 to one of the most hallowed patriotic traditions in the nation.
From a constitutional standpoint, those two words, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote in the 2-to-1 decision, were just as objectionable as a statement that ”we are a nation ‘under Jesus,’ a nation ‘under Vishnu,’ a nation ‘under Zeus,’ or a nation ‘under no god,’ because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.”
I plead alignment to the flakes, of the untitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the Republicans for which they scam, one nacho, underpants, with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
What’s on my Amazon Wish List? Hippolyta. Or the always popular Wonder Woman. Goody, I’ve always wanted my own Amazon for Xmas. Wait a minute. You can’t get Amazons at Amazon.com? what a gyp.
I went home at lunch to look at my gutters again while it was full-scale raining. I don’t think the top gutters are still leaking. I think it’s just that there is rain dripping from then naturally. There was plenty of water running down the downspout. I’ll be able to tell more if I watch next time it rains.
So I set off the burglar alarm this morning by accident. Oops. I climbed out on the roof to cut down some tree limbs so they wouldn’t grow into the roof. Then I went downstairs to move them and take pictures of the new gutters, etc., and I forgot to turn off the alarm when I went out. So the police came, and Dan came over. Sorry about that, Dan.
The gutters look really good. The one in the front on the top roof is still leaking, though, because it’s the galvanized steel gutter on top of the roof. He caulked it, but it’s still got holes, although it isn’t as bad as it was. I don’t know whether to call him and ask him to come back or to just leave it and have it looked at again later in the year. But the gutter near the door is back on the house, and the ones in back look good. In general, the house looks better, which is what’s important. I’ll have photos up tomorrow of all of it.
Okay, you have to be an Indigo Girls fan for this one: Parodies of Indigo Girls Songs. There’s a parody of “Don’t Give That Girl a Gun” entitled “Go Give That Girl Some Gum.” Now that’s funny. Also a christmas version of “Burn All the Letters” that’s called “Return All The Sweaters.” It may not be Weird Al caliber writing, but they get off some good ones.
On the other hand, there’s no Indigo Girls fan fiction out there. Hmmm. I’m sensing an untapped market.
Also, it’s smart, it’s funny, sometimes you have to look up what they’re talking about, but here it is, Cat and Girl the cartoon. And you know it’s cool, because they live next door to Death, and he comes over to play Parcheesi. Parcheesi is cool. I like the one where they first see Death in a restaurant, and they freak out because they want to meet him, but they’re afraid to go over to him, so they just shout “We like your work” as he’s leaving.
So, this weekend, I saw Minority Report on Friday with Dan and Doug, then went to the Metro softball diamond to watch the Mutual Friends softball game and hang out with Michelle, Deb, Lisa & the team. Then I went to Dan and Dougs and fell asleep watching Atlantis (very boring Disney movie).
I went to my dads on Saturday, and hung out with my family, then dropped by Sunil’s party. Met Barry’s new friend Alice; she seems nice (Hi Barry!). Talked to Joel and his wife and Jen.
On Sunday, I laid around the house and watered the lawn and basically did nothing but read a book. Although today, the guys are coming to fix the gutters, so I guess that’s progress. I did get some more of the entry window woodwork stripped, too. I think the next big investment project is going to be installing the water hook-up for the washer and dryer. Then I’ll worry about the living room. Because going to the laundry mat sucks. I’m thinking that I might want to have them installed upstairs in the back bedroom. There’s already pipes running up there through the kitchen, so it might not be as hard. Plus, then I wouldn’t have the running up and down the stairs issue. The only problem is that it would take up a lot of room in the back bedroom. I’ll have to think about it more closely.
Now here are some fun online fiction links. I may have posted some of them before, but a couple are brand new.
Nifty Archives.
Alt Fiction.
http://www.slashaholics.org/.
fanfiction.net.
Fan Fiction on the Net.
Fan Fiction Links.
Fan Fiction by Sharon Bowers. — Sharon’s a pretty good writer.
Writers University. — Scholarly type site with legal info on online writing.
CABS: Citizens Against Bad Slash. — another scholarly type site to help people improve their writing.
Extra Flamey. — Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Slayer Pride. — Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Slayer’s Fanfic Archive. — Even more Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Homoeroticism Yay!. — This link is basically a fan club for people who like to fantasize about their favorite TV characters as being gay. Mostly, you just look through and see other fans websites; most of them have some fan fiction. I’m in there somewhere, although I haven’t written any Buffy fan fiction. Except in my head, of course.
New favorite lyric: “You are so baroque; all of those words, just to tell me no.” — from”Yield”, Become You, the Indigo Girls