Ricci follow-up + swallowing & Tran$former$

Note: Magnanimous Monday will be moved to Tuesday this week as I ran out of time and I am a lame excuse for a citizen of Earth.

The latest thing lighting up the Twitter feeds in Blacksburg, Virginia is the Iran Society’s next protest scheduled for tonight at 8:00 P.M.

In Iran, the election oversight body conducted a partial recount, declaring the results putting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in power valid. Of course, this will never satisfy the Iranian people who are convinced that they were robbed of their votes. FTA:

State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister following a recount of a what was described as a randomly selected 10 percent of the almost 40 million ballots cast June 12.

The “meticulous and comprehensive examination” revealed only “slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention,” Guardian Council head Ahmed Jannati said in a letter, according to the state TV channel IRIB.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he, not incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the rightful winner and has called for a new election, something the government has repeatedly said it will not do. “From today on, the file on the presidential election has been closed,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said on state-run Press TV.

I believe scheduled activities are a symbolic release of balloons and a candelight vigil.

Speaking of balloons, Up is at the Lyric and I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I’ll probably be heading there after the protest.
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Story Tracking: Ricci vs. DeStefano

One of my most discussed posts was my analysis of the Ricci v. DeStefano court case that many conservatives were using as ammunition against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. My position was that the denial of promotions was legal under the Civil Rights Act as multiple choice tests inherently disfavor minorities. Today, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, decided that the plaintiffs were unfairly denied the promotions, going against what Sotomayor ruled as an appeals court judge. FTA:

On Monday’s ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions.” He was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”

Justices Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday. Speaking dismissively of the majority opinion, she predicted the court’s ruling “will not have staying power.”

"You kids will see! America will never move past its need to be really sensitive about race. Never!"

All right…I’m convinced.

Maybe I simply like the Supreme Court too much. But I suspect that I’ve just been hearing arguments about it for weeks now and this is the final factor that makes me abandon my defense for the original decision. Race was a blatant and solitary decision for the denial of promotions based on the test. More importantly, people who worked hard and played by the rules got completely shafted and to hurt them in the name of diversity undermines what diversity stands for. For the most part, it makes me sad that many of the people who were arguing the point seemed to attack with many vitriolic attitudes against diversity, but that doesn’t mean that they were wrong in this case. I was wrong. I agree with Kennedy.

But I understand Sotomayor’s and Ginsburg’s opinions. And I don’t think it makes Sotomayor any less qualified to sit on the bench as a Supreme Court justice. Here’s hoping.

Further reading:

New Haven Independent article on Latinos siding with the white firefighters

Accurate prediction of Kennedy’s role in the decision

Full court opinions

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In other news…

Mothers-to-be or women who want to be mothers should swallow according to some Dutch researchers and the Journal of Reproductive Immunology.

“While any exposure to a partner’s semen during sexual activity appears to decrease a woman’s chances for the various immunological disorders that can occur during pregnancy, immunological tolerance could be most quickly established through oral introduction and gastrointestinal absorption of semen.”

I could not make this up. Gastrointestinal absorption of semen. I know. For the man in your life, this news should not be hard to swallow. Sorry.

According to a group of Dutch researchers, “exposure to semen provides protection against developing preeclampsia.” That’s from a paper with the catchy title, “Immune Maladaptation in the Etiology of Preeclampsia: a Review of Corroborative Epidemiologic Studies.” Or you could use the subtitle: “Semen is Your Friend.”

http://instantrimshot.com

Well, I for one, am completely convinced. Also, I believe we have found the Nobel prize winners for the next fifty years. Just sayin’.

I mean, there’s some sort of dissenting opinion that says she can’t find any real evidence supporting this, but she’s probably just some chick who doesn’t shave her legs, amirite, guys, amirite?

…Aw, man, I’ve just guaranteed myself singledom forever.
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Transformers 2 has made over $200 million over five days at the box office, putting it behind only behind Dark Knight for five-day gross. Of course, Dark Knight was one of the best franchise films ever. Transformers 2 was the equivalent of watching Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyworld come to life, stomp on its passengers and defecate loudly on their corpses — kind of entertaining, but also horrifying.

"And then, the black guy without the teeth is STUPID. And BOOM! And then one of the Transformers says 'pussy.' And BOOM! Ahahahahaha!"

Critics and people who actually recognize the idea that movies can be both fun and not-retarded are puzzled. But then again, I contributed to that box office total even after word of mouth. I think it was a combination of two elements that are making Michael Bay rich: optimism and timing.

The last movie with ties to a memorable franchise was Terminator: Salvation which came on the heels of Star Trek, which people probably went to see multiple times, thus wiping them of their money. That was a solid four weeks saving up for the new special effects feature. So the timing of Transformers 2 worked in its favor (Terminator was cannibalized by Wolverine).

Secondly, if there were others like me out there, optimism ultimately brought us out of the woodwork to make this blithering mess second to Dark Knight. We’d heard the naysayers. We figured critics were being critics and frowning upon any movie that is based upon a toy line. My moment of realization came during the slow motion explosions in the desert watching Megan Fox mouth words at Shia LaBeouf’s burned scrawny form….this movie was genuinely bad.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Fun. But, on principle, it kind of hurts me that I contributed to Michael Bay’s latest jet equipped with missiles and breast implants.

Still, when you look at the all-time best five-day openers, you don’t find very many positively rated movies:

1. The Dark Knight
awesome
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
target demographic: six-year-olds and crystal meth addicts
3. Revenge of the Sith
critically crushed under the weight of first two movies and Hayden Christensen
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
incoherent mess
5. Spiderman 3
UGH!
6. Spiderman 2
meh
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
George Lucas’ revenge on cinema
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Pretty good
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Best Harry Potter movie to date
10. The Matrix Reloaded
can’t really defend the obnoxiously long fighting scenes and the cave orgy

So the moral of the story is:

Our taste is pretty bad.

Up tonight.

Ricci v. DeStefano – Sotomayor and “Reverse Racism”

This is actually not going to be my regular daily post, but a (hopefully) brief report on the controversial Ricci v DeStefano case argued before the current Supreme Court and on which Sotomayor ruled when it was before the Second Circuit, because cadmaris asked for it (hey, I think that’s your first mention). Regular post to come after this.

The Ricci v. DeStefano saga began in 2003 in New Haven, Connecticut when 118 firefighters applied for 15 captain and lieutenant spots. At the time, consideration for promotion to these firefighting positions was based on a multiple-choice exam. Of the 27 black firefighters who applied, none scored high enough to be elligible for the promotion. Only 2 Latinos scored high enough to be considered. The city of New Haven took a look at their method of promoting and decided that it left them vulnerable to a lawsuit under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which made it illegal for employers to use tests that have an unjustified racially “discriminatory effect.” They decided a multiple choice test was not the best way to determine who would make a good leader in the firefighting squad. So no firefighters were promoted at that time. In response, 18  white and (key point) Hispanic firefighters sued the city of New Haven for racial discrimination.

Who the hell is Donny Osmond?

The federal district court ruled in favor of the city. Frank Ricci and his fellow firefighters appealed and the case reached a three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Sonia Sotomayor was one of these judges.

Now let’s clarify how an appeals court is supposed to work. The appeals court isn’t primarily deciding whether or not the plaintiff or the defendant is correct. It’s also trying to determine whether the lower court applied proper judicial reasoning to reach its verdict. After initially affirming the lower court’s decision without opinion, the court later submitted a per curiam (by the court as a whole) opinion in which it called the trial court’s decision “thorough, thoughtful, and well-reasoned.”

See, the reasoning behind employing Title VII is that, left to their own devices, institutions may intentionally or unintentionally discriminate against minorities in its regular practices. In the case of the multiple choice exam, the city (which is about 60 percent black) determined the test was unintentionally discriminatory, given that Asians and Caucasians tend to do better on those tests. That in itself wasn’t enough to pull the test, but the city also decided (and whether they did this purely out of fear for this very type of lawsuit is up for debate) that a test wasn’t necessarily a reflection of whether an individual would do well in a promotion. So, in short, fearing it was unintentionally excluding a lot of potentially valuable minority firefighters, New Haven revised its method of promotion.

The trial court agreed with the city that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was applicable in this case and that the city had the right to revise its promotion practices in the interest of finding truly qualified minority applicants. Sotomayor and the other two judges in the appeals court said this was proper reasoning. That’s what conservatives are calling reverse-racism. She didn’t “enact a racist policy” from the bench. She was upholding a law that already existed…essentialy the very opposite of a judicial activist.

Okay, not about firefighting, but hey, I'm a college student.

<Devil’s Advocate>Lead plaintiff Frank Ricci has been a firefighter for 11 years. He gave up his second job so that he could have time to study for this test. He also paid his neighbor a large sum of money to help him study through flashcards, tapes, and other study aids because he has dyslexia. He scored 6 out of 77 for the lieutenant test. It really sucks that a man who tried so hard for something that apparently meant a lot to him didn’t get his promotion.

Moreover, employers shouldn’t have to live in constant fear of being sued for discrimination. Sometimes the best qualified candidates are, shockingly, white. The legal system should not reward those who try to get by on race alone. Rather than fittiing standards to benefit a certaing group of people, shouldn’t people who want the job work as hard as Ricci did to get ahead?</Devil’s Advocate>

Ricci’s story certainly is sad. And I agree that we’re dangerously close to a society where allegations of racism can lead to a loss in court. However, this isn’t a case where New Haven took the qualified white candidates and replaced all or most of them with black or other minority candidates. These firefighters unfortunately composed the data the year that New Haven decided it wanted to weigh different considerations for lieutenant and captain. And an employer, whether it be a public institution like the firefighter department or a private company, has the right to promote diversity if they feel it would benefit their mission — in this case, serving the citizens who were composed of certain demographics. Lest we cry foul against whites, promoting diversity doesn’t necessarily mean expressly disadvantaging whites or even promoting racial diversity. (After all, it’s more about being poor and blue collar versus being rich and well educated).

And so, while Frank Ricci may deserve some sort of reward for his efforts, this lawsuit would set a dangerous precedent for employer freedoms in promoting diversity should it succeed. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 22. Assuming Stevens, Souter, Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Breyer predictably vote to uphold the lower courts’ rulings, then the city’s policy will hold. Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia will probably vote to reverse it.

But the relevant point is this — anyone using this case as an example of how Sonia Sotomayor is a “racist” either does not know the facts or is deliberately distorting them to push a political agenda….that agenda being “block Obama at every turn.” Conservatives don’t even have a real reason to oppose this appointment. Her philosophy will probably be similar to Souter’s, so the game doesn’t change. They’re just posturing to besmirch Obama, Sotomayor, the Supreme Court, and push their opposition to so-called “judicial activism” (which is only activism if liberals are doing it).

Bottom line: Many conservatives through practice or belief hate the Civil Rights Act, one of our laws. That’s what it boils down to. Had Sotomayor been an activist and ruled that the Civil Rights Act should not have played a part, they would have found something else that indicated that she would bring down some sort of invasion of spics and minorities by crazily enacting policy from the bench (apparently, being part of a group that celebrates Hispanic heritage is a red flag).

All right…what else is going on in the world?

Further reading:

Ricci and Sotomayor – Matt Zeitlin

“Basically, what George Will and Roger Cohen and a lot of Sotomayor’s critics are doing is making a policy argument and then piling on Sotomayor for coming to a legal decision that results in their preferred policy not being implemented.

What’s the phrase for thinking that policy considerations should overhwhelm legal ones? Starts with a J, two words, might end with ism?”

Ricci vs. DeStefano – A Test on Race

In a case decided almost 40 years ago, Griggs vs. Duke Power Co., the Supreme Court explained that Title VII “has not commanded that the less qualified be preferred over the better qualified simply because of minority origins.” Instead, the court said, “What Congress has commanded is that any tests used must measure the person for the job and not the person in the abstract.”

And an article from the opposite side, just so I can say that I’m “fair” (right).

The high court’s decision in the case will come in June, before Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings. The problem for her will not be why she sided with New Haven over Frank Ricci. The four liberal-moderate justices currently on the court are likely to agree with her, in the name of preserving Title VII as a tool for fair hiring. There’s even an outside chance that Justice Anthony Kennedy will follow along. The problem for Sotomayor, instead, is why she didn’t grapple with the difficult constitutional issues, the ones Cabranes pointed to. Did she really have nothing to add to the district court opinion? In a case of this magnitude and intricacy, why would that be?

Sonia Sotomayor nominated….FIESTA!

It’s the end of the world as we know it again, with returning player North Korea.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how unsafe does Phil the Pill feel?

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In other news, Obama has made his Supreme Court pick and it is, in fact, an Hispanic woman!

President Barack Obama named federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, praising her as “an inspiring woman” with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.Obama said Sotomayor has more experience as a judge than any current member of the high court had when nominated, adding she has earned the “respect of colleagues on the bench,” the admiration of lawyers who appear in her court and “the adoration of her clerks.”

…The Senate Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, issued a statement that said: “Senate Republicans will treat Judge Sotomayor fairly. But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law evenhandedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.”

…Democrats hold a large majority in the Senate, and barring the unexpected, Sotomayor’s confirmation should be assured.

Fiesta!

As a Latino, it’s good to see that we’ve made it to a prominent level of office. Also, it’s funny to see Republicans squirm, because they can’t block the vote without offending the growing amount of Hispanic voters.

So, I was going to put up something more relevant, but my rule is, if it passes a certain treshold of offensiveness, it must be shared.

Actually, let’s see what our friends at the Drudge Report have to say about all this.

Republicans F*cked.

From Jeffrey Rosen at The New Republic

Her former clerks report that because Sotomayor is divorced and has no children, her clerks become like her extended family–working late with her, visiting her apartment once a month for card games (where she remembers their favorite drinks), and taking a field trip together to the premier of a Harry Potter movie.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was “not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench,” as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. “She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue.”

…Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees. It’s customary, for example, for Second Circuit judges to circulate their draft opinions to invite a robust exchange of views. Sotomayor, several former clerks complained, rankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn’t distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty editing suggestions–fixing typos and the like–rather than focusing on the core analytical issues….

…I haven’t read enough of Sotomayor’s opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor’s detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths. It’s possible that the former clerks and former prosecutors I talked to have an incomplete picture of her abilities. But they’re not motivated by sour grapes or by ideological disagreement–they’d like the most intellectually powerful and politically effective liberal justice possible. And they think that Sotomayor, although personally and professionally impressive, may not meet that demanding standard. Given the stakes, the president should obviously satisfy himself that he has a complete picture before taking a gamble.

So she’s a typo-correcting, perceived dumbass who can’t see the forest for the trees, and she takes out her law clerks to see Harry Potter?

Hmm…BUT SHE’S HISPANIC!

Seriously, let’s let the confirmation process go forward. Different judges have different styles and it seems like most criticisms stem from a single contention: Obama picked her. Go boil your heads, knee-jerk reaction conservatives. The Court is still fairly balanced. You can keep your guns.
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In other news, this kid keeps a lending library of books that are “banned” in her school in her locker.

I encourage everyone who goes to a high school that bans books to do this. Spread information. Spread ideas. Crush ignorance.

And. finally, continuing with the theme of animals and pictures:

That’s it for today. Until next time, this is Phil the Pill and I’ll be throwing a FIESTA!…while working and taking summer classes, but as much as posisble

Obama vs. the Left + News Round-Up

Dude…I didn’t realize how good the soundtrack for Lost season 4 was.

News Round-Up

Tricky Dicks

The Supreme Court has ruled that Pakistani Javaid Iqbal (who oddly enough shares a name with a Supreme Court Justice in Pakistan) cannot continue his lawsuit against FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft for keeping him in solitary confinement for six months based on his religious beliefs.

But the government argued that there was nothing linking Mueller and Ashcroft to the abuses that happened to Iqbal at a Brooklyn, N.Y., prison’s Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit, and the court agreed.

“The complaint does not show or even intimate, that petitioners purposefully housed detainees in the ADMAX SHU due to their race, religion or national origin,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion. “All it plausibly suggests is that the nation’s top law enforcement officers, in the aftermath of a devastating attack, sought to keep suspected terrorists in the most secure conditions available until the suspects could be cleared of terrorist activity.”

The court’s liberal justices — David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens — dissented from the court’s opinion.

“There is no principled basis for the majority’s disregard of the allegations linking Ashcroft and Mueller to their subordinates’ discrimination,” Souter wrote….

..

Iqbal was arrested at his Long Island home on Nov. 2, 2001, and charged with nonviolent federal crimes unrelated to terrorism. Two months later, he was moved to a holding facility in Brooklyn, where he was in solitary confinement for more than 150 days without a hearing, his lawsuit alleges.

He said he was subjected to physical and verbal abuse, including unnecessary strip searches. On the day he entered solitary confinement, he says, he was thrown against a wall, kicked in the stomach, punched in the face and dragged across a floor by federal prison officers.

He was cleared of any involvement in terrorism and was deported in January 2003 after pleading guilty to fraud and being sentenced to a year and four months in prison.

Religious and racial discrimination? All we were doing was locking up Arabs. What's discriminatory about that?

Congrats, Bush court. You’ve ensured that yet another group of slimeballs gets to experience no reprecussions for breaking the letter and the spirit of the law.

So when’s Obama’s pick getting seated again? As if it would matter.
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Here be Dragons

The Tamil Tigers have been “militarily defeated” as their rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed. The rebel group was a secessionist organization fighting the Sri Lankan government since 1976. The Tamils are an ethnic minority that have had strained relations with the Sri Lankan Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka gained independence. I think I first learned about the Tamils senior year of high school when we read a book called Anil’s Ghost.

Anyway, this supposedly puts an “end” to the civil war. FTA:

While Velupillai Prabhakaran (Ve-LU’-pi-lay PRAH’-bah-ka-ran) was a hero to some, his group was branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, and it was accused of waging hundreds of suicide attacks, including the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female bomber. The rebels also forcibly recruited child soldiers.

Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Sareth Fonseka, said on television that his troops routed the last rebels from the northern war zone Monday morning.

“We can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism,” he told state television…

..

Suren Surendiran, a spokesman for the British Tamils’ Forum, the largest organization for expatriate Tamils in Britain, said the community was in despair.

“The people are very somber and very saddened. But we are ever determined and resilient to continue our struggle for Eelam,” he said, invoking the name of the Tamils hoped-for independent state. “We have to win the freedom and liberation of our people.”…

..Full-fledged war broke out in 1983 after the rebels killed 13 soldiers in an ambush, sparking anti-Tamil riots that human rights groups say killed as many as 2,000 people. By the time the war ended, more than 70,000 had been killed.

I’m sure both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan committed terrible atrocities. I don’t know when people will realize that taking up arms and trying to wage war against an institution or an ideal never works. What I do know is that the violence can’t be over and it’s a shame. Sri Lanka will still be a major spot for human rights abuses, civilian violence, and oppression…And the world merely looks on.

In other world news, Obama met with Irsaeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today and told him it’s time to start talking peace again.

"Get your hand off my ass, Obama."

FTA:

“We have seen progress stalled on this front, and I suggested to the prime minister that he has a historic opportunity to get a serious movement on this issue during his tenure,” Obama said. “That means that all the parties involved have to take seriously obligations that they have previously agreed to.”

Added Obama: “I think that there is no reason why we should not seize this opportunity and this moment.”

Netanyahu said he was ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately but said any agreement depended on their acceptance of Israel’s right to exist. It was not immediately clear in the way he phrased the response whether Netanyahu was demanding that as a precondition for talks.

Palestinians offered praise for Obama but expressed disappointment with Netanyahu’s remarks.

Netanyahu “did not mention a commitment to a two-state solution, and we need to see American action against this policy,” said Nail Abu Redden, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who visits the White House on June 28.

Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian negotiator, issue a similar assessment:

“Mr. Netanyahu failed to mention the two-state solution, signed agreements and the commitment to stop settlement activity. He said he wants the Palestinians to govern themselves. The question to Mr. Netanyahu is, ‘How can I govern myself while your occupation continues everywhere in the West Bank and Gaza, and how can I govern myself under your wall, roadblocks and settlement activities?'”

It looks like the only way they’ll ever work together is if Iran becomes a common enemy.

You know, I can’ twait until we meet a race of aliens that is truly just evil and bad. Then we can unite together AND be totally justified in killing things.

Ba-ROCK or Not

Checking in after 5 months

People may notice a lot of Barack Obama criticism on this blog. I want to make clear that I do not watch Fox News, listen to Rush Limbaugh, nor do I have Ann Coulter’s mug plastered on my walls. I voted for Obama. I believe in progression, change, and social responsibility. I also believe in our responsibilities to watch our leaders and make sure they’re sticking to their ideals.

Obama, predictably, isn’t sticking very much to his.

Politico blogger Josh Gerstein talks about how Obama’s making enemies on the left as well as the right.

He has pushed gun control to the back burner, used the state secrets privilege to try to quash lawsuits over warrantless wiretapping, opposed a “truth commission” to investigate alleged torture and sought to deny some legal protections to detainees in Afghanistan.

And he’s made clear he’s in no rush to do immigration reform or repeal the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers.

A growing number of organizations, bloggers and pundits, many of whom kept quiet about slights in Obama’s first few months, are now going public with their disillusionment.

“On torture, change we wanted to believe in feels like more of the same,” the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement Friday.

“I have a sickeningly familiar feeling in my stomach, and the feeling deepens with every interaction with the Obama team on [gay] issues. They want them to go away. They want us to go away,” the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan wrote last week, dismissing Obama’s pledge to end the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy as “toilet paper.”

Maddow accused Obama of doing a “blatant 180” on military commissions. On issues like the wiretapping suits, some critics have suggested Obama is even worse than Bush.

I’m not going to join the growing group of left loons and anarchists who claim Obama will betray us all and continue this country on a path of ruination…

But almost half a year into his presidency and I don’t feel that much better about my government than I did under Bush.

Why do we only elect people who seek to serve themselves?

I’ll be happy if Obama tosses out the states secret privilege, stops illegal detainment of world and national citizens, gives every detainee left a fair trial, allows government officials and torturers, including Cheney and Rumsfeld, to be sued and/or prosecuted and stops amping up the funding to kill innocent people abroad.

So it looks like I’m not going to be a proud patriot anytime soon.

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I’ll leave you with an understanding of religion as compared to trilogies that I found on Reddit (note: are there better social media sites out there? The buzz on Reddit is pretty tiresome).