Constitution Monday: No pay cuts for judges

Note: Throughout this series, items that are hyperlinked were in the Constitution as written in 1787 but have since been amended or superseded.
Article III of the Constitution of the United States established the Judicial Branch.  Here is Article III, Section I:
Section. 1.
The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, [...]

WordPressers – Are you intimidated on login?

I sometimes feel a little intimidated when I login to WordPress and I wonder if others at wordpress.com ever feel the same way. I’m writing this on November 12th. When I signed in WordPress announced that 52,503,183 words had been written that day. How could I possibly add anything meaningful to that? Do you ever [...]

How and Why I Became A Librarian

This post is dedicated to Virginia Jacobs, who personally asked me to contribute to the global Library Routes Project at http://libraryroutesproject.wikkii.com/wiki/Main_Page.
I enjoyed libraries as a child. It was a biweekly highlight for my mom to take me to our local public library in Pacoima, California. At the suggestion of a librarian, I placed my first [...]

Film Review: A crude awakening the oil crash

Thanks to the magic of Netflix Watch Instantly, I recently watched the film:
Gelpke, Basil, Ray McCormack, Daniel Schnyder, C. J. Campbell, Matthew R. Simmons, Fadhil J. Al-Chalabi, and David L. Goodstein. 2007. A crude awakening the oil crash. [New York, N.Y.]: Docurama.
The best books and films about social problems offer solutions to the problems they [...]

Constitution Monday: Impeachment

Note: Throughout this series, items that are hyperlinked were in the Constitution as written in 1787 but have since been amended or superseded.
Article II of the Constitution of the United States established the Executive Branch with the President as its head.  Here is Article II, Section IV:
Section. 4.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers [...]

November 1989 Remembered: Jesuit Murders

The Oct/Nov issue of the Catholic Worker carried an article called “November 1989 Remembered” by Dean Brackley, SJ that commemorates the 20th anniversary of the massacre at the Jesuit University in El Salvador on November 16, 1989. It documents the event and the search for justice that followed.
The victims were:

Slain priest Ignacio Ellacuria, 59, was [...]

Douglas Eagle Pole: RIP

The week of Veterans’ Day we had heavy rains and high winds here in Douglas, Alaska. That storm took out something that I’ve loved seeing for ten years — our backyard eagle pole. The pole was originally part of a dock in Douglas in the early 1900s. It stood about 10 feet high or so [...]

Constitution Monday: Why State of the Union

Note: Throughout this series, items that are hyperlinked were in the Constitution as written in 1787 but have since been amended or superseded.
Article II of the Constitution of the United States established the Executive Branch with the President as its head,  Here is Article II, Section III:
Section. 3.
He shall from time to time give to [...]

Ten important places – Revised

Note to Reader: This blog entry has been revised since first posted. I was experimenting with e-mail posting to my blog and the “zeroth” draft escaped the pending folder.
My friend Paul Adasiak posted a very interesting exercise I think we should all consider doing at home. The post is called Ten important places and [...]

A Small Victory for American Values

I was happy to read that some of the Gitmo terrorism suspects will be tried in New York in regular federal court. If we could give open trials to the suspects in the first World Trade Center bombing, we can give trials to their successors.  If we can give open and fair trials to the [...]