Eminent Domain

As we probably all know, the Supreme Court ruled the other day that eminent domain can be used in cases where "public good supersedes conventional private property rights". With my limited understanding this basically has meant that where previously you had to be displaced by something like "your land is the only practical location for this interstate" to "your land would make a great location for a giant tax-generating corporate headquarters".

In Justice O'Connor's dissent she says:
Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.

Evidently, conservatives like Logan Darrow Clements think that this is a great idea. He's asked the town of Weare, N.H., to seize Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter's house so that he can build a hotel and museum on the property! His plan includes the "Just Desserts Cafe", a museum on the loss of freedom in America, and instead of a Gideon's Bible: each guest would receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Classic.

For the nerds...

I've created a technical blog to run parallel with this one. Eventually, I'd like to make switching from this one to that a little more transparent. In the meantime though: check it out if you like.

Actually, I've posted two things there and neither of them are really very technical - so many may want to take a look.

an update

I was just realizing that maybe I should provide some basics on where we're at right now to get the ball rolling. It's kind of cold to present my life as a short list of bullet points, but this is just to get everyone up to speed. Hopefully my future posts can be a little more 'human'.

* I'm living in an appartment on the west side of Madison, WI.
* I'm engaged and will be marrying Ms.Monica Fritsch Aug.20, 2005
* I've been an IT consultant/contractor with Smart Solutions for about a year now
* Monica and I will be closing on a condo in Sun Prairie, WI on July 31, 2005.

Need more details? Post a question.

Wish I wouldn't have wasted your time by telling you about this blog? Post a complaint.

Well, what do you think so far?

I've only had this thing up and running a few days now but I've done some tweaking to the standard template they gave me. What do you think?

Additional attachments? Cooler colors? Fancier fonts? Post pictures?

More Tragdor?

Flintstone's Style

We headed down to Racine last weekend for Chris and Lisa's (Huebner) wedding. After the ceremony we had a couple of hours to kill before the reception so Geer, Bridget, Monnie, and I headed over to Applebees for an appetizer and drinks - basically to waste as much time as possible. We stayed a while and when we got back to the car and turned the key... nothing. Battery is only 2 years old... nothing was left on... I guess it just decided that it was too darn hot.

Well, we hooked it up to Geer's car for a jump - no luck. Let it charge longer - no luck. Noticed that there was a Sears on the far end of the mall we were next to with an auto center, so we headed over there for some advice. Basically the advice was: charge it longer. So, we went back and tried again... nothing! The eventual solution was Geer and I pushing the car to the far end of the mall (beats paying for a tow) in our shirts and ties.

We were later voted "best smelling" at the reception.

My name is: BLOG

Ooh, look at me. I have a blog. I can't wait for this to catapult me into the upper echelon of society.

More meaninful posts will follow... probably...