David's Tangled Thoughts

The Supreme Court of the United States will be taking up the case challenging the Chicago ban on handguns. Last year, the high court ruled that gun ban in Washington, DC violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms. That made it clear that the federal government couldn’t impose a ban on handguns but that left the question of whether the Second Amendment also applied to the states. Washington was a special case because it is a federal jurisdiction. So if the federal government couldn’t impose such a ban, could a state or municipal government do so? The Second Amendment is one of the few sections of the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights that hasn’t been applied to the States. The others being: 3rd: the prohibiting the quartering of soldiers in a private residence. 5th: the right to a grand jury indictment 7th: the right a to jury trial in civil cases 8th: the right against excessive fines and punishments. It should be noted, however, that most state constitutions also have these

I never heard of Roman Polanski until the movie, The Pianist , came out. It was then that I read news reports about him fleeing the United States, fearing punishment for raping a 13 year old girl (although the charge was unlawful sexual intercourse). Even then, there were media types who were supporting this guy, especially as they wanted him to be able to return to the US so that he could receive an Academy Award for Best Director. Polanski is popping up at the water cooler again because of his recent arrest in Switzerland and a possible extradition. There was not one person that I talked to who would support him. Actually, one would like to see him executed. I honestly think that there is a disconnect between the Hollywood types who support Polanski and the general public. I’m fairly confident that most people are ambivalent as to whether the gov’t seeks his extradition (because of the crime) or doesn’t (because of the passage of time), but I don’t think that they are willing t

I forgot to bring my iPod to work with me today. No biggie, I think some of the people around me are probably sick of listening to the same music over and over again. BUT, at least it’s not that Top 40 pop that is always playing everywhere else! Hmm… I might have to post more on that later. Although I’d miss my music, I can pick up streaming radio on my phone. (God, I love my blackberry.) So all day I was listening to WLS out of Chicago. Dominating talk today was the beating of a Chicago student . When it came through on talk, the story had been that this 16 year old student was beaten to death because he refused to join a gang. Later news stories released this evening, however, report that he was bystander that got caught in a fight between two other groups (wasn’t confirmed if it was a gang). Video of the event was given to the local FOX station. I have seen it and it is, at first glance, is a chaotic group of teens going after each other with planks of wood. It was really

Doc, you may not want read any further. I have begun this television season with the Amazing Race. It’s still too early to tell if this is a good season or not but so far all the teams that I am interested in are still in it. The first team eliminated was indeed “numero uno,” just not in the way they were hoping for. I have formed some favorite teams. Well, they’re not all favorites as I want some of them to lose in the end but I want them to stay in long enough because I find them interesting. Coming out of the gate, I have taken a liking to Zev and Justin--two friends who seem to be very close. Zev’s actions so far on the race have made him very endearing and Justin has his back. They haven’t gotten too much screen time but I am rooting for Sam and Dan, the two gay brothers. Although I know that gay siblings are more common than I dare think, but still it kind of amazes to me whenever I learn of a new set. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Sam is hot. It looks like CBS will be buildin

Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) has caused major flooding in Manila . It has been reported to be the worst in 40 years. Based on some of the facebook status updates on some of my friends there, I can believe it. The videos that have been coming out have been horrific such as the family surfing down a raging Pasig River on a heap of garbage that was probably their home. Who knows if they survived. My step-aunt who lives in Manila reports that her family is safe and accounted for. They've had to move all their belongings up to the second level of the house as the ground level has flooded.

I got an email from HR telling me and a select number of other people to attend a training session. Except for a four letter acronym, I didn't have any clue as to what we were going to be training on. My guess was that it was going to be some new piece of software. I just looked it up and it's training for compliance with government regulations. Although I know I am going to be bored for those few hours, I look at this as a good thing in this respect: I must not be on the layoff list!

So Justin and Carrie's annual Halloween party is coming up and this year's theme is horror movie character pre 1995. Instead of waiting until the last moment to pick up a costume, I thought I would get a head start. So my sister and I went to three Halloween stores* and I could not find one thing that went along with the theme and was in my size. I have a couple options though: 1.) I could be a generic werewolf that could be from any number of movies but I'm not really keen on getting in that kind of suit and wearing a rubber mask all night long. 2.) There is a generic evil wizard/warlock costume available but what movie would that reference? Plus it involves robes and I vowed last year I wouldn't wear one again. I think though, that I am going throw any notion of following a theme out the window and go with one of these: 1.) Buy the Napoleon outfit despite the fact that I'm tall and look nothing like a Frenchman. The upside is that the costume comes more or less

…at least the parts I care about. Canada: Election? No Election? I think that Harper loves living on the edge. After almost being lined up against the wall by a “coalition” of the Liberals, NDP, and the Bloc, he is again pulling off an escape—this time with help from the NDP and the Bloc. My American brain gets confused by all this switching sides. Something about the conservatives teaming up with the socialists and the separatists just seems goofy to me. –But goofy in a funny way. Japan: I wish I could see more coverage of Miyuki Hatoyama who is the wife of the new Prime Minister. I think she’d be a barrel of laughs—certainly more entertaining the Michelle Obama, exciting than Laura Bush, but less disturbing than Hillary Clinton. Apparently she’s one of those… eccentric people. For example, she claims that she was abducted by aliens. By the way, it’s only a coincidence that her husband is referred to as an alien. Philippines: Whenever I think that American politics are F’d

When I lived with my grandparents, most of the time we lived at the farm. I did not have fun. I resented having to do farm work and missing out on summer vacation and friends. My sister and I weren't worked as much as my dad and his siblings were. Still, we woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and worked until about 1 when we would have lunch. It was during the hottest part of the day when we had our siesta. If we weren't sleeping, we were watching Grandma's soaps. At one would be The Young and the Restless , then The Bold and the Beautifu l, followed by As the World Turns , and finally, Guiding Light . Guiding Light was grandma's favorite. It was good for us because we knew that until that show ended, we didn't have to go back out into the fields. Once I started to watch it, there was no going back it seemed. I got hooked into the show almost as bad as she was and I can still remembers some of the old characters and plot lines. In particular I remembe

I love fall! Eight months 'till the leaves come back. h/t to puremichigan for the YouTube clip.  See more at Michigan.org .

This post is going to be about Rep. Wilson. I’m way late on it but after making response on my sister’s facebook page, I might as well do it here. For those who’ve been living under a rock, President Obama called a special joint session of Congress which is a relatively rare event outside of the State of the Union. Pres. Obama wanted to inject some more energy into his health care agenda as he and his party has taken a beating from the public who fear a takeover of their health care by covert means, e.g. the “public option.” During the speech he made a point that his plan* would not cover illegal aliens. At that point, Rep. Wilson, in an outburst, accused the President of lying. He was met by jeers on both sides of the isle. It was reported that the representative “bolted” from the chamber after the speech but that he did call the White House to personally apologize to Obama. He got as far as the Chief of Staff but his apology was accepted. The democrats called for Rep. Wilson t

If Kraig and Stacey make it out to Hawaii, I would have been tempted to make another visit out to see them. I changed my mind after checking out some of the ticket prices. I looked for a March flight and the lowest I found was $938. Yikes! The last time I checked, I could have sworn they were just over $600. That much money to get to Hawaii is outrageous. For $200 more, I can go on further and go home to the Philippines. Flights to Europe are cheaper. London is $779 and Frankfurt is even cheaper at $725 (although I would need another $20 for a train ticket to Weisbaden). So the plan is to go to Florida sometime next year when I get my vacation days back. (Remember, this year I spent my vacation in the hospital.) I haven’t seen my friend Season in a while and I do feel bad that I haven’t made the trek down there yet. I will, it’s just that a little patience is required.

Hey Doc , I came across this the other day: I like it. I now know the second verse of your national anthem better than I know mine. (I only know that it exists.) What do you think? Is it bastardized crap or freakin' awesome?

I believe I wrote a post sometime last year or so about a former coworker, S.D.,that was involved with robbery which resulted in the death of the victim. From what I understand he was convicted of robbery and felony murder. His partner in crime was recently sentenced—55 years. S.D. will be sentenced later this month . One year later… A coworker was arrested in connection with a death of man in South Bend. Read about it here and here . The rumor is that some girl was being fought over. How my coworker was involved, I don’t know. All that we really knew was that he was arrested in connection. Charges were supposed to have been filed today but as of 10:30 this evening, I still haven’t seen anything more about it on the news. I worked with this particular guy *ahem* when I was stationed at another part of the complex. From what I knew of him and how we interacted, he was nice. While it wouldn't surprise me to see him skirting the law, I never pictured him as being involved in

Not really, but I'd want to do anything else other than lying here trying to get to sleep. I really should consider buying some over-the-counter sleep aides but usually I'm a quick sleeper. If I am in my own bed, I'm out within fifteen minutes if not sooner. This is just one of those nights. So what do you do to help you fall asleep? I usually go with the warm milk. Borrowing a page from Dr. Crusher, I put a dash of nutmeg in it. That's the only thing that has helped but it's not a guarantee. If the milk doesn't work, I usually have to wait it out. I've tried the whole counting sheep, becomes ridiculous. My overactive imagination usually has something bad being done to the sheep as they leap over the fence to their individual fates. UPDATE: This what I've been sleeping to lately:

I read in the news of another ferry sinking in the Philippines . (Where else do they happen?) As of my writing, there have been 9 deaths reported. For me, that seems to be a remarkably low number considering how lax safety conditions in the Phils and how deadly past instances have been. Even though I was close to water all the time when I was last living there, I rarely made it to ocean. The only two notable times was when I went “home” to San Fernando, La Union and to Corregidor . Other than Corregidor, I never left Luzon. One of the major reasons is because I did not want to take a ferry. Normally, I am fine with all kinds of public transport but there are some situations in which I will avoid it. For example, I will probably never take the bus up to Baguio on anything more than cloudy day. In the case of passenger ferries, never on anything more than calm water, at night, or out of sight of land. I think it’s really odd because I love big bodies of water and it is one of th

Stacey and I were eating well this evening. Some of the businesses in Granger’s Heritage Square had setup booths to allow people to try their cuisine. At first the tickets, at $15, seems expensive, but it allows you to sample many different foods. And well, duh, free alcohol. The first thing we did was grab some wine. I was looking for a spumante and the one that we ended up trying didn’t taste all that great. Actually, its problem was that it lacked taste. Stacey then chose a cranberry wine which I thought was pretty good and matched pretty well with the wide variety of cheeses, crackers, fruits, and meats that we had. The caramel colored goat cheese was really good. It was fairly strong but not offensive. They placed it on apple slices. Stacey preferred them paired, but I liked it all on its own. We agreed that the gouda drizzled with olive oil on bread was pretty bad. She described it as eating something moldy. Another favorite of ours was the mascarpone cheese spread pa

Sorry for not updating for a week. It’s that time of the month again and I was up to my neck in paperwork. Still am, actually, but I’m determined to post something. Uh… except there really isn’t anything I want to spend a lot of time and fuss over. So more shorties! Earlier last week, I started going back to the Y. I’m just walking around the track for right now. I can do any exercises that put extra strain on my leg. Right now, I just want to shake the last of this limp off. When I’m in shoes, I’m pretty much back to normal. When I’m bare foot, it’s still pretty noticeable and walking down stairs is painful and awkward. My reading group decided to take up a book that I recommended. Yay! That means I won’t have to spend money on a crappy book that I’ll end up not liking. Nope. That will be next month when I'll have to read about gay vampires. [groans] The weather turned crappy. We shouldn’t be seeing these temps in such a long stretch for another month or so. I’m a