I’m working on the invasion now.

A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.
–William Shedd

The evil that men do lives after them.
The good is oft interréd with their bones.
~WS

Cloves are potent and should be used sparingly. Because whole cloves are difficlult to grind, it’s suggested that you buy them ground. Reserve whole cloves for infusing flavor into hot liquids or for inserting into ham/bread.

It’s been one of those days.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
~Matthew 5:9

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
~Matthew 5:38-9

We are called to be peacemakers.

The world sorely needs us.

You need professional help.

I’m going to go out on a limb here… that’s bad right?

Murphy’s Second Law:
Everything takes longer than you think.

Murphy’s Third Law:
In any field of scientific endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Murphy’s Fourth Law:
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

Murphy’s Fifth Law:
If anything cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

Murphy’s Sixth Law:
If you perceive that there are four possible ways which a procedure can go wrong and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for and usually worse, will promptly develop.

Murphy’s Seventh Law:
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

Murphy’s Eighth Law:
If everything seems to be going well, you’ve obviously overlooked something.

Murphy’s Ninth Law:
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

Murphy’s Tenth Law:
Mother nature is a bitch.

Murphy’s Eleventh Law:
It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious.

Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they’re doing. Do things without always knowing how they’ll turn out.

You’re curious and smart and bored, and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off. There are so many adventures that you miss because you’re waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.

Via. Sheercore as always.

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
~Charles Bukowski

Amen to that.

Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Leiper, Washington, January 21, 1809.

Booga booga booga boo!  I’m an Athiest!

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt – “Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?

Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn’t say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.

Habeas Corpus was a part of British common law in 1679; which became part of U.S. law when the constitution was written. Almost every state’s existing common law, except for Louisiana which was derived mostly from the French, is based off of British common law at the time of the nations founding. (To summarize common law, statutes, or formal written laws, are generally understood always to be interpreted in light of the common law tradition, and so may leave a number of things unsaid because they are already understood from the point of view of pre-existing case law and custom.)

Many people, see above, will say that the constitution doesn’t expressly grant the writ of habeas corpus; that’s because it was considered to be a part of common law; and didn’t need to be expressly stated.

Eisenhower,

Why are we proud? We are proud, first of all, because from the beginning of this Nation, a man can walk upright, no matter who he is, or who she is. He can walk upright and meet his friend–or his enemy; and he does not fear that because that enemy may be in a position of great power that he can be suddenly thrown in jail to rot there without charges and with no recourse to justice. We have the habeas corpus act, and we respect it.

Churchill,

Nevertheless, this short-lived legislature left behind it a monument. It passed a Habeas Corpus Act which confirmed and strengthened the freedom of the individual against arbitrary arrest by the executive Government. No Englishman, however great or however humble, could be imprisoned for more than a few days without grounds being shown against him in open court, according to the settled law of the land. Wherever the English language is spoken in any part of the world, wherever the authority of the British Imperial Crown or of the Government of the United States prevails, all law-abiding men breathe freely. The descent into despotism which has engulfed so many leading nations in the present age has made the virtue of this enactment, sprung from English political genius, apparent even to the most thoughtless, the most ignorant, the most base.

Jefferson,

Let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicion of the President, than the solid right of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

And yes, habeas corpus has been suspended in the past. That doesn’t mean it was right then, or is right now.

This all coming from the man who is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. What did we do to deserve this?

Via