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January 1, 2006
Happy New Year!
January 2, 2006
Year-end Awards
A lot of blogs give year-end awards to other sites. But how many have the brass to hand awards to themselves?
Hoping for a blogosphere first, I proudly present the Bears Eat the Id and Poop the Ego awards.
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Best Month: June 2005. Probably the best indication of where I've wanted this site to go, and where it has stubbornly failed to arrive.
Best Photograph: I still think it's a fish
Best Photographer: Livia, hands down
Most Blatant Attempt at Corporate Sponsorship: Return of the Bling
Worst Color Scheme: What? I don't see one. Everything looks fine to me.
The Wannabe Award: Eminent Domain
Most Broken Promise: Rights and Commandments
2nd Most Broken Promise: Father's Day (last paragraph)
Most Extravagant Link: Tim Longo
Best Muse: Genevieve. I really need to streamline the picture uploading process...
Worst Muse: Katrina. Don't write angry!
Most Obvious Vacation: December holiday break. I guess it's evident these days when I get a little free time.
Worst Idea: Zen Spam of the Month. Anything that makes me root through my spam folder looking for ideas is, by definition, scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Most self-indulgent post: This one, of course!
Let's give 'em a big hand. Everyone's a winner here tonight!
January 4, 2006
Torture Song Trilogy
Following up on my previous two posts about the McCain and Graham's anti-torture amendment, I guess the third entry in the trilogy has arrived.
When the Supreme Court takes up a case, they try to figure out the intention of the various parties, including the writers of a given law and the framers of the Constitution. The more writings they have access to, the more information they have to draw upon.
Some opinions have referenced the "signing statement" that a president makes when he signs a bill into law. Typically, a signing statement is just a pronouncements along the lines of "This is the greatest advance in civil rights etc., etc...." But some administrations have used the signing statement to express their own interpretation of the law, or to signal their intent to various federal agencies as to how it should be carried out.
The idea seems to be that the president's intent in signing a bill carries as much weight as legislators' intent in wording it, since it's theoretically a cooperative act. This idea ignores the reality that sometimes a bill passes with enough votes that the president can't veto it, but can attempt to "spin" it with a signing statement. While courts have historically not given a lot of credence to signing statements, a justice sympathetic to their use (for instance, ahem, Samuel Alito) might use them in interpreting the law.
At any rate, here's part of the signing statement issued by the administration upon signing the defense spending bill last Friday:
The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks."
Awe inspiring, isn't it? Not only does it effectively say "We can torture people no matter what this law says, because that's obviously what congress wants", it also tries to assert that the Supreme Court has no power to dispute this, or any, presidential decision.
Given the play this is getting in the media, it's quite possible that... You Heard it Here First!
January 10, 2006
Drat! Curses!
Looks like my year-end post links don't work correctly on the internet. They jump to the proper month, but not to the right post. If any HTML-savvy folks know what's going on here, I'd love to hear a prognosis.
January 18, 2006
YANC (Yet Another Name Change)
I was thinking about this weblog as I lay awake at 4AM for some ridiculous reason. It's an unsteady mixture of national politics, media reviews, and stories about Genevieve. I really don't know of any other blog that jumps between baby pictures and second-hand torture exposés, so perhaps I've found a niche.
At any rate, I decided to make a name change. Again. Something that more accurately reflects the wreckless change in scope from one story to the next.
There was a set of books that I loved as a kid called "Big Little Books", or more rarely "Little Big Books". They were great sturdy little story books designed for kids' hands, and they probably contributed as much as anything to my early love of reading. Personally, I can't think of a better moniker to steal.
You're now reading Little Big Blog.
January 23, 2006
Rescued!
Brett took the time to research the link problem on my Year End Awards. I hadn't uploaded all the new anchors I had stuck into my old pages, so the links were just jumping to old version of the pages. Scroll on down and try them out, and maybe the real point of that post will become a little more clear.
I'd like to take the time here to plug Brett's page. Some elements of his site inspired me in my design, but there are differences in style, summed up as follows: His writing is always good, somewhat more serious and academic, and thematically consistent. One of the best game-industry bloggers out there.
Many thanks, Brett!
January 25, 2006
Eh, maybe not...
Little Big Blog? Hmmm...
It's no longer 4am and I'm thinking twice about that. But I'll hang on to it for a while.
January 26, 2006
RetroFamily: One Year Ago
Yeah.
We were all really tired.