diff --git "a/commoncrawl/test.jsonl" "b/commoncrawl/test.jsonl" deleted file mode 100644--- "a/commoncrawl/test.jsonl" +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5252 +0,0 @@ -{"text": "Mud Hens pitcher Evan Reed charged with sexual assault\n\nMud Hens pitcher Evan Reed was charged July 30 with sexual assault related to a March incident in Detroit when he was a member of the Detroit Tigers.\n\nEvan Reed\n\nReed, 28, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct for alleged committing \u201can act of penetration through force or coercion\u201d when he \u201chad reason to know the victim was physically helpless or mentally incapacitated or mentally incapable to consent,\u201d according to a news release from the Wayne County Prosecutor\u2019s Office. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 15 years.\n\nHe is expected to turn himself in to authorities accompanied by his attorney Ben Gonek and be arraigned in 36th District Court in Detroit at 10:30 a.m. July 31, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office\n\nThe alleged assault occurred in Detroit the day before the Tigers\u2019 home opener on March 31.\n\nThe incident was reported by a 45-year-old Oakland County woman, who said she was at a bar in Royal Oak around 10 p.m. March 29, where she met Reed and they danced, according to the release. Afterward they sat in a booth with others and chatted. At some point, the woman finished an alcoholic drink and \u201cbegan to feel odd.\u201d After midnight, she and Reed left the bar and went to a Detroit hotel, where she alleges Reed sexually assaulted her around 7:30 a.m. March 30 and then asked her to leave.\n\n\u201cIt is important to note that in any case the investigation must be thorough and all witnesses must be located and interviewed. This protocol remains the same if the alleged defendant is wealthy, privileged, a known figure or even a promising athlete,\u201d Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy said in the release.\n\nReed was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2007. He joined the Tigers organization in 2013, and shuttled between Detroit and Toledo last season. He made his major league debut with the Tigers in May 2013. He started the 2014 season in Detroit and was sent to Toledo in late June.\n\nThis entry was posted\non Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Baseball, Community, Crime, Mud Hens, Sports.\nYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.\nBoth comments and pings are currently closed."} -{"text": "Upcoming Events\n\nCatholic Theologians Call to Abolish the Death Penalty\n\nIn the wake of the September 21st executions of Troy Anthony Davis in Georgia and Lawrence Brewer in Texas, over 350 Catholic theologians, including JSRI's Alex Mikulich, have called for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States. The statement can be found here.\n\nThe statement has received extensive news and media coverage. For example:"} -{"text": "Culture, Lifestyle, and Commentary\n\n03/17/2011\n\nAnd the secret to profit from the country / place combination bets? The field bet, when used alone, is not a good bet. Must be used with other bets or a progression to make it profitable for the crapshoot experience. These seven different field numbers (2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12) can make a total of only 16 times, leaving 20 for the other numbers. If a 5, 6, 7 or 8 rolls is lost. So if you place a field bet on himself, will win 16 times and lose 20 times (in 36 rolls theoretical). According to Barry Rosenstein the field is only worth 1:1 - that is, if you bet $ 5, you win $ 5. For example, if you bet $ 5 on the field and 4 rolls, you win only $ 5 (1:1) instead of $ 9 (9:5) who would win if you place 4.\n\n02/03/2011\n\nThe internet is a great educational tool, but if not properly used it can be very disappointing. MyWebSearch does everything possible to make your internet search simpler and more effective. It helps to know about what top level domains(TLD) are and how they can help you identify sites. Here are a few of the major TDL's in use today: .com are commercial company domains. They are the majority of the web sites on the internet. .org domains are used for organizations.They can be any type of organization. .gov domains are used for governments and government agencies. It generally refers to federal level organizations, but it could also refer to the state level organizations. .edu domains refers to educational institutions. .net refers to Internet network services or network companies\n\n03/18/2010\n\nWith the economic crisis seemingly far from subsiding, many families have taken to homesteading. Although not as rustic as the real deal that has permeated American folklore, today's homesteading still has plenty of challenges and many perks.\n\n\"We feel we own our land and our lives again,\" one homesteader said as he puts the finishing touches on a roof of the home he and his wife bought on a 200 hundred plot of land in Idaho. \"The land was inexpensive and beautiful,\" he adds.\n\nMore and more homesteaders are finding solace from immersing themselves in solitary areas, in hopes of escaping former financial trouble or the society that they feel is on sharp course with implosion.\n\n03/17/2010\n\nOne of the least hit real estate markets in the country during the recession was Texas'. One main reason is Texans were never willing to pay the kind of prices for housing that other areas of the country were. This caused many areas in Texas to remain outside of the housing bubble.\n\nWith this in mind it is not surprising that Real Estate is Texas' third most important industry according Texas Real Estate. \"The importance of Texas Real Estate activity in the Lone Star State cuts across State Boundary lines and affects the economy in other parts of the country. The complex web of inter-related finances which reflects the state of our modern economy means that what happens in Texas affects the rest of the USA and, more than likely, the rest of the world,\" says the magazine.\n\nOne area of particular interest that is still growing is the Austin condo market. Many people are still able to find god deals that are low risk for the buyer. Austin, Texas remains a desirable place to live as many transplants from different places in the U.S. have made their way giving it a cosmopolitan feel.\n\nOther areas in Texas that have remained strong and good for investment is San Antonio and suburban Dallas."} -{"text": "Discourse 26: The Eighth Chapter Concludes \u2013 The Journey of the Soul After Death\n\nThe Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita deals with the subject of life after death. The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Bhagavadgita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body. The Puranas, especially, go into a detailed, lurid description of the condition in which the soul finds itself\u2014particularly if it has not done any merit, or if the merit it has done is so negligible that the wrongs it has committed outweigh the good or are on an equal footing with it.\n\nThe stories in the Garuda Purana and such other scriptures, even in the Bhagavata, are really frightening. When the soul departs from the body in the case of these lower, unpurified and negligibly religious souls, it is taken away by the messengers of Yama and placed before the Lord of Death for judgment.\n\nIt is said that Yama asks the soul, \u201cWhat have you done?\u201d\n\nOrdinarily, it cannot remember anything. It will say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\n\nThe shock of separation from the body removes all memory, and it cannot remember what it has done in the previous life. It is said that then a hot rod, called a yamadanda, is kept on its head, and immediately it remembers its entire past. It knows every detail of the actions that it did, both good and bad.\n\nThe soul says, \u201cI have done a little good, but have also made many mistakes and performed so many erroneous actions.\u201d\n\nYama asks, \u201cWhat do you have to say about it now?\u201d\n\nThe soul replies, \u201cI have got relatives. They will expiate them for me. They will conduct yajnas, charities, worship, sankirtans, bhajans and meditations in my name, and I shall be free from the consequence of the sins that I have committed or the mistakes that I have made.\u201d\n\n\u201cGo then!\u201d says Yama, \u201cAnd see what they do.\u201d\n\nApparently, it takes ten days for the soul to be brought back, so some ceremony is usually done on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth days. The soul hovers around, observing what the relatives are doing, and Yama\u2019s messengers stand behind like policemen to see what is done. If an expiatory ceremony is done in the name of the soul, such as the Bhagavata Saptaham, the Rudra Yaga, the Narayana Bali and the Vishnu Yajna, and varieties of charities are done, and all those things that were dear to the soul are also given in gift, the effect of these good deeds is credited to the account of the soul and it is exonerated to that extent.\n\nBut suppose this is not done and, like modern boys, the relatives do not believe in these observances: \u201cIf our father died, let it go, that\u2019s all. We won\u2019t bother about it,\u201d and there is no charity, no goodwill, and they behave as if nothing has happened; or, they do not even believe that something happens after death because they think that there is no life after death. If that is the case, the soul is dragged back. When the policemen know that someone is a culprit, and it is confirmed, they deal with him very severely. If they know that he is going to be released and nothing is going to happen to him, they do not bother much about it. But if his relatives have done nothing, it is certain that he is going to be punished, so for one year they drag the soul to the kingdom of the Lord of Death. At first they brought it within ten days because they wanted to know what was happening. When it is certain that it is going to be punished, they drag it, pull it, scratch and beat it, and it will be hungry and thirsty and bleeding. That is why another ceremony is done after one year; it takes one year for the soul to return to the abode of Yama. The varshika (annual) ceremony is very important. If nothing has been done on the tenth to thirteenth days after the passing of the soul, at least something should be done on the anniversary so that some mercy may be granted by Lord Yama before the sentence is passed.\n\nIf the soul has no merit at all, it will be sent to the land of punishment, whatever the punishment be. In the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana, the Garuda Purana, etc., the type of punishment and difficulties that the soul has to undergo are described in such gory language that we would not like to be born into this world again.\n\nWhen the soul is expunged of all its sins by suffering in the prison of Yama\u2019s hell, it is released. It is said that then it is sent to Rudraloka, and will not be allowed to leave. To release the soul from Rudra\u2019s clutches, Rudra Yajna is done. Then it is sent to Vaikuntha, so Vishnu Yajna is done; and after many, many years, the soul attains moksha. This is how a bad person gets purified in a very painful way, and then finally attains blessedness.\n\nOr, if the soul has a tremendous attachment to relations and to wealth, it can be reborn into this world. A Muslim gentleman lived near a house in which a Hindu family had a little baby. The baby was very beautiful. The Muslim wanted to fondle it, sit it on his lap, but the Hindus would not allow the Muslim to touch the baby, which greatly disturbed him. The child grew up, and then the Muslim died. This child, which had grown up, started talking in Persian.\n\nThey asked, \u201cWhat is this matter? Who are you?\u201d\n\nHe replied, \u201cI am that Muslim gentleman who wanted to caress this child, and you didn\u2019t allow it; and now I am possessing it!\u201d\n\nThis is the effect of attachments. And very intense attachments, which do not even give the soul time to take birth in this world, convert it into a ghost. Preta yoni is the outcome and, as described in the Bhagavata Purana, it hovers around in space, hungry and thirsty.\n\nHere the Bhagavadgita describes the more glorious paths to the higher realms. Those who are not spiritually awakened but have done immensely good deeds reach a lower kingdom called Chandraloka, the realm of the moon, where they stay invisibly and enjoy the fruit of their good deeds. When the momentum of their good deeds, charitable deeds, etc., is exhausted, they come back into this world. But if a person is spiritually awakened and is not merely a good man\u2014not merely a charitable or a philanthropic person\u2014then the path is different. These two paths are called the northern path and the southern path.\n\nYatra k\u0101le tvan\u0101v\u1e5bttim \u0101v\u1e5btti\u1e41 caiva yogina\u1e25, pray\u0101t\u0101 y\u0101nti ta\u1e41 k\u0101la\u1e41 vak\u1e63y\u0101mi bharatar\u1e63abha (8.23): \u201cI shall now tell you,\u201d says Bhagavan Sri Krishna, \u201cabout that path treading which one returns, and that path treading which one does not return. These two paths I shall describe to you now\u2014uttaramarga or jyotirmarga, and dakshinamarga or dhumamarga, as they are called.\u201d\n\nAgnir jotir aha\u1e25 \u015bukla\u1e25 \u1e63a\u1e47m\u0101s\u0101 uttar\u0101ya\u1e47am, tatra pray\u0101t\u0101 gacchanti brahma brahmavido jan\u0101\u1e25 (8.24): Everything is filled with light, everything is filled with divinity, and everything is superintended over by a divinity. The fire of cremation\u2014that is the agni, the physical fire, which has a divinity of its own\u2014assumes a divine form in the case of a person who is to rise up to the celestial realms. Then there is a divinity superintending over the daytime, in contrast with the night. If a person passes away during the daytime, and during the bright half of the lunar month, and during the northern movement of the sun, he shall reach the solar orb\u2014Suryaloka. From there, he will be taken up further.\n\nThe Upanishads describe many more stages than the ones mentioned here. And at a particular stage beyond the sun, a superhuman entity is supposed to come and take the soul by the hand. Up to the solar orb, or even a little beyond, is called the realm of lightning. That is, beyond the sun, the lightning of Brahmaloka flashes forth. The individuality consciousness of the soul slowly gets diminished at that time, and it is not aware of any self-effort. It does not know that it is moving at all, inasmuch as the ego is almost gone. It is said that at that time an amanava purusha deputed by Brahma himself comes down in a luminous form, and leads the soul to the abode of Brahma, the Creator. This is the path of krama mukti, or gradual liberation, in which the soul is supposed to be glorying in Brahmaloka until Brahma himself is dissolved at the end of time\u2014at the end of a hundred years of his life\u2014and then the Absolute Brahman is reached.\n\nBut there is a possibility of immediate salvation without passing through all these stages\u2014a hundredfold promotion, as it were. It is the dissolution of the soul in the supreme Brahman at this very spot. The soul need not have to travel in space and time because it is a jivanmukta purusha, one who has attained to a consciousness where there is no distance to be travelled. For him, there is no solar orb or anything else. He has spread his consciousness everywhere, in all beings: sarvabh\u016btahite rat\u0101\u1e25 (12.4). He is the soul of all beings, like Suka Maharishi, Vyasa, Vasishtha, etc. When his soul spreads itself everywhere in the cosmos, where is the question of moving? Na tasya pr\u0101\u1e47\u0101 utkr\u0101manti (B.U. 4.4.6): His pranas do not depart, as is the case of other people. Brahmaiva san brahm\u0101pyeti: They dissolve here, just now. That is, the moment the soul departs the body, it enters the supreme Brahman, the Absolute, then and there, without having to pass through all these stages. But in the case of krama mukti, the graduated steps mentioned in the Bhagavadgita, it is different.\n\nThe divinity of fire, the divinity of daytime, the divinity of the lunar month\u2019s bright half, and the divinity ruling over the northern movement of the sun will take care of the soul and bring it up. In the Moksha Parva of the Mahabharata there is the story of a great ascetic who rose up from his body, and a little flame rising up through the sky could be seen. It rose higher and higher until it reached the orb of the sun, where a divine being emerged from the solar orb and received it. According to our tradition, the sun is not a material substance. It is a divinity\u2014hiranmaya purusha\u2014in which a golden-coloured Narayana is seated. Just as a human being is not a body, the sun is also not a body; and just as we see only the body of a person and do not see what the person is on the inside, we do not see divinity of the sun. We see only its outer appearance, which we call helium, atomic energy, etc., in just the same way as we call a person bone and flesh, nerves, blood, etc.\u2014which is not a correct description. So there is something beyond the human concept here. Divinities are everywhere in the cosmos, in every atom, which is also controlled and enveloped by the universal God. If God is everywhere, why should He not be in every atom and in everything? In the case of such a realisation, there is immediate dissolution.\n\nDh\u016bmo r\u0101tris tath\u0101 k\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a\u1e25 \u1e63a\u1e47m\u0101s\u0101 dak\u1e63i\u1e47\u0101yanam, tatra c\u0101ndramasa\u1e41 jyotir yog\u012b pr\u0101pya nivartate (8.25). There are those who have not spiritually awakened themselves, have not done spiritual meditation, and have an insufficient devotion to God. Even if they are very good people, highly charitable and humanistic in their approach, they will not be allowed to move along this northern path to the sun. They will not go to Brahmaloka. They will go to a lower realm, called Chandraloka. The smoke which rises from the fire during cremation will be their guiding principle. The dark half of the lunar month, and the southern movement of the sun, signify a deficiency in divine powers and a lesser chance of the soul going up along the path of brightness. It will reach Chandraloka, where it will enjoy the fruits of the good deeds it has done. Whatever good deeds were done will have their effect. Every action produces a reaction. Any good, charitable deed will bring the soul an abundance of joy in Chandraloka; but the soul will come back, because anyone who has not realised the universality of God will come back. Only a soul who is totally devoted to God will gradually pass through these stages of divine ordinances to the Ultimate Being. But if we are united with God here itself, we will immediately merge into God.\n\n\u015auklak\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47e gat\u012b hyete jagata\u1e25 \u015b\u0101\u015bvate mate (8.26). Broadly speaking, these are two paths of the soul after death. Either we go that way or we go this way, according to our karma and our spiritual status. \u015auklak\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47e gat\u012b hyete jagata\u1e25 \u015b\u0101\u015bvate mate, ekay\u0101 y\u0101ty an\u0101v\u1e5bttim anyay\u0101vartate puna\u1e25: By the one path, one does not come back to this world; by the other path, one returns.\n\nNaite s\u1e5bt\u012b p\u0101rtha j\u0101nan yog\u012b muhyati ka\u015bcana, tasm\u0101t sarve\u1e63u k\u0101le\u1e63u yogayukto bhav\u0101rjuna (8.27). Having known clearly that these are the two paths, who would like to tread the lesser path? \u201cTherefore, be a yogi, O Arjuna, and try to tread the upper path.\u201d Whoever knows the merits and demerits of these two paths will certainly pursue the path of merit rather than the path of demerit. It is the lack of knowledge that prevents us from working for our own salvation. But if we know that such a thing exists, and that even after death our karmas will pursue us wherever we go\u2014that even if we go to the nether regions, we will be caught by the nemesis of our actions, the results of what we have done, because there is a law which punishes us\u2014we will obey the law. And if we know that there are these two paths, and there is a chance of our entering into the lower one, we will certainly work to attain the higher one. Knowing this, we will certainly become wiser and, therefore, work for a state of establishment in yoga\u2014union with the divinities in the various graduated scales of development, or with the Supreme Absolute itself, whatever the case may be. Either way, one will be a supreme yogi who is united with the Absolute now, or one will be a graduated yogi who will move systematically through the stages mentioned. Anyway, knowing this, one will not come to grief. Tasm\u0101t sarve\u1e63u k\u0101le\u1e63u yogayukto bhav\u0101rjuna: \u201cTherefore, become a yogi, Arjuna!\u201d\n\nVede\u1e63u yaj\u00f1e\u1e63u tapa\u1e25su caiva d\u0101ne\u1e63u yat pu\u1e47yaphala\u1e41 pradi\u1e63\u1e6dam, atyeti tat sarvam ida\u1e41 viditv\u0101 yog\u012b para\u1e41 sth\u0101nam upaiti c\u0101dyam (8.28). These discourses that you are hearing now as satsanga\u2014the knowledge of these wonderful things beyond this world that you are gaining\u2014is greater than all the good deeds that you do by way of charity, and all the sacrifices that you perform. All the merits that you will accrue by doing charity, good deeds and even the study of scriptures like the Vedas, and by doing austerity and living an abstemious life will bring you some good results. But this phala of satsanga, the blessing of this highly purifying training that your soul is undergoing by listening to these glorious eternal realities, certainly has a greater capacity to produce an effect than all the charities, studies and scriptures, etc. It transcends even the Vedas, and you attain to that place, that abode, which is the Ancient One. With this, we conclude the Eighth Chapter."} -{"text": "Charms & Pendants\n\nCraftKitsandSupplies carries over 100 different styles of charms and pendants, ideal for beaded bracelets, beaded necklaces, beaded keychains, and other craft projects. We have charms and pendants such as, cross charms, cross pendants, glass charms, glass pendants, sterling silver charms, sterling silver pendants and many more other charms and pendants. Charms and Pendants are great for all types of events and craft projects, such as, birthdays, christmas, and school projects."} -{"text": "UNDP project with inter-agency collaboration adopt RA 9184 as its procurement policy/procedure in our agency, since RA 9184 will be the procedure our existing BAC composition will be adopted. question, is it possible for another government agency to be a member of the TWG for the procurement of the said project? hope to clarify this matter. thanks\n\nThe law does not prevent government agency from inviting experts from other government agencies or private individual to form part of its TWG for as long as they have the legal, financial and technical competencies to act one. they will be entitled to honoraria.\n\nolrac_tm wrote:UNDP project with inter-agency collaboration adopt RA 9184 as its procurement policy/procedure in our agency, since RA 9184 will be the procedure our existing BAC composition will be adopted. question, is it possible for another government agency to be a member of the TWG for the procurement of the said project? hope to clarify this matter. thanks"} -{"text": "SportsNation Blog Archives Jimmie Johnson\n\nJimmie Johnson wins at Daytona\n\nJimmie Johnson hasn't won the Sprint Cup since 2010 (we know -- what a drought, right?), but it looks like he's back in championship form. Johnson has won four races this season and is 49 points ahead of Clint Bowyer, who's in second place despite winning zero races. Our analysts have Matt Kenseth as the driver with the best shot of taking Johnson down, but will it be d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again when the 2013 Chase is finally over?\n\nWho will win the Sprint Cup this season?\n\n57%\n\nJimmie Johnson\n\n43%\n\nThe field\n\n(Total votes: 23,483)\n\nWhich driver has the best chance of beating out Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup title this season?\n\nBrad Keselowski just needed to finish 15th-or-better to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup title. He did that, but got some help too when top challenger Jimmie Johnson was forced to the garage with 39 laps to go, ending his day and clinching the championship for Keselowski. That came one week after Johnson crashed out last week at Phoenix. So did Keselowski -- who won Dodge's first series title since 1975 -- win the Cup, or did Johnson lose it?\n\nTHEMVIKINGZ:\nJimmie Johnson was trying so hard to psyche him out on ESPN this week. Keselowski basically laghed at it, then went out and took the Cup.\n\nPretty cool.\"\n\nSteelBrightblade:\nRooted for brad since he wrecked carl at dega. Just protectin his line. Well deserved\"\n\nThomasg2488:\nGordon finally wins at Homestead and Keselowski (my 2nd favorite driver since racing for Jr.) wins the championship and denied JJ the title. And Lewis Hamilton won a fantastic United States Grand Prix. Perfect race day.\"\n\nforums_mp:\nCongrats Brad! Well deserved. I still think they need to tweak the chase format. Amidst all the mechanical issues a 'grade forgiveness' should be allowed.\"\n\nrafter510:\nI might not be a keselowski fan but well deserved win of the championship there's more in the future to come with his talent level\"\n\nBradSmith71374:\nGuess he is in trouble next year. Dodge yanked his car and now he will be rolling in the back next year. Dodge thinks highly of their car and drivers. LMAO. Good luck next year Brad. LOL\"\n\nEach week, the NASCAR Now (Weekdays on ESPN2, 3 p.m. ET) crew will select the best burnouts of the past weekend. Which car will come out on top? Well, that's up to you. Watch the video above, cast your vote and tune into NASCAR Now to see who wins!\n\nEach week, the NASCAR Now (Weekdays on ESPN2, 3 p.m. ET) crew will select the best burnouts of the past weekend. Which car will come out on top? Well, that's up to you. Watch the video above, cast your vote and tune into NASCAR Now to see who wins!\n\nManny Pacquiao packs quite a punch, as Antonio Margarito's medical bills will attest after their bout. But even Pacquiao can't match the power Jimmie Johnson has at his disposal when he's behind the wheel. Another weekend brought another chance to celebrate a champion, but is Johnson a bigger deal than Pacquiao?"} -{"text": "Canon Pixma MP970\n\nThis is quite a beefy All In One unit, so it scans, copies and prints via the PC. It can also copy when not connected to the PC and it also prints directly from a range of card media.\n\nThe is 46x40x22cm when closed. The output shelf opens automatically at print time and initially this adds 13cm to the depth. Having paper in the rear mounted tray adds 18cm to the 22cm height. Canon Pixma MP970 All the controls surround the screen that flips up in the central part of the top at the front and as this goes to just beyond 90 degrees you can choose the display angle. The screen is 7.5x5."} -{"text": "July 26, 2007\n\nWHEN a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter once called the \u201cpolitical thicket,\u201d it may require a political solution to set it straight.\n\n\"When\"... \"If\"... \"may\".... The writer, Jean Edward Smith, author of a biography of FDR, is not exactly taking a position on what the Roberts Court is doing.\n\nStill, there is nothing sacrosanct about having nine justices on the Supreme Court. Roosevelt\u2019s 1937 chicanery has given court-packing a bad name, but it is a hallowed American political tradition participated in by Republicans and Democrats alike.\n\nIf the current five-man majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular values, the election of a Democratic president and Congress could provide a corrective. It requires only a majority vote in both houses to add a justice or two.\n\n\"[P]ersists in thumbing its nose at popular values\"? Okay, now Smith seems to be taking a position, though there's no substance in his piece that backs this up, but even if it were backed up, it would be an idiotic point. He starts out fretting about a Court that enters the political sphere, and he ends up worrying about the Court failing to pick up the values of the political majority. So which is it?\n\nOf course, I know: You want the Court to transcend politics but to transcend it in the direction that squares with your politics. I laugh at that.\n\nTwo more things:\n\n1. Specify which cases are bothering you! If the \"values\" you prefer are so \"popular,\" why can't Congress simply enact them as a matter of statutory law? I need to know what you're talking about before I can tell whether these new statutes would violate constitutional law. For example, if you're irked that the Court didn't strike down the \"partial-birth abortion\" statute, Congress doesn't have to restock the Court with Justices who will expansively construe abortion rights, it only needs to repeal its own statute!\n\n2. The Constitution does create checks on the Supreme Court, and Congress can decide to use them. But such actions by Congress will themselves have a political effect. You need to look down the road and see if you like those effects too. It's not enough to say, wouldn't it be great to be able to suddenly appoint 2 new Supreme Court Justices at a point when we have a President who will nominate individuals we think will do things we like? You will need to explain why this solution is so important, and, when you that, you will probably end up in a debate that will portrays the Court as political. You may succeed in increasing the number of Justices at the expense of delegitimatizing the very Court you want to rely on. And when the next President comes in, he or she will have more power to choose Justices for openly political reasons.\n\n59 comments:\n\nCourt packing is a \"hallowed American political tradition\"? That's ridiculous. The last time it was even attempted 70 years ago. And the last time done successfully was over 130 years ago. The republic is only 231 years old and the Supreme Court is younger than that. To say court packing is a hallowed tradition stretches the meaning of those words beyond the breaking point.\n\nOnce you come to the understanding that in the view of the Times, the Supreme Court is \"thumbing its nose\" at the political will of the majority when its decisions contradict the political beliefs of The New York Times, and the Court is the \"defender of the Consitution\" when its decisions support those same political beliefs, then the Times op-ed becomes understandable.\n\nThe editors of the Times are devoid of any consitutional principle when opinining on what is and is not a good court decision. Their opinions reflect only orthodox support for \"rights\" in favor of people they consider to be victims of our society, and waiver of certain rights by those deemed to be favored by our society (except in the practice of forcing others to give money to those deemed to be victims).\n\nNo doubt we can look back and find the Times supporting FDR's 1937 Court-packing proposal as well.\n\nSmith may think it would be nice for the current congress to remake the court. But he needs to to think what the court will look like when the next Tom DeLay / George W. Bush combination gets the upper hand.\n\nSo one or two justices would provide corrective? How about 10 back at you? Guys like DeLay don't play for close calls.\n\n\"If the 'values' you prefer are so 'popular,' why can't Congress simply enact them ...[?] For example, if you're irked that the Court didn't strike down the 'partial-birth abortion' statute, Congress doesn't have to restock the Court with Justices who will expansively construe abortion rights, it only needs to repeal its own statute!\"\n\nIt goes to the paradox I've noted before - the desperate attempt to protect a countermajoritarian device protecting a policy choice they claim enjoys majority support. Of course, it's no paradox in reality, just a smokescreen. No rational person would rely on a supermajoritarian device to maintain a policy they believed commanded majority support, so the conclusion is unavoidable that NARAL and so forth simply don't believe their own propaganda.\n\nIt's par for the course, needless to say, that the justices who Smith disagrees with are acting ideologically, while the other four (or five in many cases) are doing... What? Is he really so naive as to think the Ledbetter dissenters weren't being \"ideological\"? Or does he have a Dahlia-esque view where ideology is so broadly-defined as to sweep any judicial philosophy into its scope?\n\nSmith may think it would be nice for the current congress to remake the court. But he needs to to think what the court will look like when the next Tom DeLay / George W. Bush combination gets the upper hand.\n\nOne of the most annoying recent tendencies of Democratic liberals and their supporters is to act as if \"sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander\" is a rule that should not bind them. When the Democrats started using the filibuster to prevent votes on appellate justices, they were warned it would come back to haunt them. But actually, it won't. Precedents only apply to the right sorts of people, doncha know. If Harry and Nancy want to do it, it's fine. As long as Congress remains in its natural state (Democratic), fine. But if through some vote-stealing Diebold, Cheney/Rove scheme the Republicans took over and used the same precedent to pursue their ends, it's \"here come the brownshirts!\"\n\nWhen I was more of a liberal (I still don't quite believe I'm not one now), I admired the insistence on principle, even if sticking with principle meant our side lost some battles. Apparently, the new style liberal thinks that's wussy. Principles = what we want.\n\nrhhardin said...\"You get the least political court by reducing its size, not increasing it.\"\n\nSo presumably state Supreme Courts - most of which have 5-7 members - are much less political than SCOTUS, and three-judge panel hearings are much less political than en banc hearings? Is there any empirical data that backs up this assertion, or at least a sound theoretical rationale? I mean, ipse dixit isn't going to get you far.\n\nI think this is a great idea. This congress can add two justices, and then the next congress can add two more, and the next can add two more, and then in a few decades, our Supreme Court will be a mass of 31 bickering partisan windbags. Hell, after a long enough time, the Court may be the size of the Senate.\n\nI don't see what's wrong with my ipse dico, but if you insist : a large court just represents the general population in its direction, retirements and reappointments being frequent. A one-man court gets direction only once in 50 years.\n\nYou may not like the result for 50 years, but it won't be political. Almost by definition.\n\nJohn Stodder said...\"When I was more of a liberal ... I admired the insistence on principle, even if sticking with principle meant our side lost some battles.\"\n\nQuite: \u201cLegal minds tend to respond to a statement of clear and compelling principle.... Upon identifying a principle, they crave consistency. To stop and think who will win and who will lose is to sacrifice legitimacy.\u201d Althouse, Electoral College Reform: D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, 95 Nw. U. L. Rev 993, 1007 (2001). To me, sticking to first principles - even when they produce a result I don't like - is a badge of honor. But on the other hand, cf. Althouse, The Humble and the Treasonous: Judge-Made Jurisdiction Law, 40 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1035, 1039-40 (1990) (\"By professing unconcern for practical reality and a pure, unalloyed love for an idea, one loses control over outcomes and argues unwittingly for bad results ... [T]here is something unprincipled about embracing an abstraction and taking it to its logical limit, without the stabilizing effect of considering policy implications\").\n\nTo make an unsupported dogmatic assertion is the privilege of those who've earned it -- the index case being Pythagoras, from whose students the phrase originates, according to Cicero, who had earned authority strong enough that his students could simple say that he, pythagoras, himself said it, without offering reason. You haven't earned that kind of intellectual cachet. Don't feel bad - very few people have.\n\n\"a large court just represents the general population in its direction, retirements and reappointments being frequent. A one-man court gets direction only once in 50 years.\"\n\nThis is akin Prof. Turley's theory, but I don't think his theory (or yours) it's very persuasive. You could far more effectively accomplish the same thing as you and Jon are looking to do by having judges serve terms of office - an approach that would avoid the inefficiencies of a huge court. The perceived \"problem\" isn't plainly so, even if it were, the proposed remedy isn't clearly a solution to it, it has several foreseeable problems and will entail numerous unforeseeable problems.\n\nIt isn't enough to have an idea, to believe you might be able to improve on something that has worked and worked well for some time - even if you are one of those who, as Oakeshotte put it, who \"never doubts the power of his reason (when properly applied) to determine the worth of a thing, the truth of an opinion or the propriety of an action.\" To paraphrase the way I put the point last year, in my view, traditional practise erect a rebuttable presumption that grows stronger with the passage of time, and even when the traditional solution is less than ideal, it at least has the virtue of being tried and tested. Its unintended consequences have already become apparent. That isn't to say that change should never happen - Burke, after all, warned that \"[a] state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation\" since without that capacity \"it might even risk the loss of that part of the constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve\" - but nevertheless, when you have a law and a proposed change, the latter bears the burden of proof that it should be adopted, and when they seem co-equal, the former prevails. The longer the law has been on the books, the higher the burden of proof required. If you have a clearly dysfunctionally system, and you have a compelling alternative to bring forth, one which seems likely to cut a narrow path without displacing too much else, then great. But the lower in stature the problem or the higher in risk the solution (or particularly when both) the less persuasive it is.\n\nI don't even agree with the apparent premise that the court ought to be a \"representative\" body swayed and \"direct[ed]\" by popular sentiment. Quite the opposite, if that were their purpose, there would be no need for life tenure in the first place.\n\nEverything has its limits. Sometimes principles are in conflict. Especially in the case of a badly conceived law that, nonetheless, must be enforced until it's changed.\n\nBut it is easier to correct the tragic results of an unthinking obedience to principle than to correct the tragic results of a purely expedient mentality. As an earlier post said, if politicians unhappy with the Supreme Court try to cure it by adding two new members, the next regime will just double down -- add 4. And very quickly, the Supreme Court would lose authority and be seen as Congress, only more pretentious.\n\n\"Congress\u2019s need for the information, though, is substantial. It has already turned up an array of acts by administration officials that may have been criminal.\"\n\nIf this were so, the piece would specify these supposed acts. The NYT doesn't, the Congress hasn't, and the supposedly malfeasant action that underlies this fictitious scandal is explicitly authorized by statute, see 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 541(c), and is in any event within the inherent power of the Presidency, as has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the Supreme Court.\n\nJohn,In General Grant's famliar epigram, \u201cI know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.\u201d The difficulty arises when, as you say, an issue brings two or more principles into conflict.\n\n\"But it is easier to correct the tragic results of an unthinking obedience to principle than to correct the tragic results of a purely expedient mentality. As an earlier post said, if politicians unhappy with the Supreme Court try to cure it by adding two new members, the next regime will just double down -- add 4. And very quickly, the Supreme Court would lose authority and be seen as Congress, only more pretentious.\"\n\nThis is exactly what killed legal realism, as I understand it (and a point Ann has alluded to many times) - the court's authority, the reason why we obey its dictates, rests on the assumption that it is non-political, merely a proxy for the authority of the law. Legal realism's \"painful candor\" begged the question of why five unelected justices' opinions should trump 218 elected Congressmen, 51 elected Senators and one elected President's john hancock.\n\nAdherence to principle has important normative value:\n\n\"While announcing a firm rule of decision can thus inhibit courts, strangely enough it can embolden them as well. Judges are sometimes called upon to be courageous, because they must sometimes stand up to what is generally supreme in a democracy: the popular will. ... The chances that frail men and women will stand up to their unpleasant duty are greatly increased if they can stand behind the solid shield of a firm, clear principle enunciated in earlier cases.\"\n\nScalia, The Rule of Law as a Law of Rules, 56 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1175 (1989). The problem I have with beinding rules to \"consider[] policy implications\" is that it necessarily makes the judge the arbiter of what is good policy - the detatchment from which being precisely the source of their authority. Indeed, it is precisely the \"los[s] [of] control over outcomes\" that makes formalistic rules so appealing: they cabin the discretion of the judge. \"The Supreme Court's constitutional role appears to be justified only if the Court applies principles that are neutrally derived, defined and applied.\" Bork, Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems, 47 Ind. L.J. 1, 35 (1971). I have grown very fond of a phrase PBS recently used to describe Justice Black: the text was his mandate, but is was also his limit. I tend to invert that: the text is judge's limit, but it is also a mandate to go as far as the text goes. Scalia's point in Law of Rules is normative as much as it is formalist: the mandate of the text is an authority a judge is more likely to use when s/he can ground the result firmly in the text or in the neutral, generally-applicable principles, the result of the application of which the judge doesn't appear to \"control.\"\n\nHere\u2019s a long-view of the SCOTUS Bench. Link. You could fit in two more Justices (one on each end) and maintain decent sight-lines, but that wouldn\u2019t require much in the way of expensive carpentry, and that\u2019s a problem.\n\nMaybe you could squeeze in four more Justices, but that\u2019s still not so great a contract for the cabinet makers, so we really should try to do better.\n\nSix new Justices would make for an expensive enough work project, but there really isn\u2019t the room, and Congress would balk at funding a nifty new building for SCOTUS (if Congress isn\u2019t getting one, too) and that might put the kibosh on the whole enterprise.\n\nSo, what to do, . . ., what to do, . . . ?\n\nWait a minute, I\u2019ve got an idea!\n\nWe can pack the Court with seventy-two brand spanking new Justices and still keep the old building. It would require a brand new, very expensive bench and that would be win-win for everyone concerned!\n\nThe new bench would be based on a much-loved design that has proven its good looks and practicality well throughout the years, and here\u2019s what it would look like, only much, much bigger. Link.\n\nAlthouse. Perhaps you should have left \"Here's a NYT op-ed...\" until the end. Otherwise the question of whether or not it's BS is immediately superceded by the question of what particular flavor of BS it surely is.\n\nPolitics shouldn't be the driving force behind justice, because that's anything but justice.\n\nUnderstanding the problem and coming up with a solution? Not so easy\n\nWhen Democrats do it, it's wrong.When Republicans do it, it's wrong.\n\nCorrecting it, encouraged or discouraged by academics, probably based on bias. The bias is likely political and therefore wrong.\n\nHow do you fix a problem that is a result of an inherently flawed justice system? You can't unless you go after the root of the problem, otherwise it'll just happen again. Going after the root problem isn't easy either, because then you have to admit that there is a flaw with how we define ourselves and few are willing to admit or accept when they are wrong. (likely psychological or a human biological trait)\n\nWhat frightens most politically charged Americans is the strong sense of party loyalty and external group and corporate influences that have taken over American government. Partisan loyalty trumps principles and values that conservatives were often applauded for in the 20th century, partisan loyalty now trumps the 'save the world and baby seals' mentality for Democrats that gave them a reason to bat themselves on the back and Republicans a reason to acknowledge they \"have a good heart, despite having no economic sense.\"\n\nIn many ways, the prior driving forces behind our political parties were flawed. The passion the values incited got in the way of reasoned policy and resulted in pork-filled legislation. The issues never seemed as divisive, or inspiring as much animosity as we're witnessing now through the advancement of technology and mass communication.\n\n21st Century American Crossroads\n\nOne transition in American government that may revolutionize politics and policy is this hostility and distrust that exists between the elite and everyone else. The elite (educated, rich, powerful) are usually Republican, from my experience, though the language from Limbaugh/Coulter implies that \"hollywood\" liberals are the \"elitists\" against the \"common man/working class.\" (You and me)\n\nHistorically, the U.S. has a tradition of 'attempting' to work together to get stuff done for Americans. That tradition changed to pretending to work together, and has further devolved into attempting to pretend to work together to shape American policy.\n\nIf gridlock fades and pork dies, what replaces it?\n\nThe jaded call it pork, but at least we gained something from gridlock and pork-barrel politics. At the very least, American political stability was achieved. Additionally, gridlock kept our politicians from getting out of control and President's from attempting to legislate from the White House. Republicans under the leadership of Bush, Cheney and Rove made the mistake of believing that their power was indefinite as long as they continued their attack on the American characterization of the other party. It amounted to a campaign that would assassinate the character of the entire Democratic party and it was working very well, until Bush came along and screwed it all up.\n\nI'm of the opinion that 2008 belongs to the Democrats. Money, policy, merits of issues, 'actual ability to get things done', sadly, none of that matters. In the way that Republicans seized power through patriotism and alienating those that disagree on policy, Democrats will do the same by remaining in that arena. Pat Buchanan recently wrote a good article on the negative environment we will see and the difficult challenges America will face as the empire falls. This is how empires die\n\nDemocrats will make the same mistake Republicans have made. If there is one flaw all Americans share, it is the belief that our existence is central to the world cause. We belong to an egocentric society of fools prone seduction of power and the corruption of evil-- while, occasionally throwing partisans a bone.\n\nThe new party leadership doesn't exist in government\n\nNow, with the power that we've granted Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and even blog writers, (such as Ann Althouse!) Internet forums, websites, etc, we're seeing a highly divisive and adversarial new political arena. Some people (me, for example) believe it is destroying the America we knew and replacing it with a battleground for partisan warfare.\n\nMiddle America tends to be 'progressive' or idealistic / the everyone live-and-let-live crowd. The problem is, in this new America and political system we've created and participate in, it is impossible for the idealist's vision of America to exist.\n\nSo what we're left with is a serious war between Republicans and Democrats for the heart of America.\n\nConservatives experienced an unprecedented extension of political power going back to Clinton's years\n\nRepublicans had a good shot at shaping American law and policy for decades to come and to a certain extent they won the jackpot with Bush's court appointments and an admittedly spineless Democratic leadership that was more concerned with their public image and political power than supporting their convictions. We'll see if the political move pays off in 2008 and beyond, but if it does pay off it'll be in large part because of Republican strategy failures and a poor sense of judgment due to excitement and the trance that Bush's rhetorical flute locked them in.\n\nI'm a budding Libertarian/former Clintonian moderate Democrat. I was seeking conservatism for the longest time, my family is split evangelical Christian and Catholic, so it made sense for me to seek out conservatism.\n\nI realize now that I sought out conservatism at the wrong time; the conservative government never bothered me much until it started leaning heavily on civil liberties and privacy rights. The Patriot Act is what probably set me on track for libertarianism as opposed to conservatism, then to be dubbed Unamerican and Unpatriotic for arguing against such policies was the last straw for me. Heck, I figured, no skin off my back, that's how power is won and it's how the country and the minds of millions of people are controlled.\n\nFrom a personal standpoint, the challenge of achieving that kind of power is part of the American 'dream' that everyone interested in the political process is seeking.\n\nWhere Republicans went wrong, is they allowed their excitement to get the better of them. Bush's strong following of Evangelical Christians was a major boost in 2000 and the swift-boat ads and anti-terrorist/\"pro-America\" campaign was probably what tipped the scales in 2004. What Republicans didn't realize was how volatile and sensitive the political arena was. I know many here may disagree on this point, but the Fox news shows that are highly favorable towards Christian Conservative interpretations of life and politics and decision of Fox to refrain from covering the War, and a refusal to be 'honest' about President Bush's serious character flaws served as a smokescreen that blurred Republican vision and has landed the party a very serious blow for years if not decades to come.\n\nWhen I was at the University of Wisconsin, my lawyer friends (some of which are brilliant, genius even) were very passionate about supporting President Bush, one of my best friends often talked about how EVIL and corrupt President Clinton (the liar!) was, and how morally bankrupt liberals were in general for supporting him after the revelations of monica-gate.\n\nBack then, I suspected he listened to Rush Limbaugh and read occasional Ann Coulter fuel to energize him for his daily mental exercises; he battled many liberal thinkers throughout Madison, it was entertaining to say the least.\n\nWhat I learned from him and what I was observing of the new conservative movement was a high tolerance for hate speech and encouraging the use of political rhetoric (pro-war = pro-America), and abusing language(anti-conservative policy = UnAmerican) in order to manipulate, coerce and deceive people into agreeing with conservative points or disagreeing with liberal ones.\n\nIt's my opinion that the \"decline\" of conservatism as we approach the 2008 elections has Bush and political strategists to blame for the response coming from bloggers, 'the media' and our millions of 'morally bankrupt' citizens that roam the streets.\n\nRush, O'Reilly, Coulter will urge you to fight these nitwits that comprise of a highly vocal minority that champion 'liberal' fools. What they won't tell you is that attacking people based on love for God and country is the surest way to invoke a FIGHT response from an otherwise weak collective with questionable leadership.\n\nLanguage, rhetoric, it's a problem guys and it's going to haunt your party in 2008.\n\nFred, I really have no idea what motivated that baseless attack, and you're welcome to elaborate if you want, but funnily enough, glib hostility from a Paulista isn't something that particularly troubles me.\n\nYeah, Fred does have some issues. I assume it was a ironical comment on \"hate speech\" from his dissertation length comment above. Anyway, I was just going to point out that everything Fred lays at the feet of the Republicans, I see it at the feet of the Democrats. Funny how the rose tint distorts things depending on who is wearing the glasses.\n\nSimon, I pushed out a long post above about how partisan abuse of language and rhetoric will haunt Republicans in 2008.\n\nSo, my use of \"brilliant\" to recognize your principles was intended as a compliment as I agree with Trey's praise for principled people. :)\n\n\"not so much\" was a not-so-subtle way of saying:\n\nI don't agree with the implication that people who think differently are something less than honorable. I appreciate 'passion' as much as 'logic.' Sometimes they conflict but both are admirable qualities in leaders and thinkers. :) As we've learned from this administration, honor and political affiliation are not one and the same, even if public opinion treats both similarly.\n\nAs for Ron Paul, it is his principles that I admire most about him! I admire people who stand by well-reasoned and logical decision making. It isn't easy to do, and I admit it is something I'd like like to aim for.\n\nJeff said...\"Yeah, Fred does have some issues. I assume it was a ironical comment on \"hate speech\" from his dissertation length comment above.\"\n\nHaving authored several fairly lengthy comments myself, I feel compelled to point out that concision is a virtue, but that doesn't necessarily mean shortness. Sometimes an idea just takes so many words to express.\n\nI wasn't trying to call out Republicans for doing something that Democrats are innocent of. I think I mentioned that Democrats are going to do the same thing, it's human nature.\n\nThe reason I brought up the 2008 elections was because I believe the war-rhetoric \"with us or against us\", the \"unpatriotic\" labels and \"unAmerican\" language, \"liberals hate Jesus\" language is gonna bite back due to Bush's problems in the White House.\n\nMaybe you don't realize how much verbal abuse Democrats (even Ron Paul supporters) have taken over not agreeing on foreign policy. So my argument is that because liberals are raging right now over 2000 and 2004 (and the patriotism stuff) they are going to serve it back in spades. In the past do you recall Liberals ever bringing up military defense and the importance of God in their lives?\n\nThey very well may believe in God and even be strong Christians, but as a party they kept their mouths shut to appease the non-Christian groups. That is no longer true. The new battle for middle America will revolve around war, religion, and civil rights and liberties your common enemy will use Bush's failures to emphasize how wrong you were. (whether it is true or not)\n\nTo make an unsupported dogmatic assertion is the privilege of those who've earned it -- the index case being Pythagoras, from whose students the phrase originates, according to Cicero, who had earned authority strong enough that his students could simple say that he, pythagoras, himself said it, without offering reason. You haven't earned that kind of intellectual cachet. Don't feel bad - very few people have.\n\nYou might want to look into Galambosianism and go all the way. Particularly note the nondisclosure agreement.\n\nTheo - thanks. And that's okay - I tend to repeat myself. ;) That's one reason (not the main one) why I like to quote directly from previous comments - the regulars know where I stand on most issues. I don't have to reinvent the basic building blocks every time, just put them together in hopefully new and interesting way.\n\nOn style and the medium - I think the main thing about writing in blogs and comments is that you have to abandon traditional rules of paragraphing. You've got to break a lot more often, otherwise it gets unreadable, even though that can sometimes be a pain (this is why for really substantive stuff, I tend to abandon the blog format altogether and just post a PDF from word). At the other extreme, I think if you adopt the \"newspaper\" approach to paragraphing, that just looks clunky and horrible. I see comments occaisionally that seem almost like a bad parody of a newspaper article, and you can tell this person hasn't got the hang of it.\n\n\"This is not the place, I'm sorry to say, to develop extended thoughts, unless, of course, you're Simon. ;-)\"\n\nWell, I look at what I write here and at SF as being part of a single, contiguous, developing body of thought, and to some extent, that goes for comments in other places as well. :)\n\nRon:\"Ipse dixit is Latin, by the way.\"\n\nUh...Yeah...? And? I know that. :p\n\nI'm not sure what you're referring to Galambos for by the way - in relation to the libertarian question? I'm not familiar with him, but from what Wikipedia says, I doubt I'd agree with him on much.\n\nTrumpit said...\"Whatever are you talking about, Sir? Do you ever know?\"\n\nIf you gaze at those funny squiggles on your screen, they start to cohere into things we call \"letters,\" which are the basic building blocks of what we call \"written language.\" If you'd prefer, if reading's a problem for you, I can explain it for you in a vlog. I'll be sure to use small words for you.\n\nIndeed so, but Cicero, who told the story to history, was Roman. ;) In any event, you're making it seem like I'm engaging in empty formalism instead of suggesting that you have to support assertions with citation or reasoning, a seemingly reasonable request.\n\ndowntownlad said...\"But this is what the framers intended.\"\n\nThe framers intended to create (and indeed wrote, being the important point) that the size of the Supreme Court be determined by Congress. We're talking about subconstitutional principles of wise public policy, not the boundaries of constitutional permissability. Of course Congress could follow Bissage's suggestion and have an 81-Justice Supreme Court. They could also expand the House of Representatives to include 10,000 members (i.e. the Article 1 maximum of one representative for every 30,000 people divided into a population of 300,000,000), but that wouldn't seem a good idea.\n\nThe framers created a framework and left the detail to be taken care of within that framework. You want to permit gay marriage, DTL, pass a law. Nothing in the Constitution stops you from doing that. What stops you from doing it is your inability to make a coherent argument that might bring people onto your side, and your unfortunate tic of savaging even potential allies, anyone who doesn't meet your test of sufficient ideological purity (need we revisit the \"everyone who hasn't moved out of wisconsin is a homophobe\" incident?)\n\nRon,You're being obtuse. The term comes from the Roman Cicero's relation of things said by the Greek Pythagoras' students. Either go edit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipse_dixit#Origin to reflect your understanding of the history, or (more productively) back up your points with evidence, citation, or reasoning. This line of discussion is done.\n\nBut it is easier to correct the tragic results of an unthinking obedience to principle than to correct the tragic results of a purely expedient mentality.\n\nNow, there's food for thought.\n\nI think it resonates truth, with regard to the Supreme Court in particular. I would think quite the opposite, in other contexts.\n\nWhich leads instantly to the next questions, among others: What's the difference between Universal principles and universal ones? Where and how should First Principles be circumscribed, and even, perhaps, be vulnerable to trumping, as being more properly viewed as first principles within smaller realms of analysis?\n\nAfter all, mission creep is a fundamental tendency of human nature, as invariably exhibited by humans both individually and collectively. Shouldn't that reality have some standing?\n\nthe editorial is further proof that the NYT is descending into the nether regions of moonbattery--does anyone, by the remotest of chances, know the NYT editorial position when FDR tried to pack the court? Would be interesting to see if they are consistent.\n\nI may not be very smart or certainly a person of a wordly nature, but when I was in school we studied FDR's administration. And he, waaaay back then tried to pack the Supreme Court.To get all his NRA (socialist programs) passed. He tried to get a minium term limit to get justices to retire. And I believe he also tried to expand the court. But to no avail. Now I don't exactly have all the research on this subject but I'm sure out there in bloggo land someone can come up with the specifics.\n\nIt's really funny to watch the liberals, long the eager proponents of judicial activism to bypass legislators and voters, suddenly become unhappy over the ability of courts to influence the 'political sphere'.\n\nNew York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush \u201cexcept in extraordinary circumstances.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe should reverse the presumption of confirmation,\u201d Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. \u201cThe Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.\u201d"} -{"text": "Savvy Planner\n\nWater, Water (From) Everywhere\n\nshare\n\nshare\n\nby Lisa A. Grimaldi |\nJune 11, 2018\n\nTransform a humble H2O station into a gourmet tasting experience by offering spring waters from different parts of the globe. A \"beautiful water caf\u00e9\" was set up on the show floor of the recent IMEX Frankfurt show in Germany, featuring waters from destinations as diverse as Hawaii, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Italy."} -{"text": "TheCuriousIncidentoftheDogintheNight-Time\n\nYou are here\n\nThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time\n\nApr 27, 2018 | 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm\n\nAn Olean Community Theatre production, directed by Kenneth Roberts.\n\nThe story concerns a mystery surrounding the death of a neighbor's dog that is investigated by young Christopher Boone, who has an autism spectrum condition. The play-within-a-play explores his relationships with his parents and school mentor and details a journey that will change his life forever."} -{"text": "Wolfpack lament\n\nIn memoriam: Atocha Station, Madrid, 2005, one year after the bombings\n\nIn these 21 years, I suppose you could say I've been through a few tough things. The usual suspects: death, rejection, heartbreak, the kind of stuff that hurts like hell every time.\n\nI've just wandered through the toughest emotional hurdle of my senior year at N.C. State, one I put on par with all the others. And the quandary, of course, is being a born-again sports fan wearing Wolfpack Red.\n\nWhen I was a kid, sports were my life. I could spit out stats and playoff scenarios. In a time when my allegiances shifted with the uniform Jose Canseco was wearing, books filled with baseball lore, history and biographies were my dearest textbooks. My parents supported the habit, too, taking my brother and me to Baltimore to watch another hero--Cal Ripken Jr. --make his way to the 2,131 game mark, while my grandmother let me play hooky as long as I started \"feeling better\" soon enough to eat lunch and go baseball-card shopping in Fuquay.\n\nThen came Bill Clinton's bid for the White House in fourth grade, and I became obsessed with politics through habitual reading of Time magazine. That hobby competed with girls as my middle school preoccupation, until it was overwhelmed in ninth grade by music. (That is, I stopped caring about Time. I still like girls just fine. My e-mail address is in the masthead, ladies.)\n\nAs I sought out all the music I could get my ears around, sports seemed to slip a bit more into the background with each new school year. I went to basketball and football games as a college freshman, though, perhaps more excited with the idea of sitting in the student section than watching the action itself. For that reason, my attendance approached nil until the night I stormed the RBC Center floor after Julius Hodge and Marcus Melvin dropped 18 apiece against Duke to thwart J.J. Redick's 28.\n\nSince then, I've been hooked. I made it to every men's home game except three this year. Like most of the student body, I was high on expectations when we reached the 10th spot in national polls. There were faint whispers of phrases like \"national championship\" amid a deafening roar of declarations like, \"We'll beat Carolina at least once, and we can definitely handle Duke this year.\" After an away loss to a charged Washington, though, the slow wash into basketball burnout began.\n\nSunday night at the RBC Center was the crescendo, the devastating, orchestrated pop at the end of a sad-bastard symphony of college hoops gone sour. It was going to be so perfect: With three minutes left on the Senior Night of Julius Hodge and (my favorite) Jordan Collins, we were up nine. The No. 4 Demon Deacons were in our house, and--with a smattering of their stupidly tie-dye clad fans in attendance--they were going down. We were planning our court entrance routes, systematically zipping wallets, cell phones and cameras into coats. We were yelling, screaming, shouting, telling Chris Paul we would get him back for punching our boy, Julius Hodge, in his crown jewels.\n\nThen Justin Gray and Chris Paul made fools of us all. With 12.8 seconds left, Gray arched a nothing-but-net trey over Engin Atsur. Atsur tried to answer with a top-of-the-arch three of his own, only to be fouled by Gray. The obvious foul--much like Paul's blatant, mean-spirited and puerile fist-to-the-crotch--wasn't called. Stealing down the court, Paul nailed a 10-foot floater as time expired.\n\nStunned, stupefied, speechless ... failed, flabbergasted, finished.\n\nBlame it on Herb or on Hodge's free-throw fiascos. Blame it on referees or sucker punches. But, in the end, it can only be blamed on one thing: God certainly hates the one North Carolina ACC establishment without a Divinity School or a touch of celestial blue. I fear that Wolfpack Red is self-eliminating."} -{"text": "Today, many internet service providers in the UK have censored a page on Wikipedia due to an image used on the page. The image was blacklisted by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an \u201cindependent, self-regulatory body\u201d that aims \u201cto minimise the availability of\u2026 child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.\u201d ISPs quite voluntarily use a list provided by the IWF to decide which pages to block. The IWF are free to decide that any page they choose is unsuitable, and to make it unavailable to internet users across the UK. On this occasion, they claim to have checked with the police, and been advised that the image in question is \u201cpotentially illegal\u201d.\n\nSo what is the image in question? It\u2019s actually the cover of an album, Virgin Killer, which was released by a German rock band called the Scorpions in 1976, which features a photograph of a naked girl. I\u2019d never heard of the band or the album, and never seen the cover art in question, and neither would the majority of people have done. But now, thanks to the IWF\u2019s intervention, everyone in the UK, and indeed around the world, will know of them, and many will no doubt have looked up the album cover to see what all the fuss is about.\n\nThere are many technical issues with the way the page has been blocked. My ISP, Be Unlimited, is one of those to have blocked the page. If I try to visit it, I see a message saying, \u201cNot Found. The requested URL en.wikipedia.org was not found on this server.\u201d The message is completely incorrect. In many less democratic countries that have wide-ranging censorship, attempting to view a blocked page displays a message to say that it\u2019s blocked. If we must have pages censored, we should be told so, not have it disguised as a server error. Also, the way the block has been implemented means that all British users of Wikipedia are now channelled through a small number of proxy servers, sharing IP addresses. That means it is almost no longer possible to edit Wikipedia without an account (and impossible to create an account), and any anonymous users who do manage to vandalise Wikipedia can not be traced. I\u2019m very concerned about the use of proxies, which can only have an impact on the performance of Wikipedia, which isn\u2019t always the fastest site anyway. And as the IWF decides more and more sites have a single \u201cpotentially illegal\u201d page, all those sites\u2019 traffic will also go through the same proxies. The internet will get slower and slower, and the government will have all the traffic going through a central point where it can be monitored more easily for insertion into their big database.\n\nThe funny thing is, the content has been blocked in rather incompetent and ineffective way. They have blocked the page containing the image, not the image itself, so entering the URL of the image still allows it to be viewed, but at the same time, the entirely inoffensive text about the album is inaccessible. Then there is the fact that it\u2019s possible to view the page using the HTTPS version of the English Wikipedia. Secure web pages are much harder to block or monitor. Yet even more ridiculous is that the same album cover is visible to all British internet users on the Georgian, Finnish and Ukranian language versions of Wikipedia. (Note that I haven\u2019t linked the articles in question above, rather the main pages of the Wikis. It\u2019s simple enough to use the search, but please check the laws in your country first.) Not to mention, the album is still on sale in the UK, and has been for more than 30 years, and is available from Amazon. As Wikipedia spokesman David Gerard says:\n\nWhen we asked the Internet Watch Foundation why they blocked Wikipedia and not Amazon, apparently the decision was \u201cpragmatic\u201d, which we think means that Amazon had money and would sue them, whereas we\u2019re an educational charity.\n\nSomething has to be done about the paranoia surrounding the issue of child abuse. Efforts should be directed towards catching the evil people who genuinely are responsible for abusing children or distributing masses of obscene material. Those people no doubt share knowledge to get around any obstacles that are in their way. They certainly aren\u2019t going to be visiting Wikipedia to see the cover of a record from the 70s. I don\u2019t believe blocking pages according to the IWF\u2019s list serves any useful purpose. People who are determined to see illegal material will find ways of doing so. Anyone else is very unlikely to encounter such material unless they deliberately look for it. When a questionable image is hosted in a civilised, western country such as the US, surely the correct course of action should be to liaise with the authorities in that country to have the material taken down \u2013 if our laws prove to be tighter than the other country, we should be asking ourselves why.\n\nAllowing an unaccountable organisation to add whatever pages they like to a blacklist is not a very happy position. Who knows what other criteria may be added in the future? Websites criticising the government maybe. Or perhaps they will block pages that explain how to circument digital rights management on Hollywood films. Internet censorship is a road we should not go down, and today\u2019s development is already a step too far in that direction."} -{"text": "Haver Filling Systems Inc. Integra system\n\nThe Integra system from Haver Filling Systems Inc. is a self-contained valve bag filling system ideal for filling loose bulk materials. The Integra system can process up to 99 different material and bag combinations and has a HAVER MEC weighing control system. It can be equipped with an air system, vertical or horizontal impeller, and up to four filling spouts for a production rate of up to 15 bags per minute."} -{"text": "GIO is part of the HToolkit. The goal of the HToolkit project is to implement a\nportable Haskell library for writing graphical user interfaces (GUI's).\nThe \"Graphics.UI.GIO\" library is a 'middle-ground' GUI library for Haskell. It\nis build on the portable GUI library \"Port\". GIO stands for Graphical IO, and\nimplements a middle-level, monadic interface for writing GUI's. The library\nonly uses the IO monad and doesn't implement a design for structure and state.\nWWW: http://htoolkit.sourceforge.net/\n-- Oliver Braun\nobraun@FreeBSD.org"} -{"text": "Eh up, what\u2019s this?? Massive gig for us THIS FRIDAY at the former LAYTON INSTITUTE! We\u2019ll be on the big stage upstairs in the concert hall from around 9pm for two massive sets of live music. Plenty of dancing space, cheap drinks, FREE ENTRY! Bar till 1AM! Sorry for the late notice everyone \u2013 bit of confusion over the date and we\u2019ve been busy as hell! In fact, this is the ONLY chance to see The Deadbeats outside of private functions until the end of September, on one of the best stages in the North-West. Can you afford to miss this? Spread the word, make your arrangements and we\u2019ll see you all on Friday at THE LAYTON. Big love y\u2019all, THE DEADBEATS Xx"} -{"text": "Gazelle Asmeazgobushfire Tour Freebie\n\n20.05.2011\n\nWin 4 x tickets to Gazelle at The Assembly on Saturday PLUS a R100 bar tab. Sound niiiice? OK, here\u2019s what we want from you. We want you to dazzle us this time. No lame one sentence posts or single tags. We want to see what you\u2019ve got. Give us everything. Whatever you want. It\u2019s up to you. Post your entries on the Mahala Facebook Page. The prize will go to the entry with the most effort. Annnnnd you only have today. The competition will end at 4 pm today so get creative, we know you can!"} -{"text": "Hosting Deep Web Links | Dark Web Links for Hosting Service\n\nPlanning to launch your own directly, forum, market place at dark web? Looking for best anonymous hosting service deep web links? If yes, then you are going to love this resource of dark web anonymous hosting service links to start your deep web site.\n\nBelow are some best resources to buy hosting. But before buying hosting from any dark web link, make sure to read reviews about them. Or you can join dark web forums and discuss with other members about any particular hosting service so that; you could know everything about anonymous hosting service provider before buying.\n\nAll these dark web links are for education purpose, I am not recommending you to buy from them. If you buy, it is your own risk and responsibility.\n\nIf you are using older version of Tor Browser, please update this right now.\n\nNow you can browse dark web safely with fully secure environment, no worry about anything.\n\nhttp://popfilesxuru7lsr.onion/ \u2013 filesharing \u2013 Popfiles: this onion dark web link provides service related to file hosting, which you can share anonymously with anyone on deep web. But this site have some limitation like you can\u2019t upload here child pornography, malware, violent or racist content!\n\nhttp://dmru36nvfgtywx47.onion/ \u2013 Hosting \u2013 HomeHosting \u2013 Be your own onion VPS: Do you have own server and looking expert who can setup your onion host then visit here. you can hire some great experts for your host setup, According to website expert will take 3BTC for setup.\n\nhttp://hosting6iar5zo7c.onion/ \u2013 Hosting \u2013 RealHosting: This hosting site can prove great alternative for anonymous hosting. Available hosting packages are for 3Month, 6Month, 1 Year and prices are 0.09 BTC for 3Month, 0.15BTC for 6Month, 0.25BTC for 1 Year.\n\nNote: .onion domain will be free for all time, you can choose first 7 letter according to your site.\n\nhttp://kowloon5aibdbege.onion/ \u2013 Hosting \u2013 Kowloon Hosting Service: If you are still searching onion hosting then this dark web links can resolve your problem. Visit this site for more information.\n\nhttp://felixxxboni3mk4a.onion/ \u2013 Filesharing/Pastbin \u2013 Felixxx.: By the help of this hidden internet site, you can share any images and file anonymously. This file sharing process is so simple, only upload your file, copy your file link and share with anyone on the dark web.\n\nhttp://occuomegawqtkl6j.onion/ \u2013 Hosting \u2013 Occulus Omega: if you are looking some other alternative for .onion hosting, then you can try this deep web links, available price plan is $45/3 month.\n\nhttp://7zzohostingx4mes.onion/ \u2013 Hosting \u2013 Hidden Host the Best Anonymous .onion hosting Provider: This is anonymous hosting provider, if you want to start your anonymous website .onion domain then may this dark web links will help you. this hosting very cheap, the price will be BTC 0.1/Year.\n\nhttp://nk3k2rsitogzvk2a.onion/ \u2013 FileHosting \u2013 Do you want to share your file with good protection or strong password then visit this site and share your file anonymously anywhere on the dark web links.\n\nhttp://obscuredtzevzthp.onion/ \u2013 Filesharing/Pastbin \u2013 Obscured Files: This dark web sites can help you, if you want to share any file or images anonymously at darknet. This site allows contents for a specific time like 1 Hr or one day, and this also support secure password files. Support File Formate: 7z (1-10), gif, gz, gzip, jpg, jpeg, png, rar, tar, torrent, txt, webm, zip. Max File Size Support: 500MB."} -{"text": "Pages\n\nOctober 8, 2014\n\nHaving to explain helps learning\n\nHave you ever experienced that explaining things to others can be a learning experience for yourself, too? That is a bit paradoxical, isn't it? Our basic idea is that the person to whom the material is explained is the person who is supposed to learn from the process. But if you consider the situation more closely it is not so strange after all that the person who does the explaining also learns.\nIn order to be able to explain something well you will first have to think deeply about the material. Before you can properly explain you must have a clear idea about what the main points are which you are trying to convey. Also, you have to know which facts you want to mention and how you will structure your explanation. This means you have engage very actively with the material before you will be able to make it accessible to the other person.\n\nFor teachers it is good to know these things. Many teachers will, from time to time, deliberately put their students in the role of a teacher. This principle is sometimes referred to as role-reversal education. What is useful about it is that that by explaining things, people construct knowledge again which helps anchor this knowledge better and which makes it easier to connect it to information. One project which deliberately uses this principle is B\u00e8tacoach.\n\nNew research reveals an additional aspect. John Nestojko and his colleagues (2014) asked 50 undergraduates to study a 1500-word text for 10 minutes. One group of them was told they would be tested afterwards, the other group was told they would afterwards have to explain the material to someone else.\n\nAfterwards, all participants were tested. Students who thought they would have to explain the material were better and faster able to remember the main points of the text as well as specific facts from the text and its structure. Saying upfront to students that you will ask them to explain what they are about to study might thus be a very useful intervention."} -{"text": "Steven Brockshus (center) created Terva, an online marketplace for farmland. He is a 2017 agricultural education and life sciences graduate who developed his entrepreneurial talent with the help of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative. A $1 million gift from the Underwood Family Foundation will provide the tools for students in agricultural business and agricultural entrepreneurship to continue to hone their entrepreneurial skills.\n\nThe following is an article originally posted on August 30, 2017 via Iowa State University College of Ag and Life Sciences\n\nAMES, Iowa \u2014 The Underwood Family Foundation of Ames has made a $1 million gift to support the agricultural business and agricultural entrepreneurship programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.\n\n\u201cChanging students\u2019 experiences and their lives is our plan,\u201d said Roger Underwood, director of the Underwood Family Foundation. \u201cWe are so supportive of Iowa State\u2019s agricultural business and agricultural entrepreneurship programs. Our goal is to help ensure they remain the best in the world. The support we provide will bolster programming, teaching and student experiences and, as a result, we believe it will help change agriculture in Iowa.\u201d\n\nThe gift will help provide leading-edge experiences for students studying agricultural business and agricultural entrepreneurship.\n\n\u201cThanks to this generous gift from the Underwood family, we will be able to magnify the impact of two of our college\u2019s most respected and successful programs,\u201d said Wendy Wintersteen, endowed dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. \u201cThis additional funding will help us provide more hands-on experiences, networking and integrated learning opportunities for our students.\u201d\n\nThe gift will provide program support that may include items such as a new lecturer position to help teach and mentor students; development of new courses that present students with problem-solving challenges from entrepreneurs and agribusinesses; and establishment of a new series of academic workshops that help students hone their entrepreneurial thinking and behaviors, as well as their applied business and finance skills.\n\nThe Underwood Family Foundation\u2019s commitment is part the Forever True, For Iowa Statecampaign, with a historic goal to raise $1.1 billion, which will help support Iowa State in becoming the premier land-grant university for the 21st century and beyond. The Iowa State University Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization committed to securing and managing gifts that benefit Iowa State University.\n\nThe agricultural business program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is one of the largest undergraduate majors on the Iowa State campus, with 523 students enrolled last fall. Agricultural business has a longstanding tradition of excellence, combining an education in business, management and economics with solid technical knowledge in production agriculture and skills in communication and problem-solving. The Agricultural Business Club, with nearly 275 student members, has been named the nation\u2019s outstanding chapter 11 out of the last 15 years by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.\n\nThe Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is one of the top programs of its type in the world, providing students with practical business development and entrepreneurial experiences essential for their success in future careers and endeavors. More than 700 students participate in educational activities and programs each year, allowing them to experience entrepreneurship first-hand. Innovation and business creation are fundamental to long-term economic growth. The Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative was established in 2005 with a $1.6 million gift from Roger and Connie Underwood."} -{"text": "Tickers\n\nArticles\n\nKeywords\n\nGlenn Fogel\n\nThe economy is performing well and \"people want to go out and enjoy things,\" Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) CEO Glenn Fogel told CNBC Friday. This is especially true for millennials who continue to show a willingness to forgo buying items so they have more money for experiences like...\n\nBooking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), formerly known as Priceline Group, reported its fourth quarter results on Tuesday which exceeded expectations, in part due to the travel business performing \"very well.\"\nWhat You Need To Know\nBooking Holdings is taken full advantage of the fact that..."} -{"text": "Jessica Racusinhttp://www.addisonindependent.com/taxonomy/term/3266/all\nenOpinion: Hospitals are bearing extra burdenhttp://www.addisonindependent.com/201405opinion-hospitals-are-bearing-extra-burden\n
\nThank you for your recent article on Porter Hospital’s difficulties with “boarding” patients with psychiatric emergencies in the Emergency Department. It is time that some light was shed on this situation.
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