Kaylee ,'Serenity'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
You might have heard about the Real ID act - that for all intents and purposes created a national ID card. This is attached to an important Defense bill so it's almost certain to pass.
I thought it already had, and was just waiting for Dubya's signature.
Regardless, it will be law.
I ordered a copy of my birth certificate from Pennsylvania yesterday because I'm expecting a huge upkick in fees for that sort of thing once people realize they can't find theirs and need replacements.
You know, for people who are pegged as end-times obsessed, they seem to be missing where their actions are likely to fall on a biblical, eschatological scale.
That stuff is scary.
FWIW, the Times editorial pages, and also my law-student flatmate, have weighed in recently on the case called Marbury v. Madison, from back in like 1801, which is when the Supreme Court stood up and said, "Hello, yes, this is mine." They wrote into that decision (which was about something totally irrelevant) that the judiciary branch was the one that would say what is and what is not constitutional, basically as a huge land-grab.
That's 200 years of precedent, and courts like precedents. The only way I can see the court being seriously overturned is if (a) court members themselves accept fraudulent arguments or (b) the court makes a decision and is ignored, sparking a consitutional crisis and a fair amount of rioting.
Um, what Nutty said. Judges don't like to be told they don't have authority to rule on something. And I don't see any sane judge chucking Marbury in view of a federal statute that says the court can't decide the constitutionality of that statute.
However, having said that, I won't argue that all judges are sane.
There was an article in Salon about the filibuster thing that said that the President of the Senate could declare that the filibuster was unconstitutional and there was nothing that could be done about it.
Or that was the gist. Let me go find the article.
It's here.
Headline from my company's news archives:
VIRTUAL REALITY; LACK OF FUNDING
Does anyone here watch Without a Trace? 'Cause I'm dying to discuss the stupidness of last night's episode.
OMGWTF. That was so very very bad.
Um, what Nutty said.
I agree with Nutty and Fred Pete. Not even Bush's toadies on the SCt. are going to like this one.