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pledge of allegiance unconstitutional (nyt)
"A federal appeals court [in San Francisco] declared today that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because the phrase 'one nation under God' violates the separation of church and state."
Thank you, judicial system! When I was in school and had to recite the pledge, I always left out the "under God" bit. I didn't know then that Congress had added it in 1954, after a Knights of Columbus campaign. Ironically, the author of the pledge "had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons." (source)
In a related note, the US Treasury's website has a history of the phrase "In God We Trust" on US currency. (Appearing from 1938 on coins, 1957 on paper bills.) As JSG Boggs has pointed out, the phrase became a standard at the same time that the US started moving away from silver and gold backing of its currency.
(Thursday, June 27, 2002)
east ham united
if you ever find one of these jerseys for sale, please let me know. i'd love to have one. i figure at some point i'll get soccer jerseys made up with ampersands in place of numbers.
(Wednesday, June 26, 2002)
jackass!
a couple of points:
- this page is gorgeous
- i want the poster
- i can't wait to see this
(Wednesday, June 26, 2002)
Dyson DC08
it's coming to america this fall (supposedly). i can't wait to get one of these. my old vacuum is tired and does not work on cat hair at all.
(Wednesday, June 26, 2002)
sf cops shut down world cup watching bars (chron)
"Disappointed fans have deluged the Police Department with complaints, including the criticism that a department that ranks dead last among the nation's 20 largest cities in solving violent crimes would go to such effort to crack down on soccer freaks."
This isn't surprising; San Francisco's "finest" have in recent years spent their time rousting the homeless, intimidating dance club patrons, and harassing bicyclists. It's amazing that they don't have as bad a reputation as Washington, DC's police force.
(Wednesday, June 26, 2002)
javascript section
this site has already shown me some cool new things. including one thing i'd been told wasn't possible. woo!
note added 6/26: i looked again, and that thing still isn't possible. oh well.
(Monday, June 24, 2002)
airport wait times
delta's estimated wait times for tons of airports. not real-time, sadly. try orbitz for that.
(Monday, June 24, 2002)
tips from the master
i do this naturally, though completely without malicious intent. (this is pretty frightening thing to realize about oneself.)
(Monday, June 24, 2002)
agoos out. nobody cries. (espn)
after the first round agoos had, i think most watchers will be happy to hear that he's out for the rest of the tournament. he was the weak link on the u.s. back line.
(Saturday, June 15, 2002)
changing magazine habits (la times)
i, too, am a downsizing magazine junkie. and the new yorker is at the top of my subscription list. but i get a few others, too: eye, dwell, dot dot dot, and met home. though i probably won't renew met home.
on airplanes i like the economist, espn, and whatever looks interesting in the delta shuttle racks.
(Friday, June 14, 2002)
i (heart) simple!
i wish i'd thought of this.
(Thursday, June 13, 2002)
IKEA/PS armchair
this chair is cheap and comfortable and looks pretty good, too. we have one in heather grey. the cat has adopted it as his own, though.
(Tuesday, June 11, 2002)
click to add title, round 1
i think sippey takes this round.
(Tuesday, June 11, 2002)
pwc consulting renamed (nyt)
PWC Consulting, in order to distance itself from PWC, is going to rename itself "Monday." Monday. It's even worse than March First, which I thought was the dumbest name ever. (Okay, second dumbest; Accompany was the worst.)
"'Our new name — Monday — is exactly what we want it to be as we create our new business — a real word, concise, recognizable, global, and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results,' [their president and CEO] said."
I just hope they didn't pay a consultancy for the name. Then again, would you want them to help you with your company if the best PWC can come up with for itself is "Monday," and their justification for it is that load of crap? I didn't think so.
(Monday, June 10, 2002)
can't bloggers just get along? (nyt)
oh boy, more factionalism and infighting in the blog community. (though it's disturbing to see the right attempt to take over every medium -- it's like porn's evil twin or something.)
i wonder if peter has done a lexis-nexis search on "blog" to track its rise to prominence. congratulations, peter, you may end up with a word in the OED, and there's nothing cooler than that.
(Monday, June 10, 2002)
spelling bee contestants (espn)
this pair of girls is pretty awe-inspiring. a nice antidote to mike tyson.
(Friday, June 7, 2002)
people would rather die than be naked in public (seattle times)
"A new report by a disaster-planning expert confirms what others have said: In the event of many biological or chemical attacks, removal of victims' clothing is one of the most important and effective means of decontamination.
...
"But the reluctance of modest victims to strip naked in front of co-workers or strangers 'has been one of the issues that has prevented us from moving forward and developing a scheme to manage mass casualties,' [Henry Siegelson, report author] said. 'Some people would rather be dead than strip in public.'"
(Friday, June 7, 2002)
best cities for singles (forbes)
Somehow the city I live in got named as the best city to be single in, at least in the U.S. Since I haven't been single here I can't verify that, but I don't really believe it. I wouldn't mind living in any of their international picks, except maybe Moscow.
(Friday, June 7, 2002)
gwathmey house revisited (nyt)
I don't like much of what Charles Gwathmey has done, but this, his first house, is pretty good. Too bad his career moved him away from small houses on small budgets; he might be a lot more relevant now if it hadn't.
(Thursday, June 6, 2002)
angels in the air (nyt)
finally, some happy news for once.
"Mr. Jacober is part of a growing crop of corporate executives who are putting the private planes that ordinarily take them to business destinations and vacation hideaways to another use: delivering the sick and injured to hospitals for treatment."
(Thursday, June 6, 2002)
make your own south park character
I made a self-portrait.
(Thursday, June 6, 2002)
starck table lamp (target)
it's nice, though mine did not come with a bulb. and even the "warm" fluorescent bulb i bought isn't that warm. but i like this; i have mine in my bedroom.
(Thursday, June 6, 2002)
mn is not the answer
"3. Minnesota is not an independent libertarian republic located on an
idyllic palm-shrouded island in the Carribean. It is in the Midwest."
(Thursday, June 6, 2002)
whatsbetter?com
what's better: hydroelectric power, or breakdancing?
(Monday, June 3, 2002)
lawn chair
"lawn chair." get it?
(Monday, June 3, 2002)
a photoanthropological look at bachelorhood
pretty amusing.
(Monday, June 3, 2002)
reason #473 why the world might not like us (nyt)
"But while the report [to the U.N. regarding climate change] says the United States will be substantially changed in the next few decades — 'very likely' seeing the disruption of snow-fed water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes, for example — it does not propose any major shift in the administration's policy on greenhouse gases."
...
"'The Bush administration now admits that global warming will change America's most unique wild places and wildlife forever,' said Mark Van Putten, the president of the National Wildlife Federation, a private environmental group. 'How can it acknowledge global warming is a disaster in the making and then refuse to help solve the problem, especially when solutions are so clear?'"
Yet another frustrating example of politicians wanting to have it both ways. Make the auto industry build more fuel-efficient cars, give people a tax break on said cars, and start building sustainable cities with mass transit integrated in. Arrrrgh!
(Monday, June 3, 2002)
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