Acorns From An Okie

Allen June 27th, 2005

Or, in the case of my son, about 2-3.

This past Sunday my son turned 18.  It’s been an interesting trip so far and I look forward to continuing my relationship with my son.  He and I get along better than my father and I did.  In part, I think, because I’ve always been ready to admit when I have been wrong (well, perhaps not always) and because he is a much better son than I was.

We started off the weekend by attending a Yard Dogz game on Friday.  An excellent game that came down to the wire.  When the game comes down to the final play and your side wins, you know you have received full value for your entertainment dollar.  And if you have anyone that doesn’t really understand Capitalism and event sponsorship, take them to a Yard Dogz game.  It is full-fledged, nostril-flaring Capitalism in all its glory.  Kind of tacky, but it gets the job done.

Saturday morning we worked at our Scout troop’s workday.  A local "farm" allows us to use their land to camp on and we needed to rennovate some trails.  The land seemed to be infested with poison ivy but neither my son nor myself ended up with any reaction (so far).  I did find 9 personal escorts (read ticks) when I got home, but they were quickly disposed of.

A quick lunch at Gaijin Sushi was our reward for a job well done.  And because both my son and I enjoy sushi while the women-folk can’t stand the idea.  BTW, does anyone know if there is a soul food restaurant in OKC by the name of Cracker Eats?  Just curious.

We had planned on volunteering for Jazz in June, but my daughter pointed out that Jesus Christ Superstar was finishing up its run at the Civic Center.  We caught that evenings performance and were impressed with the talent on display.

We had an Eagle Court of Honor to run on Sunday — one of my Eagle Scout mentorees was in attendence and I help put the event together.

And finally, a night out at the Redhawks game.  We had club level seating (with some discount tickets), but the Redhawks performed miserably and the club-level service was even worse.  More on this later if corrections aren’t made.

So all in all it was a nice weekend.  My son can now excuse himself from jury duty to grab a quick smoke and vote while he’s out buying the cigarettes.  Thankfully he is smarter than I am and will pass on one of those activities.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.  Job is working out well — lots to do and more to write about later.

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Allen June 24th, 2005

makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Somehow it’s not as chilling in the era of cut-and-paste word processors.

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Allen June 23rd, 2005

I read with dismay about a recent ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the use of eminent domain for private property.

What is Eminent Domain?

[T]he power of a government to take private property for public use; the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution and articles in many state constitutions allow this practice provided that just compensation is made.

In the recent ruling, however, the SCOTUS allowed for the seizure of private property for the use by another private party.  In other words, the state can seize your property in order to give it to another person.  Sound scary?  It sure does to me.

Reading from a Reuters article, we find:

By a 5-4 vote, the high court upheld as constitutional the taking by New London, Connecticut of 15 properties belonging to nine residents or investment owners for a project to complement a nearby research facility by the Pfizer Inc. drug company.

Justice John Paul Stevens said for the court majority that the city’s development plan served a "public purpose."

The residents opposed the plans to raze their homes and businesses to clear the way for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices. They argued that it amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property, located on a peninsula that juts into the Thames River.

Stevens upheld the city’s plan under the U.S. Constitution, which allows the government to take private property through its so-called eminent domain powers in exchange for just compensation.

Stevens said the city had carefully formulated the economic development plan and had sought to coordinate a variety of commercial, residential and recreational uses of land.

He said the city’s determination that the area was sufficiently distressed to justify a program of economic rejuvenation was entitled to deference. The court should not second-guess the city’s judgments, Stevens said.

Thankfully not all of the justices are that heavy-handed:

Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. They warned of the harmful consequences from the ruling.

"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O’Connor wrote.

"The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms," she said.

Thomas agreed in a separate dissent and said the impact will be greatest in the poor communities.

"So-called ‘urban renewal’ programs provide some compensation for the properties they take, but no compensation is possible for the subjective value of these lands to the individuals displaced and the indignity inflicted by uprooting them from their homes," he said.

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Allen June 20th, 2005

Well, finally found a new job and I’m actually spending time at the computer again. Perhaps now I’ll start posting again on the weblog.

Still need to get my RSS reader up and running here and at home.

Currently doing an analysis of the systems at my new job and a phrase keeps running through my mind:  "It’s hard to dance the Virginia Reel when the band is playing a minute." (Don’t know how to properly mark the word minute, but I mean minute as in "The Minute in G Minor.")

Saw where Laura Boyd recently got a new job as well — Chair of the Democratic Party in Oklahoma.  Given how Oklahoma politics have been trending over the past few years with the conservative Dixiecrats finally breaking ranks with the more liberal elements of the party, I don’t think she will be having a very pleasant time in that particular chair.

In fact, my job is currently a temp-to-hire whereby I’m gone in a year if they don’t like what they see (and I’ll be gone before that if I don’t like what I see).  It will be an interesting race to see who looses their job first.

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