Some faith restored

Given the extremely conservative nature of the Supreme Court of the United States, I had resigned myself to the Court ruling in favor of the Administration in the Hamdan case. Thankfully that hasn't happened - see SCOTUSblog for details on Hamdan. This is, as everyone is saying, huge. The President of the United States has been rebuked:

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Congress did not take away the Court's authority to rule on the military commissions' validity, and then went ahead to rule that President Bush did not have authority to set up the tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and found the commissions illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention. In addition, the Court concluded that the commissions were not authorized when Congress enacted the post-9/1l resolution authorizing a response to the terrorist attacks, and were not authorized by last year's Detainee Treatment Act. The vote against the commissions and on the Court's jurisdiction was 5-3, with the Chief Justice not taking part.

The Court expressly declared that it was not questioning the government's power to hold Salim Ahmed Hamdan "for the duration of active hostilities" to prevent harm to innocent civilians. But, it said, "in undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction."

Mr. Bush is not above the law. About time someone said so.

What worries me is the Republican House and Senate. It wouldn't shock me if they ruled the Geneva Convention no longer applies in this "new war". Nothing these people do shocks me any more.

But for one, brief moment, my faith in Constitutional law has been restored.

"I thank my stars, I am happy! and Jove, and my stars be praised!"

Strolling around the web this morning, as I do every morning, I stopped at one of my favorite haunts, Astrodynamics and saw the title:

Astrology hits HGTV

Whoa!

See What's Your Sign? Design.

Thanks for the heads-up Lynn (and AstroCocktail)! I can't wait to see this show.

Holy frijoles Batman! I've turned into Martha Stewart!

The 'rents and my sister are coming to my place for dinner tonight. I'm not a huge fan of fish, except for shrimp and lobster, but my parents like it, so I thought I'd compromise and make a scallop casserole for dinner tonight:

2 pounds of baby scallops
6 ounces, more or less, of cream
a dash, or so, of white wine
fresh dill... teaspoon, half a teaspoon? well, to taste at any rate
bit of garlic, not a lot
some scallions
dash of salt and pepper
freshly grated parmesean and bread crumbs over the top

Mix it all together and bake at 350 degrees, in a large casserole dish, for about 30 minutes.

I'll put together a spinach salad with a light balsamic dressing on the side. I'd love to make some saffron rice, if I had saffron or cardamom... I guess I'll go with plain white. Yeah, boring, I know. A vegetable platter with some nice cheese (that I'll have to pick up on the way home tonight) since I don't have the time to make a spinach dip and/or a tapas as an appetizer.

One of the problems of serving fish is I have to serve white wine... right? Only, I hate white wine and I know nada about it. I picked up two bottles of Trimbach 2000 Cuvee Frederic Emile Riesling and a bottle of St. Supery 2004 Sauvignon Blanc last night. I have no doubt Dad's going to make fun of these selections. Well, if he does, he gets no dessert! Which, by the way, is my pecan apple pie, that I made last night.

I also dragged out the damask table cloth and napkins, the good china, the good silver, the crystal candlesticks last night... Dad's coming, and he gets... snippy, let's say, if the table isn't properly set. Because the linens were in the dresser, I had to press those last night as well. This is why I entertain so infrequently. It's too much galdarn work! Why am I doing this? Well, we've been to my sister's house three times since she moved in, in October, so it's my turn. I guess. I suppose I'm feeling guilty that Gret's gone through all this work and I haven't.

I still have to pick up flowers and cheese on the way home tonight. As I have this whole white theme going on here (unintentional, but still), I'm hoping to pick up some white flowers - daisies, lilies, alstroemeria... um, isn't alstroemeria a lily too? What I know about flowers I could write across the head of a pin and have loads of room left over for something short like, um... Shakespeare.

Ah well, whatever... all white flowers to go with the all white linens, china, candles and casserole dish... all of which coordinates with my all white kitchen. Except for the toaster, which is bright red. Leave it to my sister-in-law Mary to introduce the only hint of color in my kitchen. My red toaster was a Christmas gift from her last year. It really stands out in my all white kitchen.

Two Moons

The above photo is of Pluto and two new moons, Nix and Hydra.

Nix, which I believe is usually spelled Nyx in Ancient Greek, means night. Her mythology, according to Hesiod, is:

Hesiod states that Night was the daughter of Chaos, which makes her one of the first creatures ever to emerge from the void. This means that Nyx was the sister to some of the oldest deities in Greek myth, including Erebus (Darkness), Gaia (the Earth), and Tartarus (the Underworld). From these primeval powers came the rest of the Greek gods and goddesses. And Nyx was responsible for bearing her share of divine children.

Nyx gave birth to a number of offspring. Some of these children of Night were Eris (Discord or Strife), the Moirai (Fates), Hypnos (Sleep), Nemesis (Retribution), Thanatos (Death), and the Hesperides. While these beings were born from the goddess alone, without a father, Nyx also had children by the god Erebus. To Erebus the goddess bore Aether (Air) and Hemera (Day).

Also from Hesiod, in Theogeny:

"There also stands the gloomy house of Night;
ghastly clouds shroud it in darkness.
Before it Atlas stands erect and on his head
and unwearying arms firmly supports the broad sky,
where Night and Day cross a bronze threshold
and then come close and great each other."

Not someplace I want to live.

The other moon is named Hydra. From Pantheon.org:

The Hydra which lived in the swamps near to the ancient city of Lerna in Argolis, was a terrifying monster which like the Nemean lion was the offspring of Echidna (half maiden - half serpent), and Typhon (had 100 heads), other versions think that the Hydra was the offspring of Styx and the Titan Pallas. The Hydra had the body of a serpent and many heads (the number of heads deviates from five up to one hundred there are many versions but generally nine is accepted as standard), of which one could never be harmed by any weapon, and if any of the other heads were severed another would grow in its place (in some versions two would grow). Also the stench from the Hydra's breath was enough to kill man or beast (in other versions it was a deadly venom). When it emerged from the swamp it would attack herds of cattle and local villagers, devouring them with its numerous heads. It totally terrorized the vicinity for many years.

These names are quite gloomy, aren't they? I was wondering if the astronomers were completely without humor until I read the article:

Nix was originally spelled "Nyx" by Stern's group. Nyx is the Greek goddess of darkness and Hydra is the nine-headed serpent that guarded the underworld. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld.

But since a near-Earth object was already called Nyx, the IAU decided to tweak the spelling to "Nix" to avoid confusion.

Stern said he wasn't disappointed by the spelling change because the pronunciation and significance of the names were still intact.

"The joke was that they nixed Nyx," Stern said.

Gotta love the Greeks... um Geeks.

Edited to add:

Spotted this at Planetwaves this morning and it made me laugh:

Donald Rumsfeld is an idiot. True, he is one of a cabal of the most idiotic idiots in the Annals of the Idiotic Idiocy of the Human Race, but this dude stands out like the Eiffel Tower on a clear night. He has other problems, but mainly, he's bloody stupid.

:)

My home world.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

Now if they'd just give me a ride home.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

What passes for a government in Iraq these days announced last week it would grant amnesty to anyone who did not kill Muslims in this, the Iraqi Civil War.

It is now open season in Iraq on US soliders. The Senate has no problem with this.

Do you?

Last week two US soliders were kidnapped. Their bodies were found yesterday:

An Iraqi military official said Tuesday that the bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers showed signs of torture, and that men appeared to have been killed "in a barbaric way." Also, the umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents claimed responsibility for the soldiers' deaths.

Surprised? I'm not. It's only going to get worse.

If you pray, say a prayer for our soliders and the families of Pfc. Menchaca of Houston, Texas and Pfc. Tucker of Madras, Oregon.

7 US Troops Wounded Looking for Comrades

A Father Speaks Out Against the Iraq War

US Embassy Memo

By the way, in case you missed it, your home is no longer your castle and anyone can enter without knocking - Police, FBI, CIA, anyone.

Also, make damn well sure you have your birth certificate on you. You see, if you are suspected of not being a US national, a non-citizen, you may be arrested and held without charges or explanation, for as long as anyone chooses to hold on to you. And no, you won't have access to an attorney, even if you ask for one.

City to crackdown on illegal immigration

Love it!

Bush Abrogates 3rd Amendment, Just to Complete the Set

Book Launch

"Watchdogs of Democracy?", by Helen Thomas, is excerpted at Rawstory and available for pre-order at Amazon.com