The Constitution: Let There Be…A Nation
Posted by Rey
We the People of the United States…do ordain
I noted that the preamble really wasn’t the setting down of laws, rights or anything but I purposefully didn’t mention the monumental importance of the language that was used.
The States of the Americas were already labeled “united” in the Articles of Confederations—but nowhere near the way that the Constitution was using the term.
Each state functioned, essentially, as its own country. They could make their own currency. They could enforce their own state constitutions. Honestly, they could even go to war against one another (if attacked by invasion). When they became the united States, they were the individual states which, together, signed the articles to form a confederation—not a new government. In other words, they weren’t forming a new government; they were merely in union with certain purposes.
For example: if a law had to be passed, all the states had to agree to it and then they may or may not implement it in their own states. A strange predicament that. But this makes sense if it was merely a sort of non-aggression contract. This is why the Articles of Confederation even allowed Canada to be part of the united (small “U”) States if they so wished. Canada wouldn’t be giving up her sovereignty; she’d only be in union with the other States.
Article Tags>> articles of confederation | constitution | united statesCheap Wireless For Mac
Posted by Rey
I recently moved a Mac Tower running 10.4 to another room to make room for an upgrade machine with a monster sized screen. Unfortunately I smacked right into a problem: my Ethernet cables aren’t located anywhere in that room. I wound up having to look at Wireless Adapters but I had a case of Apple Fear—when you know that you’re going to have to shell out some serious dollars to make a Mac functional with non-Apple equipment.
Article Tags>> apple | computer | wi-fi | wirelessLost: The Dénouement (with Spoilers)
Posted by Rey
Television and movies have a tough time going about the long-foregone literary device of the dénouement. If you recall, the dénouement is that point of the story where the dust settles for the characters and readers—not necessarily where plot lines are tied. It is that point after the crisis (which television and movies have trained us to be The Ending) but before the ending which makes the impending ending appropriate.
Article Tags>> dénouement | ending | finale | LostTop 9 Stand-Up-And-Applaud Movie Scenes
Posted by Rey
There are times in a movie theater, or on a dvd, that I’ll actually applaud; be it with the characters on screen, with the people next to me, or just for my own one man audience. Scenes that are so good that not only are they eternally etched in my mind—I will (well, except for one) still stick around just to see that scene whenever it’s on. Here are my Top 10 bloody awesome and crazy memorable actiony movie scenes in no particular order.
Article Tags>> jurassic park | matrix | movies | saving private ryan | serenity | star wars | yodaFall 2009 TV Season
Posted by Rey
In this post I refer to the television season as an actual season of the year. So the Fall Season is one season and the spring season is a second season, even if television (20-26 episodes = 1 season) doesn’t work like that. I use this vernacular because sometimes shows don’t come back after January and it works in my head.
Article Tags>> cougar town | flash forward | stargate universeRacism, Bloggers and Being Black
Posted by Rey
On Facebook, I’ve seen some Pennsylvania friends calling for the (I think wrongful) boycott of a local businessman on account of his perceived racism with a link to a blog post on Obama’s inauguration as proof. I followed the link and didn’t think it was racist (though one phrase could have been de-contextualized as such) but I’ll get to that after my disclaimer (in case I get a bunch of people calling me racist). I’m a dark-skinned US Born Dominican. If I’m allowed to comment on race now, I’ll proceed.
My Take On the Health Reform Bill
Posted by Rey
I spent a week reading through the massive (1017 pages-pdf warning) Health Reform Bill, HR3200, and I’ve noted areas of personal interest. This post will not be exhaustive (sorry; that would be impossible), but it will list (1) things that I thought the Bill did a good job with, (2) areas of personal concern and (3) areas that I don’t know what to make of. Before closing the post, I’d also like to (4) address areas where people have been flipping out followed by (5) some personal general concerns and hopes looking forward.
Article Tags>> bill | euthanasia | health reform10 Reasons Why We Home School
Posted by Rey
Upon revealing that my wife and I home school our children, we find ourselves in heavy crossfire with an emphasis on us doing wrong by our kids. It’s interesting that the harshest attacks come from (1) single people, (2) childless people, (3) old people who grew up during an age where schools were still good, or (4) people who sent their kids to private school (be it Christian or a Yeshiva). I’ve also entertained some minor attacks from public school teachers, mostly in regard to my pride: how dare I think I can do their professionally trained job (that’s another topic though).
So I decided to do a list of ten reasons why we home school. You’ll notice certain things about this list compared to my other two lists. The five stupid reasons to opt out of home schooling dealt with the storm of stupid attacks I’ve had to weather; the five wrongheaded reasons to home school dealt with what I’ve heard some people say to justify their homeschooling: but these ten reasons are totally personal. They’re Our reasons for home schooling Our children in light of Our situation. Here’s the list:
Article Tags>> kids | school | teachingApple WWDC 2009
Posted by Rey
No, I’m not there but I’m following the live feed on The Apple Blog and Gizmodo:
- 15″ Macbook Pro, 7 hour battery life with an SD card slot ($1699).
- 13″ MacBook now MacBookPro, with unibody, SD Card, 8GB of memory, up to 500GB or 256GB SSD drive with backlet keyboard and FW800. $1199
- Uber model 17″ with 500GB HD, at $2499. Yup, still can’t buy a Macbook Pro.
- New Safari does purdee things that are meh. Plugin crash that stops the plugin, not the browser.
- Quicktime X rebuilt from the ground up. Big woop.
- Snow Leopard (Leopard users: $29 single/$49 Family) running all major OSX apps in 64 bit coming out December (Windows 7 should be out October, in case you’re wondering).
- Ms Exchange Support built into Mail, iCal and Address book. This was a Duh, no brainer. Should’ve had that long ago.
- iPhone OS 3.0: 100 new features. cut/copy/paste across aps. Shake phone for undo. Landscape keyboard. MMS available but AT&T MMS later this summer (HA!) HTTP Streaming AV. Javascript performance boost. HTML 5. Form auto-fill.
- iTunes rentals available for iPhone.
- iPhone Tethering now available over USB or Bluetooth. AT&T doesn’t support it at launch (HA!)
- Find My iPhone (new feature): your iPhone floats from the ether, or at least tells MobileMe ($99 per year) where it is. Your family and friends can also track you down with it. (SkyNet coming soon)
- A bunch of boring iPhone Ap stuff. Some random announcment of 16gb 3GS iPhone ($199) and 32GB iphone 3GS ($299) and the base 3G model remaining at $99.
- No Camera on the front of the iPhone. bah.
All in all, no big woop. Maybe some ups for OS3.0 but, with a jailbroken iTouch I’m not overly hyped.
Article Tags>> apple | keynoteSusan Boyle and Perceptions
Posted by Rey
By now, just about everyone in the E-World has seen the video of Susan Boyle performing on Britain Has Talent but I thought it was necessary to put in an observation that someone close to me, who wishes to remain anonymous, noted.
Article Tags>> battle | singing | susan boyle