Friday 3/16/2012

Friday at work did not end as planned.  But, I had a 50-50 shot at it anyway.  Get off at noon.  The earliest I can leave work under "normal" circumstances is noon, even if I am on overtime.  

I started the day off this morning at the full allotted hours for the pay period, meaning all day today is overtime.  Around 11:45 am, I get calls.  More than one yes.  About the same thing:  a huge order being put into the system to be pulled today, loaded and delivered today.  I figured 4:00pm before the day would be over - I was close, it was 4:40pm before I clocked out.  10 and a half hours of overtime and yes, I"ll take it. 

According to the forecasts - and I have looked at a lot of them - there is, depending on which site you look at - an 80-90% chance of rain on Sunday.  That usually means it's definitely going to rain.  I haven't seen real rain in about 6 months.  It if REALLY does rain like that all day long, I will be in heaven.  I will leave the east side door open and listen to the water pouring off the roof, into one of the ponds that is close enough to the house that the water pours into it.  

I won't be driving anywhere, if at all possible. People around here do not know how to drive in the rain.  In fact, most people around here don't know how to drive at all, whether clear, blue skies or watered down streets.  When it really rains here, the accident list goes WAY up.  I won't want to go anywhere, anyway, I will want to sit here and listen, watch and feel it all day long.  I truly HOPE it happens.

Which means, however, that that gaping hole I put in the trailer roof last weekend by means of removing a vent will have to be done tomorrow.  I planned on doing it anyway, but now a fire has been lit on my feet and it is going to be done.  I will be greatly hoping that the other vent I already installed will hold tight against the water - though I still have to put a bead  around the edges and cover it with elasomesoteric coating - all will be done tomorrow.  I have everything I need to finish it, just have to do it.

But, I am staying up late - for me anyway, at least 10:00 pm.  I have no need to get up early in the morning and I don't WANT to get up early.  I have been getting up early forever.  I will get up around 7 or 8 in the morning and that is an extremely late rise for me : )  I want to sleep in and then get up, take a long, hot shower, eat some breakfast with coffee and then, get on the internet, take my sweet old time and THEN, I will get up on the roof of that trailer and finish that vent thing.  Which doesn't mean that roof is finished, but it is getting there.  

Okay, I will have to get out of bed earlier than that to let the dogs out of the room so they can go outside and do their business, lol.

Well it's bedtime.

Nite'.

ben

"The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from infringing upon the freedom of speech, the freedom of association and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Speech is language and other forms of expression; and association and petition connote physical presence in reasonable proximity to those of like mind and to government officials, so as to make your opinions known to them.

The Declaration of Independence recognizes all three freedoms as stemming from our humanity. So, what happens if you can speak freely, but the government officials at whom your speech is aimed refuse to hear you? And what happens if your right to associate and to petition the government is confined to areas where those of like mind and the government are not present? This is coming to a street corner near you.

Certain rights, like thought and privacy and travel, can be exercised on their own. You don’t need the government to cooperate with you; you just need to be left alone. Other rights, like those intended to influence the political process, require that the government not resist your exercise of them. 

Remember the old one-liner from Philosophy 101: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there, does it make any noise? Here’s the contemporary version of that: If you can criticize the government, but it refuses to hear you, does your exercise of the freedom of speech have any value?

When the Framers of the Constitution wrote the First Amendment, they lived in a society in which anyone could walk up to George Washington or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson on a public street and say directly to them whatever one wished. They never dreamed of a regal-like force of armed agents keeping public officials away from the public, as we have today. And they never imagined that it could be a felony for anyone to congregate in public within earshot or eyesight of certain government officials. And yet, today in America, it is.

Last week, President Obama signed into law the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. This law permits Secret Service agents to designate any place they wish as a place where free speech, association and petition of the government are prohibited. And it permits the Secret Service to make these determinations based on the content of speech.

Thus, federal agents whose work is to protect public officials and their friends may prohibit the speech and the gatherings of folks who disagree with those officials or permit the speech and the gatherings of those who would praise them, even though the First Amendment condemns content-based speech discrimination by the government. 

The new law also provides that anyone who gathers in a “restricted” area may be prosecuted. And because the statute does not require the government to prove intent, a person accidentally in a restricted area can be charged and prosecuted, as well.

Permitting people to express publicly their opinions to the president only at a time and in a place and manner such that he cannot hear them violates the First Amendment because it guarantees the right to useful speech; and unheard political speech is politically useless. The same may be said of the rights to associate and to petition. If peaceful public assembly and public expression of political demands on the government can be restricted to places where government officials cannot be confronted, then those rights, too, have been neutered.

Political speech is in the highest category of protected speech. This is not about drowning out the president in the Oval Office. This is about letting him know what we think of his work when he leaves the White House. This is speech intended to influence the political process.

This abominable legislation enjoyed overwhelming support from both political parties in Congress because the establishment loves power, fears dissent and hates inconvenience, and it doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and only three members of the House voted against it. And the president signed it in secret. It is more typical of contemporary China than America. It is more George III than George Washington.

The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to assure open, wide, robust, uninhibited political debate, debate that can be seen and heard by those it seeks to challenge and influence, whether it is convenient for them or not. Anything short of that turns the First Amendment into a mirage."