Kagan Confirmation Hearing

Too long for a tweet, too short for a blog. What to do? I guess I'll just blog it real quick. Heck, most of y'all would probably love a quick read from me...

So, there's this Elena Kagan lady who is up for SCOTUS, and I'm having a little problem with something that came about in the hearing today. I thought I'd throw it out here for a couple, two-tree* of my readers to see if I'm crazy. So here (and several other spots) she says she will give proper deference to Congress and the laws it makes (I'm assuming in regard to her future decisions.)

To me, this may be the biggest problem (of many) facing my ability to feel comfortable with her on the bench. Deference has two definitions according to Webster: respect or esteem due a superior is the first. Affected regard for another's wishes is the second.

I believe the only deference should be given to the Constitution. The Congress is not superior to the Court. And the only wishes that should be regarded are those of the Constitution. If a law passed by Congress does not mesh with the supreme law of our land, then there is a problem. Oftentimes the wishes of the Congress (and perhaps even the people) do not line up with what is permitted in the Constitution. I'm not saying it's always black and white. In fact, it probably rarely is so. But I would rather she seek her decision with deference to the Constitution, not with deference to a bunch of lawmakers whose desires can change with the shifting political landscape.

Am I reading too much into this statement?

*couple, two-tree is my new Chicago phrase, basically means a couple: "Can I get a couple, two-tree Cokes?"

Wisdom From A Thirty Year Old

I'm thirty today. Well, technically I turned 30 yesterday, but this is the first day that I've ever awakened to greet the day as a 30 year old. That's pretty crazy to say out loud in my head. I figure that I should have a lot of life experiences and wisdom built up after being on this here planet for so long, and you know what...? I do. I am very wise. I'm practically Yoda...wait, no...who taught Yoda? Whoever taught Yoda, that's the guy I rank right up there with in wisdom acquired. What, don't believe me...? Fine. I'll prove it by giving you all some free wisdom today garnered in my first three decades of life. I should note, it does help to be born awesome for what I'm about to pass along to take root.

• Be born awesome. It will serve you well in life.
  
• If you climb on a chair with wheels to reach a root beer, that action may result in a broken arm. But it will be totally worth it.
• Fear not. You do not have to go to jail if you expose yourself by peeing in front of the cheerleaders and the crowd during a football game provided you are 4 years old at the time.
• Be wise in dangerous situations. If at all possible ensure that your older brother attempts dangerous maneuvers first. Examples may include riding a bicycle up and over and old pickup on a 2 X 12 and swinging by a cheap, old electrical cord over cactus.
• Not eating your spinach may upset people early in your life. It may even cause them to withhold recess from you. This will be the first cost-benefit analysis you perform before making a decision. Choose wisely. The wise choice is recess. In case you were wondering if there's a right or wrong here. Because there is.
• Do not be disheartened when you discover you say hardly a word to the first girlfriend you have. Girls are scary. Especially when they are pretty and smell nice.
• Revel in the moments when disagreements are solved through conversation, but if there is no other course of action to agreement, punch your opponent in the face. Nice and hard. Make sure you do it first.
• If your butt starts to itch, immediately remove yourself from the situation you've found yourself in. Do not ask questions. Act.
  
• Be awesome at sports. Life will surely be easier for you if this is accomplished. It is possible that you will be allowed to change majors in college (despite a prohibitive GPA) simply based on the fact that you play a sport.
• Go off to college. Not for wisdom - you are surely gaining that simply by looking at these letters formed into magical words. Go because it is fun. Really fun.
• Do not charge lightly when taking on a 260lb running back at a full speed. Charge the opposite of lightly. Charge hardly.
  
• At all times try not to look completely ridiculous. Dying your hair blond will make you look completely ridiculous. But once it grows out a little bit and you have a sweet late 90s frosted tips kind of look, you will once again be returned to non-ridiculousness. Possibly even awesomeness.
• Take the trash out often. Preferably shirtless while wearing jorts and walking your roommates tiny dog. This is how you find a wife.
• Roadtrips are the key to unlocking the mysteries of the...road...Seriously. Road trips are awesome. You will have a good time driving from College Station to Cincinnati even if the Bengals get whipped by the Steelers. Find the road. Find it often.
• Do not work for Pepsi Bottling Group straight out of college. Possibly ever. Pepsi is not as fun as the commercials make it look.
• When you marry, marry the most awesome woman ever. Oh wait. You can't. You know...since I did. It's not like you can do everything on this list anyway.
• If you come across a river, float that river. Float the hell out of that river.
• Get a dog. Not because you are scared of pretty girls that smell nice. Get a dog that is as awesome as you are. Heck, get two.
• "Friends are better than gold or crowns, having a bunch won't weigh you down..." Wise words borrowed by one wise man from another wise man. Make a lot of friends. You should have friends every where in the United States at the least. And I don't mean facebook friends. I mean crash on your couch kind of friends...that's why you want them all over. It's cheaper to visit places then.
• Travel the world. Much like taking a great road trip opens ones eyes, traveling the world opens ones eyes farther. It will be as though you are pushing them open even wider than can be considered comfortable with your own fingers. But those fingers are actually the fingers of the world.
• If the time comes and you move away from your home, fear not. Even if you are moving to a place where more people are shot over the summer than are shot in Iraq, fear not. But do not move to the south side. Of any place. The south side is always the dangerous side.
• Journal your thoughts. Your thoughts are a guidebook to your past and a map for your future. If they stay locked in your mind, then what good do they do you. So instead, write them down. Unless your writing style or thoughts are awful, then keeping them locked away would be considered wise.

If I were to sum up what I have learned in my first 30 years, I'd have to borrow another quote: "Be excellent to one another. And party on dudes."

I know that you have learned many wise things today. Wisdom is power, so as you go about your day use that power of wisdom wisely. Use it to get free stuff.

And There Was Evening and There Was Morning in London - The Second Day

As you can obviously see by my lack of posting, life has gotten busy on me again. How the heck does it keep doing that? Oh that's right...I travel the entire Midwest for work and then have to spend my evenings in hotels doing the "office" work that I missed while traveling instead of blogging about my world travels. That's ridiculousness and it needs to stop right now.

There. I stopped it.

Now, for the continued adventures of Ty and Stacie in London! I believe our story left off with us returning to the tiny hotel room for a bit of shuteye after watching Phantom of the Opera. So good.

The next morning we had our sights set on a big day. Our first stop was back to Trafalgar Square to visit the National Gallery. But first we had to take some pictures on the lions. Because that looked like the thing to do there.

Taming the beasts

Next we headed into the National Gallery which was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed looking at all the amazing paintings. I'm sure we'll revisit this gallery at some point in the future.

After our visit to The National Gallery, we made our way to the other side of Trafalgar Square and to the Texas Embassy. When the Great State was the Republic of Texas, she had an embassy here in London. This particular embassy is a cantina filled with delicious Texan refreshments. The original embassy was not at this exact location, but it's close enough. We decided to take in a little DP and Lone Star on our break.



After our little break, we headed to Kensington Gardens to check it out and ultimately head to The Orangery to have afternoon tea. It is England after all. We wanted to make sure we observed some of the customs.

In Kensington Gardens

But our goal of having afternoon tea at The Orangery was thwarted. After walking a very long way, we were told there was some high-to-do going on and that we were not on the guest list. Stuck up, snobby Brits and their private parties interfering with our touristing...

Exhausted from walking, sad about no tea at the Orangery, happy to be in London

Not ones to let a minor setback ruin our day, we proceeded to carry on with our touring, making our way down to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. As we got off of the train though we made our way by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Big Ben

After checking out Big Ben it was on to Evensong. Evensong is a great way to check out Westminster Abbey. Instead of paying and taking some tour, Evensong is a mass that happens everyday at 5PM. So we were able to go in and worship while checking out the cathedral. It was beautiful and amazing. It's pretty cool to go in and worship where folks had been doing just that for over a thousand years

Westminster Abbey

After Evensong we weren't sure exactly what we wanted to do, but since we hadn't been to Buckingham Palace yet, we decided that should be the next stop. So we took a stroll in that direction. The flag was flying which apparently means the Queen is in residence and there was one guard with a machine gun patrolling the front of the palace. There was also a wedding party taking pictures by the fountain out front. We didn't go inside and I'm not certain that we even could, but it was still pretty cool to go check it out.

Buckingham Palace

After that, we made wandered around the city a bit more and wound up eating at an Italian restaurant that we saw the night before in Trafalgar Square. It was very good and there was some great people watching there. Our table was on the bottom level (sort of in the basement, I guess) and sharing the area with us was a bachelorette party, two very young kids on a date (I'd say 17 at the oldest, but that's guessing high I believe) and an odd looking couple in the back who could not or would not quit making out long enough to eat their food.

It was pretty crazy down there.

All in all, it was another great day in London. There's nothing left to say except:

THE

(of day two.)