NOTE: this blog is no longer active as of 12/07. New one: http://blog.kirchhof.com
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Tue, 24 Apr 2007
True Conservatism
This
is a fine essay that you may find interesting. An excerpt:
Jury nullification also goes back to the very beginning of our
country, as one of the crucial rights our Founding Fathers wanted to
protect. Our Founding Fathers wanted juries to be the final bulwark
against tyrannical government laws. Thats why they emphasized the
right to a jury trial in three of the first ten amendments to the
Constitution. John Adams, second President of the United States,
Thomas Jefferson, third President and author of the Declaration of
Independence, John Jay, First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,
and Alexander Hamilton, First Secretary of the Treasury all flatly
stated that juries have the right and duty to judge not only the facts
in a case, but also the law, according to their conscience.
Folks, there is a place where principled liberals and conservatives
in our country can find common ground and truly support one another.
If we would all use our brains, know our history, and ignore the
content-free bobbleheads on television, it is not a hard place to
find.
It begins with something fairly obvious; something that I've spent
a lot of time on in this life: know the rules, and ignore, in so far
as it is reasonably and responsibly possible, those who would dictate
to you what you can not do.
Posted at 08:47 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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Sat, 14 Apr 2007
When I Make An Announcement...
Or "Friday The 13th." Or "Couldn't Stand The Weather." So many good
titles to choose from.
Anyway, we knew all day on Friday at Threadgill's that we were racing the
rain; we just didn't know when it would come through. We were doing an
XM radio taping of Uncle Lucius, The Band Of Heathens, and Mickey &
the Motorcars. The first two went without incident, and both bands played
their hearts out, really fine work.
Towards the end of the Heathens set, our radar-watcher came out
and said that the cold front was pretty much here. I made an announcement
that we had a little bit of weather on the way, and that we were going
to tarp things up for an extended intermission. (We'd planned on
continuing the show after the little rainstorm blew through.)
One minute later, a wind came by and the temperature dropped by
twenty degrees. I looked up from my tarp-work. Over the back fence,
which usually has a fine view of the auditorium and Hooters, I saw
what looked to be a wall of gravel flying horizontally down Barton
Springs Road toward the Congress Avenue bridge. Maybe fifty feet away.
Then all hell broke loose. Tree branches flying. Chairs flying. A
transformer exploded in a shower of sparks. A sound of metal being
ripped, kind of like I used to hear out of the old Tips Iron building
when I lived by it. People panicking. A mouth full of leaves and
gravel; mic stands falling over, etc, etc.
Yes, dear friends, yours truly and everyone outside at Threadgill's
last night was about 150 yards away from what I can only assume was a
full-on tornado. It took a chunk of the roof off of Hooters and left
huge tree branches laying all around the area. And damaged
Threadgill's not one bit. The power on the North side of Barton
Springs was out; ours was fine.
Amazingly, no one was hurt. I have a little place on my arm where a
chunk of rock took some skin off of me, and I got banged into a fence
post hard enough that my old 48-year-old rib cage is a bit sore today,
but otherwise all I have is a interesting story to tell the grandkids.
It was cool.
Posted at 11:36 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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Sun, 08 Apr 2007
The German In Me
You know, a late night snack of green onions, anchovies, sharp
cheddar, black olives, and freshly sliced tomato is an utterly
delicious and satisfying thing.
Just sayin'.
Posted at 02:57 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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