Much focus has been given on the condition of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, after she was shot by Jared Loughner. But she was by no means the only victim, nor did she fare the worst. The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that former Phillies manager Dallas Green lost a granddaughter, Christina-Taylor Green. She was nine years old, and in third grade. Her story itself is remarkable, and her tragic death would outrage any human. It is too easy to dismiss as the work of one troubled boy. While others might call him evil and dismiss this as an isolated act, he had a whole lot of help from our society to get to the point where a nine year old girl and nineteen others would die. My thoughts are with her family and the families of those who died.
Author: Eliot
Landon is at the South Pole now!
For those who know my friend Landon, he is as of this moment at the South Pole. He can be followed as @astronomytravel on Twitter.Com.
House Republicans Read the Constitution
That’s right. On day 2 of their rule in the House, the AP reports that House Republicans will read the U.S. Constitution. Better late than never, I suppose. Of course I would like a reading comprehension test to follow. Let’s hope that they don’t read the Constitution off an iPod/iPhone app. When President Obama did his recess appointments last week, I wanted to review Article II (Powers of the President), and it was at that point I thought I should carry a pocket version. I’ll leave out the names of the guilty, but one free version had truncated each of the articles, and another free version omitted Article II entirely. That’s probably the version Congress would enjoy. Fortunately the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has done a very nice job on theirs. Funnily enough, however, the Constitution is not accessible from their home page. Here’s a link to Cornell that I like.
Remembering Gerry Rafferty
The news reported this morning that one of my favorite artists has died at the sadly young age of 63. Many people are focusing on “Stuck in the Middle With You”, but my favorite songs from him are those you find on his City to City album, including, as the Times put it, soulful singing in Stealin’ Time. Some of the lyrics are perhaps a bit banal, but in my most depressed times, I could easily ignore that problem. And he rocked our world with Baker Street, reminding us just how sexy the sax is.
Here’s a question, though: when I listen to City to City I hear a sibilance that borders on a slur or a lisp. Anyone else hear that?
Follow Landon’s Antarctic Expedition
As some of you may know, my friend Landon Noll will shortly be on his way to the South Pole, to search for meteorites. This project has been years in the making. As part of that activity, we’ve established a twitter account @astronomytravel that you can follow him with, or you may look at the top of the sidebar (Antarctic Expedition Status) here at www.ofcourseimright.com for tweets coming from him. Please note- bandwidth from the South Pole is, well, limited and expensive. Therefore- communication will be one-way. Let’s all wish him well!