I'm it

My beautiful wife has "tagged" me, which means I have to do . . . something.  I am still learning the ways of the blogging world.  She tells me that I must list five things that everyone might not know about me.  

1.  I am a Supreme Court geek.  I read a lot of opinions . . . for fun.  Maybe "fun" is too strong a word.  Let's say, "with genuine interest."  I also read editorials on recent opinions, such as Justice Kennedy's catastrophic majority opinion conferring constitutional rights on foreign terrorists captured on foreign soil.  Nevermind that Congress painstakingly drafted an uber-careful set of due process procedures for those nice gentlemen at Gitmo, correcting the "flaws" the Supreme Court found only in the last few years.  Democratic process and "checks and balances" be darned.  Kennedy was nominated by Reagan - not his greatest legacy.  Anyway, I think more people should at least familiarize themselves with what the Supremes are doing because, for one reason, they continue to dictate matters of public policy that that Constitution places in the hands of Congress or the state legislatures.  

On the lighter side of things, Supreme Court opinions can be mildly entertaining.  Justice Black in 1964:  "Although I was brought up to believe that Scotch whisky would need a tax preference to survive in competition with Kentucky bourbon, I never understood the Constitution to require a State to give such preference."  Justice Scalia:  "This case, involving the legal requirements for the content and labeling of meat products such as frankfurters, affords a rare opportunity to explore simultaneously both sides of Bismark's aphorism that 'No man should see how laws or sausages are made.'"  More recently, Justice Scalia once characterized the majority's interpretation of a statute as "sheer applesauce."  That's funny stuff, and a decent band name. 

2. I am a stickler for grammar and punctuation.  It drives me crazy that there is no apostrophe or semicolon on my cell phone when I send a text message.  Is that so much to ask?  Also, why oh why do people misuse "apostrophe-s" to make something plural?  I know that you have seen a sign that that read something like this:  "Video's and More."  That drives me insane, and I'm not the only one.  Apostrophe-s indicates possession, it doesn't make the singular plural!  Ugh!

3.  I am a history geek.  You know those historical markers on the sides of highways throughout Tennessee and elsewhere?  I have come close to driving off the road trying to read those.  Why can't they make the lettering bigger on those signs? 

4. My dream job would be as follows:  federal judge (appellate preferably), sporadic author (of history, biography, political philosophy, legal theory), and small scale farmer (fruits and veggies only, no animals).  Yes, all three at once.  See, most judges have a good bit of free time, and the federal ones have a lifetime appointment, which is nice.

5. I can easily get way too wound up in politics.  I am a proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy.  I am a conservative, but I am finding little, if any, of that in the Republican Party.  Every time conservative principles are applied, they work.  But liberal policies,  you see, are judged on their intentions not their results.  Exhibit A:  LBJ's War on Poverty destroyed incentives to work, engendered generational dependence on government, and led to the decay of many urban centers.  Thank ya, thank ya very much.  On the current race for President:  Obama is so dangerously naive, it scares me (Can you find one economist on the planet who thinks the prescription for a slowing economy is a huge tax increase?); McCain is a great American with character oozing out his ears, but he's not a conservative.  I'll take a non-conservative man with character over Obama any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  I guess I just haven't "seen the light" with Obama yet.  It's just not going to happen.  I could write on this for hours, but I know you have probably already stopped reading.

So, there they are . . . five things everyone may not know about me.