Devin on Earth

We recently picked up some lovely scented votives at one of my mother-in-law’s craft shows recently. Steph and I portioned them out and I greedily ran back to my office with mine.

I’ve been burning them today while I’ve been finishing up a paper for work and have been extremely pleased with them. I have a hard time with scented candles; I like the concept, but the vast majority of them don’t smell good to begin with or are extremely overpowering. These lovely candles are neither. I spent part of the afternoon with the Georgia Peach candle lit, another hour or two with the Cranberry candle going, and finally ended up with both of them. Not only were they both individually pleasing without knocking me out of the office, they blended well. My office is a nice place to be currently, which is good — I’ve been in here most of the evening.

If you’re interested in the candles, they’re made by the Belle Creek Candle Company. I have no connection to them other than as a satisfied customer.

knowledgeababble
adj. 1: having extensive
information or understanding coupled with the inability to refrain from
impulsive disclosure of one’s expertise and opinion, resulting in a
flood of words and a drought of wisdom; “Alan Keyes is a
knowledgeababble commentator.” See also shut up you damn fool.

What the hell is Alan Keyes thinking? To quote:

The word supreme means highest in authority. There can be no executive
authority in the state of Florida higher than the governor. No state
law can create an executive authority higher than highest in the
Florida constitution. Therefore no court order based upon such a law
can constitutionally create such an authority.

After stating that the Pinellas County police would be committing
“assault on the government of the state, which is to say insurrection”
for not standing aside and letting the Florida court orders about Terry
Schiavo be violated in their jurisdiction, he goes on to say:

Since Florida’s highest law grants him supreme executive power, the
governor’s action would be lawful. No one in the Florida judiciary can
say otherwise, since the whole basis for the doctrine of judicial
review (which they invoked when they refused to apply “Terri’s law”) is
that any law at variance with the constitution is no law at all.

WTF?

Alan, buddy, the key word you skipped over in your little dictionary lesson is “executive“. Governor Bush has supreme executive authority.
That’s one phrase — the noun “authority” with the modifier
“executive.” They go together; no separation allowed. The executive
branch doesn’t get to make laws (that’s legislative authority)
or even make the final interpretation of which laws are legal and which
ones are in conflict with higher (Constitutional) law (that’s judicial authority). Executive authority means you get to, well, execute the laws. You get to implement them and put them into practice.

executive authority, legislative authority, and judicial authority
– wow, that sounds like something my high school Government teacher
tried to tell me about. Oh, right! That little thing called “checks and
balances” that helps ensure no one branch of government gets to collect
all the power to itself.

When Gov. Bush says that his hands are tied, he’s not fooling, Alan.
I’m glad he knows the limits of his powers and duties. This is the way
the system is supposed to work. It may be a crappy law and a shitty
outcome, but it is the law of the land — something
that we’re all supposed to respect, even as we strive to make it
better. You don’t show respect to the law by ignoring it. I’m glad Gov.
Bush knows that.

Here’s the real tragedy of how the Terry Schiavo case is
going down, thanks to the fumble-fingered intervention of the federal
government: the stage is being set for a continuing set of clashes
between the executive and legislative branches on the one side (so
conveniently both “conservative” right now) and the judicial branch on
the other (oh, those nasty “liberal” activist judges!). The public
response on this one may not have gone the way some folks thought it
would — most folks seem to think the feds should have kept their nose
out of what is ultimately an issue for the states to decide, one that
has not been co-opted to the federal level by the United States
Constitution (wow, what a truly conservative principle of government)
– but it won’t keep the administration and Congress from trying until
they find an issue that does raise a groudswell of public
anger. And then, I wonder, will we see a weakening of one of the key
checks and balances in our government? Or will it be a wholesale
dismemberment?

Nah, probably not. These guys aren’t that Machiavellian. They
wouldn’t be trying to build up hard feelings towards the vital
functions our judicial branch performs, would they? That would require
a repeated pattern of press statements and spin that implied that our
elected officials were powerless to prevent the machinations of an
out-of-control judiciary, were unable to follow the mandate of their
constituents because those evil judges ruined everything.

I’m glad I don’t see that pattern. That would be worrisome.

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2005/03/very_nice_peopl.html