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Jun. 15th, 2003 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbI spent an hour or so today being photographed by a friend. I have to do this so I can construct a press kit to send out to places I'd like to play, but I really don't like being photographed, so it was kind of exhausting. It was very nice of Kristina to do it, and made it a lot easier than I expected. I think we got some photos I can use.
I also read the Times (for a long time, thanks to a busy and ridiculously mismanaged staff at Denny's):
Looks like Canada's courts will legalize same-sex marriage. Yay!
Tony Blair "is proposing the creation of an American-style Supreme Court and an independent commission to appoint judges" in England. This sounds like a good idea, but "the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said Mr. Blair was 'behaving like a dictator' and said he 'should understand that the Constitution is not his plaything and that it belongs ultimately to the people of this country.'" But, what Constitution? "The tribunal will not be able to override the executive's laws as the American court can. With no written Constitution, Britain considers Parliament to be sovereign, and the new court will not challenge its primacy."
Meanwhile, the European Union is working on its own first constitution, and the Czechs have voted to join the union. I didn't know the union's anthem was the "Ode to Joy".
Student protest in Iran, and a followup article in tomorrow's paper:
At a sharply increased rate, U.S. juries have been rejecting the death penalty in federal trials, which is great news, unless it just means that Ashcroft's justice department is pushing the death penalty for cases it would previously have plea-bargained to life. Which, as it happens, is exactly what it's been doing.
Both proponents and opponents of rent control in New York are pointing to Boston to bolster their arguments.
My reading was pretty dry this week, but here's a great article about a guy who spends all his spare time getting quoted by the media as "the common person's perspective":
I also read the Times (for a long time, thanks to a busy and ridiculously mismanaged staff at Denny's):
Looks like Canada's courts will legalize same-sex marriage. Yay!
Tony Blair "is proposing the creation of an American-style Supreme Court and an independent commission to appoint judges" in England. This sounds like a good idea, but "the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said Mr. Blair was 'behaving like a dictator' and said he 'should understand that the Constitution is not his plaything and that it belongs ultimately to the people of this country.'" But, what Constitution? "The tribunal will not be able to override the executive's laws as the American court can. With no written Constitution, Britain considers Parliament to be sovereign, and the new court will not challenge its primacy."
Meanwhile, the European Union is working on its own first constitution, and the Czechs have voted to join the union. I didn't know the union's anthem was the "Ode to Joy".
Student protest in Iran, and a followup article in tomorrow's paper:
They thought they had found their champion in President Mohammed Khatami, but calls for his resignation - along with cries of "Kill all the mullahs!" - during the protests showed how disillusioned his former supporters have become, how angry that their votes made so little difference.
At a sharply increased rate, U.S. juries have been rejecting the death penalty in federal trials, which is great news, unless it just means that Ashcroft's justice department is pushing the death penalty for cases it would previously have plea-bargained to life. Which, as it happens, is exactly what it's been doing.
Both proponents and opponents of rent control in New York are pointing to Boston to bolster their arguments.
My reading was pretty dry this week, but here's a great article about a guy who spends all his spare time getting quoted by the media as "the common person's perspective":
Unlike political activists or university professors, who often advertise their professional credentials in news media guidebooks, Mr. Packer, the perfect grass-roots source, usually gets his name in the paper simply by showing up. He also has a predilection for being first in line.
