Standard Mischief

Note: Part one is here.

d)The Iraqi national intelligence service shall gather information and assess threats to national security and offers advice to the Iraqi government. It is under civilian control; it is subjected to the supervision of the executive authority; it operates according to the law and to recognized human rights principles.

This, I think, is a good sample of “boilerplate” constitutional text (most of which I’ll skip over). You can see clearly that this limits the reach of government, as opposed to just defining which particular rights the Iraqis have

e) The Iraqi government shall respect and implement Iraq’s international commitments regarding the nonproliferation, non-development, non-production, and non-use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Associated equipment, material, technologies, and communications systems for use in the development, manufacture, production, and use of such weapons shall be banned.

Again, are we still pretending that the Iraqi people are the authors of this document?

2nd - Medals, official holidays, religious and national occasions and the official calendar shall be fixed by law.

While this isn’t bad unto itself, here in the US we prefer the phrase “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation”. Make it clear that the document is granting strictly regulated powers

1st - This constitution shall be considered as the supreme and highest law in Iraq. It shall be binding throughout the whole country without exceptions.
2nd - No law that contradicts this constitution shall be passed; any passage in the regional constitutions and any other legal passages that contradict this constitution shall be considered null.

Boilerplate stuff that echoes our own.

Next up is citizens rights.

I haven’t been doing my standard quota of wandering around outdoors this time of the year, but the two places I go to pick wild persimmons have both been developed over the last few years, and I’ve yet to find a new patch. So when I was wandering around the local Shoppers Food Whorehouse, and I ran across a patch, I bought one. It sat on the standard kitchen fruit plate until I noticed it was starting to go soft.

Now there are two main types of persimmons, the type that you have to let get mushy soft before you can eat them, and the type that you can eat firm. The wild ones I find are (I assume) the type that has to get mushy soft, usually after the first frost. The type sold in stores can be eaten while still firm.

Usually.

You can probably guess what happened. I got back from a little hike in the park and noticed said persimmon was getting a mite soft. Being the use-it-all-up-and-make-soup-from-the-bones person that I am, I started in on it. For the record, the first bite is sorta sweet, and then the sour cotton-mouth kicks in. Hard. Wow, I’ll never do that again.

For the record, the soft mushy part is a pretty good cure, but the pucker is still a bit around, now about a half hour later.

The other find this week was prickly pears over at a new store called ?Foodway? (not munged, because you would have no idea otherwise)

Foodway opened up in a store that was formally a tiny, obsolete Safeway (not munged either, I have no idea what to name it) that closed down a few months after the huge new Shoppers Food Whorehouse opened up down the street. I think it’s owned by Koreans, but targeted towards Hispanics.
It’s just inside the beltway. Some things there are really cheap, some things are extra expensive. Never buy pet food there when you can buy it next door for half the price, for instance.

It’s my first time trying prickly pears, and they’re really good. I slice them down the middle and scoop out the bright red flesh with a spoon. It looks like undifferentiated pomegranate, (I eat the seeds and all), but tastes closer to watermelon. Really good watermelon. I haven’t tried the green ones yet though. Perhaps they are for huevos ranchos, although I thought that dish used the the peeled pads.

Other cool stuff there include the live Tilapia fish tank, and my favorite fish sauce (Golden Boy brand) for only $1.29 a bottle. What a steal! I’d happily pay four times that amount.

I was gonna hold off on this until after the referendum on adoption. At this point, what I’m hearing on the radio is that it passed but there have been some irregularities. Like an over 90% turn-out in areas where the ?insurgents? are most active. Hmm, I’d imagine the supporters wish they had gone with a Diebold special electing rigging machine, so there would be no paper trail once you recycle the electrons.

Most Iraqi constitution analysis out there rely on the translation from the Associated Press. I’m not entirely sure we can trust the free press on something as important as a translation of the mother documents of a democratically elected Republic. The AP doesn’t even seem to be able to get a simple headline correct, and then they fail in their correction to clearly exonerated the innocent party.

The ideal translator would be fluent in both English and Arabic, and have some experience in constitutional law. I gotta assume that if the AP got a translation in broken English by a half literate UN pawn, they might just have their editors clean it up and go with it. They are still in the ?we define reality? mode, even after RatherGate.

AP translation in bold, my comments below:

1st ? Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:
(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.
(b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy.
(c) No law can be passed that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms outlined in this constitution.

My only comment here is what if Islam and democracy are at odds? But before you even go there, what exactly are the ?undisputed rules of Islam?? Doesn’t the Muslim faith start breaking up right after ?There is but one God, Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet.??

?Article (5): The law is sovereign, the people are the source of authority and its legitimacy, which they exercise through direct, secret ballot and its constitutional institutions.?

Wow, this is good. Really good. It states that all power of the Iraqi government derive from the people, not that rights derive from the state. Compare our Declaration of Independence:

?…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…?

Absolutely something I want in a declaration of limited government.

2nd ? The state will be committing to fighting terrorism in all its forms and will work to prevent its territory from being a base or corridor or an arena for its (terrorism’s) activities.

Article (8): Iraq shall abide by the principles of good neighborliness and by not intervening in the internal affairs of the other countries, and it shall seek to peacefully resolve conflicts and shall establish its relations on the basis of shared interests and similar treatment and shall respect its international obligations.

So, umm, we are to believe that the Iraqi people had this little blurb inserted into their constitution all by themselves? No help from the US or UN? Is “respect its international obligations” UN speak for “pay your dues”?

(b) Forming military militias outside the framework of the armed forces is banned.

So, I did a search, and the worrisome prohibition of private firearms ownership seems to have been struck from this version. Good. However there is nothing specifically preventing the central government from outlawing the rights of these supposedly free people from owning the one thing that all tyrants fear.

I have no problem with the people of Iraqi forming militia groups for their common defense, it’s only when they get together to spread terror, that I worry. The problem is how do you enumerate that right?

(Probably more to follow, unless they scrap adoption and this becomes moot.)

I’ve started a new exercise program, and seeing as it’s working pretty well for me, I thought I’d plug it. It’s called shovelglove. Yea, I know, it’s a stupid name, bear with me.

The idea behind it is you stand up and do a number of exercises that compose of ?useful movements?, (like “chopping wood” or “shoveling”), while holding a sledgehammer that has been padded for safety. You do the exercises every weekday (weekends off) and you do them for exactly 14 minutes. Fourteen minutes is the maximum unscheduled time. Most day planners only break time down into 15 minute increments. The idea is that there is no reason to not take a few moments of your time each weekday, and just do it.

You can feel it working the first day. it really stretches and strains those upper body muscles. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you don’t finish the full 14 minutes in your first session. That’s OK, just build up to the full time over a few days or weeks.

Right away I’ve started improvising, besides the so called “useful movements” I’ve added a few different types of curls to the workout.

There’s another feature that I like about this program, and it’s the main thing that won me over. Just think about this, if it was made by thighmaster, it would cost you just $19.95 in three easy monthly payments charged to your credit card. It would also be made of pink padded plastic, and could not do double duty driving stakes or breaking up concrete. Worst case scenario is that you stop doing the exercises and you end up with a useful object in your tool shed, instead of a several hundred dollar bow-flexer thingie taking up half your guest bedroom. Excuse to buy a tool, hmm… tough decision.

I first went and checked prices at the local retail outlet of “red china army imported tools”. I then compared them to “Blow’s” hardware and homecenter. At Blow’s, I picked up a 8 pound sledge that’s marked “made in the USA” for about $21. Much higher quality at about the same price than at “red china army”.

Before I actually got my sledgehammer, I also incorporated shovelglove type exercises into my regular walk. I’ve mapped a half mile, well lighted walking trail out in my neighborhood, (a hike of last resort, but then again, there is no excuse for me not to pound out two miles or so any random evening), and I started taking my 4 lb BFH (big freaking hammer) along for the walk. I swap it from hand to hand for some curls while doing my walk. (It helps if you don’t care if your neighbors think of you as the “crazy hammer walker guy”.) I’ve convinced myself that I need a matched pair, so now I’m looking for a set of straight and cross-peen hammers weighing about three pounds each.

Over at the official shovelglove site, there’s the philosophy, directions, photos, movies of the exercises, forums, and a amazony payola link.

Despite millions of TV watching gun owners, every time the Olympics come around, they put their skimpy coverage of the shooting sports on at like 3am on a Sunday evening. On cable. Even though trap and skeet, target shooting, and plinking together are more than likely the most popular participatory sport in the USA [source].

But what would happen if the shooting sports had the broadcast coverage of say golf? Or even bowling? What would the guns look like ?

Folks, I’d like to present the NASC-AR15, over at Food Court Team Six. This had me laughing pretty hard.

[Thanks, Say Uncle]