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Aww

Mother, child, and brunch:

chicken brunch.jpg

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Pictures” Friday, Jul 25 2008 01:35 PM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

My Back

I had an MRI yesterday to help diagnose some numbness I've been feeling on the outside of my right leg.

my_back.jpg

Looks like one disc in particular has an issue. This T2 scan shows white for water content. Discs that are black have dehydrated and may indicate Degenerative Disc Disease. The disc above should be white with water like the one above it between L4 and L5.

The little piece sticking out may be a protrusion or an extrusion (I don't have a doctor's analysis yet), depending on whether it has herniated past my posterior longitudinal ligament.

I looked at ChiroGeek's MRI Tutorial to figure out this much. I have to talk to my doctor to find out the real deal.

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “General” Wednesday, Jul 23 2008 03:05 PM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

Statler & Waldorf Discover The Internet

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “General” Tuesday, Jul 22 2008 08:44 AM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

Upgraded to MT-4.12

I notice there was a security update back in June, so I updated to MT-4.12, Haven't looked into the new features and templates yet, but if I have time I will.

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Blogging” Sunday, Jul 20 2008 08:26 PM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

First Test Post With Flock

I'm trying out blogging from Flock (specifically the beta based on Firefox 3). Sure, I have accounts on most of the services Flock offers, but I wonder if Flock will do a better job integrating them all.

Anyway, I finally got xmlrpc working with Movable Type, that's a start!

Hrm, how to set a category... it seems to set one when you post, but doesn't force the proper updates for it to be reflected. Whee! A bug!

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Blogging” Sunday, Jul 20 2008 08:16 PM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

Here Comes DC v. Heller, Round Two

There should be a ban on semi-automatic draconian restrictions.

Dick Heller was one of the first in line to apply for his DC Handgun Permit, after Washington D.C. has reacted to its previous handgun ban being struck down by the Supreme Court. His permit was denied because his handgun has a detachable magazine. Even if he uses magazines that don't exceed the arbitrary limit of 10 cartridges, because it accepts magazines that could be larger than this, the entire gun is classified in the same category as machine guns.

Apparently DC has a reading problem, as the ruling from the Supreme Court said this in the penultimate sentence of the summary:

Assuming he is not disqualified from exercising Second Amendment rights, the District must permit Heller to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home.

The handgun Heller tried to register was a Beretta 92, a bigger brother to the Beretta 84 which Pennsylvania was attempting to ban in the infamous Act 17. That attempt led me to move from Pennsylvania to Oregon over a decade ago. Both the 92 and 84 have 10-round magazines available, but also have magazines with greater capacities available as well. Apparently these guns are not welcome for self-defense in DC homes, despite their broad popularity. I have a couple of 92s myself.

That DC does seem to be issuing permits for revolvers is immaterial to the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that DC must issue a license to Heller for his handgun.

As it says in the majority opinion for DC v. Heller:

We are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country, and we take seriously the concerns raised by the many amici who believe that prohibition of handgun ownership is a solution. The Constitution leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns, see supra, at 54–55, and n. 26. But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.

Update: Turns out I'm wrong about which kind of handgun Heller tried to register, as he never tried to register a Beretta 92. Apparently that is a misremembered fact from the Emerson case mis-applied to Heller.

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Guns” Thursday, Jul 17 2008 10:30 AM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

Mt. Adams Wildfire

According to KGW, the Mt. Adams wildfire can be seen from downtown Portland, it can be seen quite easily from my front porch:

Mt. Adams Wildfire Thumbnail 4pm 7/13/08 by Josh Poulson

(Click the image for a full size picture)

Update: Other coverage:

Update 7/14: The Forest Service calls the fire the Cold Springs Fire, and has many more pictures. Reported size has risen to 500 acres by the end of yesterday, but KATU reports the size at 2000 acres this morning.

More coverage:

Update 7/15: We're up to 8000 acres this morning, although I can't see much from my porch.

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Pictures” Sunday, Jul 13 2008 04:26 PM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

ACLU v. US Constitution

Despite DC v. Heller and a strong belief that all the other items in the Bill of Rights refer to individual rights, the ACLU's official stance is a failed exercise in reading comprehension:

The ACLU interprets the Second Amendment as a collective right. Therefore, we disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in D.C. v. Heller. While the decision is a significant and historic reinterpretation of the right to keep and bear arms, the decision leaves many important questions unanswered that will have to be resolved in future litigation, including what regulations are permissible, and which weapons are embraced by the Second Amendment right that the Court has now recognized.

There are many things wrong with this position. First, the collective rights premise has never had support from very many legal historians or scholars. The Heller decision is hardly a reinterpretation as there is plainly little if any stare decisis (previous court decisions) to refer to and there is disagreement amongst the circuits (specifically, the most reversed circuit in the world, the 9th Circuit, held the collective rights theory). Finally, it is clear that certain classes of weapons cannot be banned, specifically handguns, because we have a right to own them.

A reminder, from the court's decision:

The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District's total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of "arms" that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster.

I suspect the next real tests will be an incorporation and “assault weapons.” The ACLU seems to be putting itself on the wrong side of these issues as well.

Josh Poulson

Posted in category “Guns” Thursday, Jul 3 2008 11:44 AM  |  Permalink  |  No comments  |  No trackbacks

 

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