A few wishes for the New Year

As we venture into a new year, I thought it only apt to begin it with some wishes for our lives.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. - Neil Gaiman

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, thatyou'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindess and wisdom in the world right now) that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind. - Neil Gaiman

Happy 2011 everybody. May it be beautiful and worthwhile.

An Historic Irony

Yes, I am one of the people who say "an historic".

So I'm reading for my law history class and I came across this ironic case in US History. Not a legal case, just a case of fact.

The 13th amendment to our constitution ratified in 1865 reads:

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.


2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

In 1860 then senator Jefferson Davis (later head of the Confederate States of America) proposed the following 13th amendment which was NARROWLY kept from passing due to Lincoln's election and the secession of the southern states:

Neither Congress nor a territorial legislature...possess the power to annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave property into the common territories..."
 
...Funny how one election and 5 years made such a difference.

I hate to be a quitter but...

For now this blog is officially on hiatus. Really, the hiatus began a few weeks ago when I just completely stopped posting, but I thought I'd make it official.

My plan was a post a day for a year. I spent a lot of time doing catchup for one reason or another which kinda defeated the purpose... but kinda didn't. But now I'm not even playing catchup, I've just more or less given up.

[For quick reference if you want to go back to old entries here are the topics by month: Feb- Black History Month, Mar- Women's History Month, Apr- Poetry Month, May- Mothers, June- Fathers]

I spend all kinds of time on the computer every day and still haven't made a legitimate post in weeks. So, as I said, I'm putting this blog on a hiatus. It might last a couple weeks or, I might just leave off where I started this year next year. So my next themed post might not occur until July 8th? 2011. Or I might just start from scratch at the new year. Or I may never make another post again, who knows.

I may or may not just post randomness throughout the year that doesn't go with the blog's theme, or maybe I'll start a new blog for that. Only time will tell.

Thanks to any of you who read this message who followed me in my short 5 months of blogdom, hope you enjoyed it and don't feel your time was wasted.

A post of acknowledgement

So I've completely failed in my posting this month. This is just a post acknowledging my failure and the fact that I haven't made a post since the 7th. It's funny b/c this should be the month I have the most to say about. But I'm kind of loving my summer break and haven't bothered. I'll update legitimately soon enough, I may or may not make up posts for all the days I've missed because that's seriously getting to be a big number. Either way, yeah, thought I should post a litle thing here.

More about the history of the US flag(s) than you probably ever wanted to know...

I was just looking for a picture of the first US flag, but i found this timeline which I found at least intriguing. The link with the timeline follows. Link

(For 7/6) Predating the president, we think our government gets nothing done...

    The President of the US seems to be synonymous with government here -- funny since it's really supposed to be a balance between three powers. However under the initial governing document of the US, the Articles of Confederation, allowed for no executive branch of government and the US lacked one until the creation of the Consititution.
     Referring to the country as the US at this time is a misnomer honestly because at the time they were a confederation of states. Each state held equal sway and veto power -- thus, very little got done in the nation's first six years. Maybe our government doesn't work today, but at least it's not at a perpetual standstill as it was prior to the US Constitution.

Something to think about...

Patriotism...

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.

- George Bernard Shaw