Dear Dad,
Happy birthday! You know, I find it pretty neat that people come by and read what I have to say, but I’m especially happy to know that you stop by every day. I do miss you. Leaving home so early, first for the summers and then across the country for college and then life, was very good for me in many ways, but I paid the price of not getting to see you (or mom, or Adrienne, or Lauryl) very often. I’m looking forward to your visit this month, to showing off my county home (note to self: clean the house) and my play. I hope your birthday is a nice one!
Love you and miss you,
eric

You’ve seen those blue signs along highway exits that kindly point the way to the nearest restaurants, gas stations, and hotels. Maybe they’ve even helped you out (during my last drive back from Missouri, I followed a gas station’s billboard that urged me to “Exit Now!”, and was told by the friendly blue sign that the gas station was, in fact, another 7.2 miles to the right). I assume that the highway departments sells this advertising space to help keep our taxes down (always the optimist…). A private company in Alabama named (appropriately enough) BlueSigns wants to replace the signs with directions you can dial up on your wireless telephone or computer. Sounds like a nice system to me, if they get it off the ground.

This directing thing’s trying to be the end of me. Here’s been what I’ve been up to lately: wake up, go to work, go to the theater, go home, go to bed, wake up, go to work, … lather, rinse, repeat. Weekends are slightly different in that I get to skip the “go to work” bit. This is by far the biggest production I’ve been in charge of, and while it’s not exactly overwhelming, it’s mighty tough. Hampering things has been my losing my assistant directer early on to some severe health troubles. My stage manager will be getting more involved in a week or so, and that’ll take some of the day-to-day load off me, but until then it’ll be more of the same. Somehow, though, when it’s all said and done, it’s always worth the troubles.

If you’ve been trying to imagine Monday Night Football with new commentator Dennis Miller, I’d wager that Ironminds has imagined it better than the picture in your head.

Today’s my sister’s birthday. Happy day, Adrienne!

He’s cute, he’s black, he’s on the web. Kittie Art for the masses.

No prescription for the Pill? I think that’s a good thing.

For the very best in Barbie satire, there’s The Decline of Civilization Barbie Page.

Back in April, CNN’s law site ran a story titled What the “Partial-Birth” Abortion Case is Really About. It talks about the distiction between a “facial challenge” and an “as applied challenge”. Basically, a facial challenge tries to show that a law is invalid under all possible applications – for example, a law that mandates each public school day begin with a sectarian prayer. in 1987’s United States v. Salerno , the court ruled that a facial challenge can succeed only if a law cannot operate constitutionally under any set of circumstances. If a law has a single constitutional application, it will survive the challenge. An as applied challenge works in the other direction. Such a chalenge agrees that the law has a constitutional application, but it can’t be applied to him or her. For example, a law that mandates each public school day begin with the pledge of allegiance. The right to speak includes the right not to speak, so a student can’t be forced to recite the pledge. The law would stand, with the provision that people could opt out.

The CNN article, using the example above, says that the court has refrained from using the Salerno ruling in abortion cases. More important than whether the Nebraska law stood or fell was whether the court quoted Salerno and used it in its decision. It turns out that it was not mentioned once, and only Thomas used the concept of facial challenges, and then only at the end of his opinion.

Justice Thomas sure likes his footnotes. I think he’s got more footnote than body in his dissenting opinion. And he’s not one to mince words, either. He’s by far the most graphic. Take care when reading.