Routine Revelations

I continue to be amazed that people don’t understand the purpose for due process. Yes, it’s purpose is to require the state to prove a charge against a person (and it must be a person because the state can and does make charges against all persons and not just citizens) but even more important than that is that it is fundamentally how liberty exists. Without due process there is no liberty, no freedom in the United States and it is for liberty that the Revolutionary War was fought and the United States exists. Remember give me liberty or give me death?

The Crucial Track for today, Another One Bites The Dust.

Today I start lap 60 around the sun. I took this picture yesterday, unfortunately the sky is not yet blue today.

My Crucial Track for today is Curious Thing by Amy Grant.

Jason has released his app, Crucial Tracks, which is a web app for journaling about music. The app is an add-on to his Crucial Tracks blog. I have signed up to create my own profile and RSS feed that you can subscribe to, or see my entries on my micro.blog or Bluesky profiles.

If ICE approaches you on the street and demands you prove that you are a U.S. citizen, what will you do? Further, since ICE nor the Executive Branch acknowledges the validity of Due Process under the U.S. Constitution those agents appear empowered to ignore the drivers license or, if you are lucky, passport that you provide and you could find yourself in a gulag in El Salvador.

“As the climax of Holy Week and the story of Jesus, Good Friday and Easter address the fundamental human question, What ails us? Most of us feel the force of this question—something is not right. So what ails us? Very compactly, egoism and injustice. And the two go together. We need personal transformation and political transformation.”

As in the time of Jesus so is it true today. Peace through violence (Pax Romana) is the norm human of civilization. We are just now realizing that the experiment of American democracy, which we have thought to be normal is really abnormal in the matrix of human civilization.

From: The Last Week - What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem by Marcus J. Borg 📚

Yesterday the Cubs sent rookie Matt Shaw, who had been playing first base, back to Triple-A Iowa. We don’t know if this is a short term thing due to the recent injuries, but did they make the right move? I saw no, particularly because he would have made that catch that Workman did not last night. Right now the Cub bats are not the problem and they need good fielding.

Despite the fact that the Chicago Cubs record at 11-8 is decent and their run production has been good the early returns are that they have the same old bullpen after it blew another lead in route to a 10-4 loss to the Padres last night. Frankly, the poor performance of the bullpen must be laid at Jed Hoyer’s feet as his approach of yearly rebuild using castoffs from other teams translates to every season being a crap shoot. The continual poor off season performance is why I think Hoyer should be replaced sooner rather than later.

Here is my use case for inbound RSS. I’ve been using inbound RSS for several years to blog posts to a Wordpress site by using an IFTTT applet. The reason why I set this up was to create a single archive of all of my posts across multiple source sites or social networks on the Internet. The archive spans 17 years.

Finally experiencing some nice spring time weather. 🌡️

A MLB team cannot win their division in April, but they can lose it. Going in to the middle of April we are seeing positive results from the Chicago Cubs, although they suffered the first set back of the season when Justin Steele was put on the 15 day IL. Right now they are at the top of the NL Central with a half game lead but that doesn’t matter as much as the +28 run differential that is the best in the league. The runs they scored during this last home stand in cold April weather is a very positive sign.

On Friday the Cubs start a 6 game road trip in Los Angeles and then San Diego, and I think these games are a good early test for the Cubs. I want to see them win at least two games in LA and win one in San Diego. The Dodgers have actually fallen back to earth going 6-4 over the last ten while the Padres has jumped up to the top of the NL West over the Dodgers and Giants. I will feel good about a split on this road trip.

Yesterday Dave linked to Come On Eileen as his song of the day. Not only is the link to a great 80’s song, but also to a music video when MTV was a thing. I counter that with another 80’s song and video, 99 Red Balloons. Double the memory.

I think Trump’s intent is to return the United States to the Gilded Age and therefore we ought to learn more about that period of history.

Without due process, a claim of guilt is simply one man’s word over another. Without due process we are simply being asked to believe the claims that the humans they labeled as terrorists and thus deserving of deportation and imprisonment are in fact deserving of that label and loss of liberty. Due process is how governments insure that the right to liberty endowed by our creator is preserved.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. – Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration Of Independence is important because it defines the values of the United States of America. It says the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is not only secured for citizens but for all people because we all have the same creator. Due process for everyone is how we live out our values in the United States and denying that to anyone makes us hypocrites at best.

I did not know this, but the upcoming Frozen Four in St. Louis marks the 50th anniversary of Michigan Tech’s last national championship in St. Louis.

I am wondering today about the price of things that I eat every day, blueberries, yogurt, bread, and my fondness for guacamole. I’ve seen was the tariffs are doing to my retirement savings, but I have yet to see it impact my daily life, but that will happen soon!

The first blossom has appeared in the flowering tree in our condominium that is always the first tree to flower every spring. It is several weeks behind last year.