best place to live...

Leah and I are purchasing a house in Cross Plains just 3 days after finding out that we already live in the best place to live in the United States.

We love the new house, though, and it sure beats renting. Plus, we will still be in the Middleton school district and are only 10 minutes from downtown Middleton, where we can still enjoy the parks and great restaurants (if we can afford it with our mortgage payment).

Here are some pics of the new house. The backyard looks even better with the flowers in full bloom.

thoughts on Jesus...

My friend Brad recently tagged me in the "5 things I dig about Jesus" meme. I have to admit that until I was tagged, I had no idea what a meme even was. Seems like a good idea, though, so I thought I'd add my thoughts.

I actually considered starting my own meme to discuss things I don't dig about modern "worship music", but it seemed so unlike Jesus to do such a thing, so I'll wait until a later date (let me know if you want to be tagged).

Without further ado, here are 5 things I dig about Jesus:

1. Jesus did not start his "career" until he was 30 years old (see Luke 3:23). I dig this because it puts me a couple years ahead of the ball game. On a more serious note, though, I dig this because it shows that Jesus believed in education. We know from Luke's gospel that Jesus grew in wisdom from the time of his childhood until he began his ministry. I think Jesus was demonstrating the value of studying the scriptural texts in depth before teaching them to others and I think this lesson applies to careers other than ministry.

2. Jesus believed that only the perfect should throw stones at the imperfect, thus eliminating stone throwing altogether. I think being stoned would hurt and that stoning another person would hurt in an altogether different way...so this is a good thing.

3. Jesus put arrogant lawyers in their place (see Matthew 22:35-40) by making that which they felt was complicated, simple. In a way, Jesus was into judicial activism. He knew the law, but also knew that there were principles behind the law that were far more important than the language of the law itself. In other words, if you broke the law by say, healing on the Sabbath, that was a good thing, because although it violated the letter of the law, it upheld the principle of Sabbath.

4. Jesus told great stories - and didn't always explain their meaning. There's nothing I appreciate more than a story, movie, lyric, poem, or piece of art that can be interpreted different ways by different people in different circumstances.

5. Jesus knew when not to speak.

Thanks to Brad for tagging me. Reading all the previous posts reminded me of several other things I dig about Jesus as well, including everything on Brad's post. This was certainly a worthwhile way to spend my time.

Unfortunately, most of the bloggers I know who blog on a regular basis have already been tagged, so I will not be tagging anyone. Sorry...I was always the person who stopped the chain letter as well. Fortunately, 6. Jesus forgives and expects you to do the same.

cool websites and campaign finance

Time.com has a piece out on the best websites on 2007.

One of my favorites was this one, which allows you to track the money that is being donated to all of the 2008 presidential candidates. It reminded me of a joke from the movie "Man of the Year", in which Robin Williams says that politicians should be like Nascar drivers and wear the logo of their financial supporters on their sleeve (see the trailer here - the joke is in it).

Note: The movie is not nearly as good as the trailer.

Divided Court

Bill Mears at CNN has noticed something I noticed when reading some of the recent Supreme Court decisions - the Justices' are getting personal.

I have always enjoyed reading dissenting opinions (especially Scalia's), because they often spend more time tearing apart the majority opinion than they do supporting their own. This certainly doesn't mean that I always agree with their opinion and it doesn't necessarily lead to great legal argument, but it is more fun. But is has been interesting lately to watch how the justices have become more comfortable attacking not the legal argument, but the views of the one making the argument.

John Roberts certainly didn't want a divided court during his tenure as Chief Justice, as evidenced by this interview. However, he has not shown much (if any) willingness to compromise his views in order to maintain a more unanimous SCOTUS. I would predict more 5-4 decisions and more biting commentary from the liberal justices as they continue to lose close "battles."

July 4th Food for Thought

In the 1776 Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers made the following accusations against the King of England (among others):

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Please don't read this as a knock on our government or our President, but I think we should remember some of the reasons we sought independence from England in the first place and how they may be applicable to our current political environment. We sought independence (among many other reasons) because the King saw himself as above the law, used the military for his purposes against the will of the people, created new government offices and used them to harass the people, took jobs away from legal officials who disagreed with his politics, and obstructed foreigners who wanted to visit our country.

Again, I am not trying to imply that our current government is as bad as King George or even close. I do hope, however, that we will remember why we sought independence in the first place and seek to avoid becoming that which we once despised.

Happy 4th!

Supreme Court and Discrimination

For anyone who is as interested as I am in the shift taking place on the Supreme Court, the recent decision in Parents Involved (the race discrimination in public schools case) has provided a wealth of enjoyable reading over the past week from various print and online sources. You can read the opinion here (all 185 pages) or get the gist of who said what here. I'd love to provide links to all the great blog posts I have read, but it would be far too time consuming.

I did want to point out this post by Deborah Hellman, which explains my problem with the plurality opinion in the case. Her idea can be summarized in this quote from her post, but you really should read her entire post to get the gist of what she is saying:

"What is missing from Justice Roberts’ analysis (and Equal Protection doctrine generally) is a theory of when drawing distinctions on the basis of race (or any other trait) constitutes wrongful discrimination. In my view, distinctions drawing is wrongful and unconstitutional when it is demeaning."

In saying this, she is taking issue with Roberts' statement that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” She makes a fairly compelling argument that this seemingly obvious statement is not always true.

For those who are interested in my opinion, I happen to think that Justice Kennedy's concurring opinion got it right in this case. In other words, I feel that there is a way to be "race conscious" (his words) without defining students on the basis of their race. He suggests some ways to do this on page 8 of his opinion. I also agree with Kennedy's thoughts here:

"The statement by Justice Harlan that '[o]ur Constitution is color-blind' was most certainly justified in the context of his dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson...And, as an aspiration, Justice Harlan's axiom must command our assent. In the real world, it is regrettable to say, it cannot be a universal constitutional principle."

Winner of the "News that isn't News" award...

WebMD offers up this knowledge to us today:

"Playing video games may mean spending less time reading or doing homework, according to new research on video games and children."

In other news, watching TV may mean spending less time reading or doing homework.

Also, CNN reports that grass is green.