Joy to the World!

I am very proud to say that my wife gave birth to our second beautiful daughter, Joy Eileen, on Saturday, 08 March 2008. The baby was delivered at 6:06pm and weighed 8#, 3 oz, and was 20.75" long.
This was the end of a very long, very anxious process my wife and I started about two years ago.

On the morning of the 8th my wife, who was feeling quite miserable, said she thought her water broke and we made our way to the hospital after speaking with her doctor.
We got there about 10:30 and got her hooked up to the monitors. They couldn't determine if her water broke with the nitrazine strip. She went to the bathroom and her contractions stopped. The nurse, who was fantastic, said that was normal, but they still needed to determine that her water broke, which after some time they were able to do.
Since her contractions had stopped and they knew her water had broken, they were going to induce, but before they could give her pitocin to get things going they had to make sure the baby was in the proper position.
We had to wait until the doctor who was in "the pit" finished with a Caesarian Section. It took longer for the mobile ultrasound machine to warm up than it took for this guy to find the baby's head and say "OK," and walk out.
Then my wife had to get an IV put in and she is a pretty difficult "stick." The otherwise fantastic regular nurse couldn't get her and neither could another nurse on the floor so they called in the IV team, which took another 45 minutes or so. All told, the waiting for the doctor and the nurses took more than an hour, which is not a complaint, just an observation. The baby would have come that much sooner.
The pitocin was given around 2:00pm and kicked in quickly. By 3:00pm she was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. They actually pulled the pitocin so they could give her the epidural.
After they gave the epidural, which they kicked me out of the room to administer, and re-started the pitocin, things moved swiftly.
My wife's friend who works at the hospital stopped in around 5:00pm to check on her. It's at this point that the pain from the contractions and the pressure on her lower back start to outweigh the epidural. It is also at this point that I have my wife on tape stating that we will have no more children.
Around 5:45 I call the grandparents to let them know that I think the baby will be here around 7:00pm. The in-laws, who have our older daughter, say they are going to make their way down now and not to worry about coming out to see them until after the baby is born.
At right before 6:00pm my wife's doctor comes in in street clothes and tells her everything looks great, he's getting changed and not to push.
He gets in the room at 6:02pm and the show gets started and the wife is handling everything amazingly.
After a few minutes he motions for me to move. I'm thinking I'm in his way and start to move to the far side of the room. He tells me to stop and pulls me next to him and says "put your hands here and pull the baby out."

No kidding.

He tells me not to let the baby slip and helps me put the baby on my wife's stomach. He puts his hand on top of mine, which is on the baby, and looks at me and says, "Isn't that great?"
And it really, really was.

The baby was perfectly healthy; perfectly perfect.

My wife had to push for only four minutes. The picture above was taken at about four or five minutes.
Ryann met her little sister at 6:30pm.

Our daughter is named for my wife's friend who died tragically last year. The family was gracious enough to allow us to use her name in her honor. We conceived around the time her friend took ill and had some problems getting pregnant before then and had some issues during the pregnancy. My wife is convinced that her friend helped this pregnancy stick and got baby Joy and us through the other issues.
Baby Joy was born on the birth-date of her friend's husband and will be baptized on the friend's birth-date.
I don't believe in the hereafter or in the interposition of the dead with the living. But this got even me thinking.

On our way home from the hospital, we stopped at the cemetery to lay flowers on Joy's grave and to thank her.

Blah Blah Blah

So the congress expresses the will of the people (theoretically at least) when it passes legislation. Recently, the fine men and women of the Legislature carried out their constitutional duty by passing a humongous $688 billion dollar spending bill for National Defense (HR 4986).
Section 1222 of the bill stipulates:

No funds appropriated pursuant to an authorization of appropriations in
this Act may be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:
(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the
permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.

And that should be that, right? Oh no, mon ami, not in the constitutional looking glass world of President Unitary Bush.
Somehow, section 1222 "imposes requirements that could inhibit the President's ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief."

So the congress, pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clauses 12, 14 & 16, states in terms about as concise as can be expected in a piece of legislation, that no funds may be used to build a military base in Iraq.

The president has no authority, in (unitary) theory or in (constitutional) fact, to disregard the express will of the legislature in an area so clearly under the authority of the legislature. If the president were to care truly about "carry[ing] out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," he would stop this incessant nonsense of issuing signing statements carving out sections of duly passed legislation and stipulating that he has the authority as the unitary executive to disregard the law.

Clinton v New York reinforces, in rejecting the line-item veto, what the constitution states pretty clearly--that the president has two choices upon being presented a bill, sign it (and then take care to execute the law faithfully) or veto it.

The ABA recently issued a statement regarding Bush's use of signing statements and the Cato Institute has also put out a paper on his pissing on the constitution generally and mentions his use of signing statements specifically.

UPDATE: I just found that the Daily Show noticed the same thing, they just did it succinctly and humorously:

Hulking Out

Reasons David Banner became the Hulk.

nod to maddad.

Problem, con't.

Regarding this piece in the Wall Street journal by Mark Helprin, who castigates the conservative elites for incessantly ripping John McCain for not hewing closely enough to their standards, a gentleman named Peter Wehner posted a reply at National Review Online.
The reply takes issue with a key paragraph written by Mr. Helprin:

To begin with, American columns should have cut through Baghdad after three days and exited three weeks later, leaving Saddam dead and a pliant Iraqi strongman to keep the country harmless or suffer the same quick take-down. Rather than being broken on the wheel of irreconcilable Muslim factions, a supple and intact American power would have shattered Arab elation following Sept. 11, and then by threatening their rule been able to discipline the various police states of the region into eliminating their terrorists. Far more efficient that way, without six and more murderous and unavailing years in which neither a single democracy has appeared nor will one. The surge is merely coincident with a change in Sunni strategy. Instead of watching the U.S. and Iran arm the Shiites for a major sectarian war, the Sunni choose to avail themselves of American arms while simultaneously removing the lunatic jihadists nipping at their heels.

You can read Mr. Wehner's post on your own, but the downright lack of seriousness of his words prompted me to write the following to him (This touches on several themes put forth here, so please pardon the repetition):

Mr. Wehner,

Regarding your post in response to Mark Helprin’s op-ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal: you write, “[i]n liberating Iraq, we inherited a divided, traumatized, and collapsing nation.” With all due respect, this is a very odd use of the word “inherit.” That Iraq was divided, traumatized and collapsing under Sadam Hussein I’ll take your word on, but wouldn’t it have made that much more sense not to invade a nation in such condition. We toppled a sovereign nation which posed no threat (strategic, existential or otherwise) to the United States, nor did it have any responsibility to the attacks on 11 September or for providing safe harbor for al Qaeda.

“If we had left after less than a month, its descent into chaos and civil war would have been accelerated, not averted.” We were told by the powers that be that we would be greeted as liberators. The country devolved into chaos as our men watched and our leaders dissembled. If a sovereign nation is involved in a civil war, diplomatically we may have a preference on who prevails, otherwise it is not (or should not) be the concern of the American military or treasury.

“Mass death and genocide would probably have followed.” Again, unfortunate, but not the concern of the United States.

“Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and Iran would have filled the vacuum immediately.” You are aware that al Qaeda in Iraq did not exist before March 2003, no? The fact that it came into existence, given President Bush’s rhetoric (and his mandate as commander-in-chief) after our invasion gives as good an indication as any as to the competence of the Bush administration generally and Donald Rumsfeld specifically; as does the previously mentioned asininity of being greeted as liberators; as does this point, “[t]he problem with the post-war (Phase IV) planning was that we had too few troops and did not embrace the population-centric counterinsurgency strategy.” This wasn’t merely “not embrace[d]” it was specifically rejected time and again. And any who pointed out our troop level deficiency was ridiculed for presupposing to know more than “our Generals.” Completely lost in this nonsense is that the Generals owe obeisance to the civilians, not the other way around. Due to pride, electioneering, ignorance, incompetence or whatever, Bush did not move to remedy this situation until after winning re-election in 2004. How many soldiers died due to flawed and failed strategy? Soldiers dying in war in an unfortunate fact; soldiers dying in a war of choice (not necessity) while commanders do not make necessary adjustments is unconscionable.

This paragraph:

“[s]econd, the assertion that there is not a “single democracy” in the Arab world is wrong. Iraq is a democracy. It is a fragile and flawed one, as the United States was for many years after its independence, and the institutions of democracy need to take deeper root. But Iraqis, under threats of death that Mark Helprin thankfully doesn’t face, have held several free and fair elections. We have seen the peaceful transfer of power. Democracy is not perfect, and Helprin may oppose granting the Iraqi people liberty. But whether he likes it or not, Iraq qualifies as a democracy – and it continues to take imperfect steps along that path. It would be nice if Iraqis received support rather than ridicule,"

beggars credulity. A nation-state that cannot sustain itself less the teat of its benefactor is unworthy of the description “democracy.” Compare this article by Deroy Murdock, listing all of the things that the US Army Corps of Engineers must do for the Iraqi people (our personnel on our dime) with this article by Angelo Codevilla. None of the projects in the Murdock article are designed, engineered, implemented or paid for by the Iraqis, just “granted” to them, just like their democracy.

This noble experiment of President Bush, this notion that “our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world,” is patent nonsense that will serve as nothing more than an albatross around our national neck for beyond the foreseeable future. “Democracy” cannot be given it must be earned. What have the Iraqis done to earn it? Lived in harm’s way? If that were enough, all of Africa and the Middle East would be swimming in democracies. Iraqis living in danger is the fault and responsibility of the Iraqi people.

Sean M

Orange Whip

In case you were wondering:
Orange Whip
Ingredients:

* 4 oz Orange juice
* 1 oz Rum
* 1 oz Vodka
* 1 package Cream or creamer
* Over Ice cubes

Mixing instructions:

Pour ingredients over ice and stir.

The Conchords Channel Bowie

Guiness