Random Nuclear Strikes

I love living on the West Coast when important Supreme Court rulings come out, because by the time I get up out of bed, the court by definition has released its ruling. I will bet you all sorts of No-Prizes that the poor saps staying up 24 hours tonight so they can be among the FIRST!!!111! to read the McDonald decision are going to rue the day they forgot that there are some other rulings due tomorrow too, and they’re likely to come before McDonald, because, let’s face it, McDonald’s the only case left with any real drama.

Fellow West Coasters, join me in a good night’s rest and then check out SCOTUSBlog with your morning coffee for your McDonald fix. It’ll all be nicely digested for you by then, too.

Here’s a pic  (click to embiggen) of me under a BAir Hugger Model 775 blanket before a test in the chilly basement of the hospital. Easily the most instantly comfortable blanket I,ve been under, it’s heated by a vacuum-cleaner hose that fills a bunch of chambers with toast-warm air in moments. It’s made (I think) by Arizant Healthcare. An excellent choice for any of you S-A-R types. Really a neat product from the patient’s point of view.
Of course, even that can’t compare to the warmth of a live, breathing, loving real white wolf blanket.

Alaska faithfully stared out the window the entire fortnight I was in the hospital. When the wife came home each night from visiting me he’d snuffle her to get my scent. When she finally brought me home, I was still in the car out of his sight and he started to howl. (We’ve howled from time to time, he and I.) I was too weak to reply, but in moments the pack was back together and that much was right with the world. 🙂

“All your initiatives signatures belong to the enemy of that initiative.”

Some people who didn’t like that Washington State’s domestic partnership law collected enough signatures to get a Referendum on the ballot to end it. It was called Referendum 71.

Almost immediately, some of the people who liked the domestic partnership law filed with the Secretary of State to have the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people who signed the petition handed over to them.

The people who ran the petition signing operation said that giving out the names to the pro-partnership law would be tantamount to encouraging the criminal harassment of those who signed the petition and sued the SoS to stop the release of that information. Unfortunately for them, they never actually got a decision on whether the worries about harassment from one of the lesser courts.
Yesterday, the SCOTUS decided 8-1 that because the harassment worries had never actually been ruled upon by a lower court, they could not actually rule to block the release of the list, but that, as with all public records cases since dirt was young, the SoS has to release the list.

So now the people behind Referendum 71 have to go back to the ground level courts and try and get a judgment on whether the possibility of harassment is enough of a “burden” to halt the Washington SoS from releasing the list.
I suppose I should care which side wins, but since there is no option right now of the names being released and the signers not getting harassed, I can’t find the urge to do so.