Key points:

• whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force
• all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void
• to take from the States all the powers of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated government [...] is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these States
• where powers are assumed [by the Federal Government] which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy
• it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism
• this State does therefore call on its co-States for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the federal compact
• the co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and of no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing that neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised within their respective territories

any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually.

I love this. It is legislative notice that NH views the Constitution as an agreement between the states, and that usurpation of powers by the federal government beyond those granted to it by the Constitution are a violation and revocation of that agreement. This does not change anything–as you remember from Civics class, this is in theory how things work already–but it’s a formal reminder of that fact.

I’d be surprised if this thing passes; perhaps I am cynical, but I think that people are in general too comfortable with the notion of the United States as a single federal entity to truly enjoy the possibility that the states can effectively limit its powers. Even so, I plan on writing to encourage this thing’s passage. If you’re also a NH citizen, I encourage you to do the same; you can find who to write to here.

The treetops blaze in pyrotechnic glory, and the air becomes crisp and cool in anticipation of winter.

How can you tell it’s fall in Alabama?

Air conditioning isn’t necessary until after sunrise.

The general syntax is as follows:
awapi.bat enable|disable [[region=...] [state=...] [adgroup=...] [account=...]]

Thus, in order to disable all campaigns except Florida’s, you’d
run the program twice:
awapi.bat disable region=east
awapi.bat enable state=florida

In order to just turn off “flowers in”, you’d just specify that.
awapi.bat disable adgroup=”flowers in”
Note the use of quotes around the adgroup, as there is a space in the
name. Similarly, to reenable “flowers in” in New York:
awapi.bat enable adgroup=”flowers in” state=”new york”

To disable absolutely everything:
awapi.bat disable

To enable California and New Hampshire simultaneously:
awapi.bat enable state=california state=”new hampshire”

To turn off florists in central:
awapi.bat disable adgroup=”florists” region=”central”

To enable everything for the fs-dev account:
awapi.bat enable account=fs-dev

A few more notes on the syntax:
Capitalization does not matter
The order of the specifier arguments does not matter
It is an error not to include at least one argument
It is an error if the first argument is not “enable” or “disable”
Any argument which contains spaces must be joined by quote marks to
unify it.

The .bat file is just there so that you don’t have to type the seven .jars into the classpath each time. Everything else is in java. The examples basically follow the use cases I was given at the start of the problem, but I think it’s fair to say that the syntax is pretty easy to pick up.

On the first of October, if I haven’t yet moved out, I start paying my parents rent to continue living here. I intend to be out by that date, which means that I have to consider my vacation time over; my time needs to be spent helping out and figuring out exactly where I’ll be at that point. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

More news to come as I see it. My brother starts his first day of high school in a few hours; my sister begins her senior year of college a week later. Hopefully, even if my life is boring, I’ll hear interesting things from them.

Is the ability to carry a soda onto an airplane an essential liberty? Perhaps not, in the larger scheme of things. However, it is a convenience whose denial seems out of proportion to the scale of the threat. It’s hard to judge the success of an agency like the TSA; the only evidence generally available to the public is negative: they haven’t failed yet. On the other hand, they’ve increased the hassle and annoyance of flight for millions of people every year. We put up with it, I think, because of the fear that they are in fact doing their job properly, that without their services, someone would immediately bomb a plane and show us all.

Car crashes are rare events for any individual. In many states, it is mandatory to wear seatbelts; they are a minor inconvenience which do in fact save lives on the rare occasions that they are needed. I prefer New Hampshire’s policy, though: until the age of majority, seatbelts are mandatory, but as soon as you become an adult, you are free to take your life into your own hands.

What might happen if airlines were free to implement their own security policies? They might all choose to adopt a single policy and follow the lead of the government. I would hope for a different path, though, in which natural variation might spring up. Some airlines might adopt extremely stringent policies, become fortresses in the sky, and mark their brand the king of security. Others might invest in subtler measures: armored cockpit doors and smart screening machines. I can’t say what effect this might have on the price, but I do know one thing: I would choose to fly on the latter sort of airline. I am willing to accept a tiny risk in exchange for a pleasant experience; I’m willing to take a large risk for a great one. It’s why I want to skydive; it’s why I like to ski; it’s why I plan to get a motorcycle license. Am I really alone in being willing to make that exchange?

2 August: Tokyo -> Boston -> Rochester, NH
12 August: Boston -> Seattle
18 August: Seattle -> Newark
(NJ stuff goes here–details to be figured out later)
20? August: NJ -> vertumnus1′s family’s place
27? August: Drive back to NH

I actually have very little detail on the movements after the 18th, but those are being coordinated by people who aren’t me.

My great-grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side was the only member of that generation of my family to live long enough for me to meet. He was born over a hundred years ago, and helped shape the landscape of modern New Hampshire–sometimes quite literally: my hometown, his town, has six exits on the interstate highway, while a few miles down the road a city twice the size has three. My point here is that my heritage is unambiguously American; though my ancestors immigrated from England and France, nobody in my family has actually lived there for over a century.

I’d consider myself pro-immigration: the only reason to limit immigration is to limit access to social services which an immigrant has not spent their life paying for, and I’m anti-social-services (in general–talk to me for details). If we do away with most governmental services, we can open immigration policies without taking a financial hit.

However, I see no reason why a court should be required to hire interpreters for people, or why official documents must be translated into “major” languages. Equality under the law doesn’t mean providing assistance until every citizen is functionally equal; it means treating them the same no matter their background. I don’t expect copies of the law of Japan to be translated into English for me; I don’t see why a Mexican (or any other non-English-speaking) immigrant to the US would expect a similar service. Those are convenient services which are beneficial to immigrants, but they are expenses the government has to pay, and they still don’t ensure equality: even if we provide translations into dozens of languages, there are still hundreds more languages spoken within the US.

I’d say that it is advantageous for a nation to promote the use of a single language within its borders, because it eliminates barriers which would otherwise fragment its citizens. Eliminating those internal linguistic barriers helps promote a sense of being one nation, and one people; it builds a sense of nationalism. One of the best ways to institutionally promote unity is to make other options inconvenient; even without making anything illegal or impossible, people will gravitate towards the easy option. Less than one percent of the population of the US speaks no English; choosing and enforcing that language as an official standard will reduce that fraction further, not by driving people out of the country, but by encouraging them to learn.

One of the favorite metaphors of America’s immigrant heritage is the melting pot. As I understand it, this was supposed to evoke the image of a steel forge, radiant with heat as the alloys formed. The original materials–the iron, the coke, the other ingredients–never survive unscathed with their culture and heritage intact. However, when they emerge, they have combined into something altogether better than what was put in: steel.

I guess this only really makes sense to those of you who knew me in high school, because I haven’t been active much at all in CAP since I came to college. While I was in high school, though, CAP really defined my existence. I poured much more time and effort into the organization than I did into my schoolwork, whenever I could get away with it… It was a way to prepare myself, to get used to the military environment and way of thinking. JROTC wasn’t available for me; my high school didn’t have it.

The squadron is doing really well, it seems. There were only a few people there who recognized me, but they were the ones in command; they had risen admirably to ranks I never had the time to achieve. There were many new faces, though; it looks like the squadron’s grown since I left. It’s kind of a bittersweet feeling, going back and chatting with the people there; CAP was a great thing in my life, but I feel like I’ve lost touch with the person I was while I was there. Basically everyone in the squadron, at least while I was a member, intended to become an officer in some branch of the military through one of the available means, be it ROTC, a service academy, or just rising through the ranks. At this point, I’ve lost that; I’m just a civilian now. The one question everybody there asked me was how I was doing in ROTC; when I told them that I was no longer part of it, faces fell, and the conversations tended to end shortly thereafter.

I don’t know. I guess that it was inevitable that I would have to move on eventually; this was the first time in about a year that I’ve been in the state when they’ve held a meeting, and meetings are weekly. It’s just that going there recalls all the memories about the good times of high school; it doesn’t feel like I have as much fun with any single thing I do now. And that feeling is a little sad.

For most of the year, I slept away from the window. I preferred to have it open, but ultimately it was my roommate’s decision because he was nearer the window. Thw window stayed shot a lot, then. It was open sometimes because for soem reason, this room has never needed heating, even in the middle of winter. And it would actually get uncomfortably warm.

That wasn’t helped by the fact that around that point in history, we always had at least 3 people in this room designed for two. On several occasions, we had 7.

About three weeks ago, we rearranged the room so that my bed was immediately in front of the window, all my stuff was on the window side, and basically I had control of the window. Since then, the window’s been more-or-less continuously open.

This is because for me, there is no more comfortable feeling than to be curled up in a blanket in a room whose air temperature is between 40 and 60 degrees farenheit. Also, I like cold rooms in general. They help keep me alert.

However, apparantly I’ve become excessive. My roommate today registered a complaint about the air temperature. This is unusual on two counts: he almost never complains to anyone he has a complaint with (though he may complain to someone he considers a closer friend), and also because I have seen this man walk through snowfall to class wearing no more protection than a tshirt and slacks, without apparant discomfort.

So when he says he was kept awake shivering, it probably means something…

Now, our backgrounds may have something to do with this. I come from New Hampshire, and so brought with me two very warm blankets. He comes from somewhere in the south, and brought two light sheets. Still…

I don’t know. I’ve left the window closed all day as a measure of conciliation; I’ll probably open it again when I sleep. Since that’s not likely to be before midnight, I should be fine.

If not, at least I’ll have something to write about tomorrow…