41st Anniversary

Dallasphoto1_1Today is the 41st anniversary of the JFK assassination, and I thought I’d post some photos from a trip I took last summer. I had an extended layover in Ft. Worth, and so I took a cab to Dealey Plaza, where the following photos were taken. (Sorry for the low quality; I only had my camera phone).

The one shown here is a picture of me standing next to the spot where the fatal headshot struck. Later, when leaving the plaza, the cab took me over this exact spot, which totally creeped me out.

One of the things that strikes one upon visiting Dealey Plaza is how small it is. Everything–the school book despository, the concrete pergola, the grassy knoll–is jammed right together in a very small space. When you see images of these on TV, it isn’t clear how close they are to each other, but I tried to show it in the pictures I took.

VIEW THE PICTURES.

(Click on them to enlarge and read captions.)

What A Chief Justice Is Good For

Down yonder, a Canadian reader asks:

I’m not a lawyer or too familiar with the way the court system works down there.

Could someone please explain to me briefly what privileges and powers the Chief Justice has in your system?

The chief justice doesn’t have much more actual authority than an associate justice. Each justice, whether chief or associate, gets only one vote.

But in addition to having greater ceremonial gravitas and prestige, the chief justice has certain procedural duties. He chairs the meetings of the justices and thus (to some extent) shapes the discussion. If he is in the majority, he also by tradition assigns which justices write the majority opinion. These process-oriented powers may have helped notable chief justices like Earl Warren (let his name be stricken from the monuments) to significantly influence the results the Court put forward.

MORE INFO HERE.