Trade SECRETS

So I was at Barnes and Noble today picking up "Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes and Posner and I did what I always end up doing, bought a book about Secret Societies, or in this case two.

One of the elements of the second book that convinced me to leave my normal path of one for school, one for me, was that the book contained a line by line copy of the Freemason Ritual.

Here is what I dont understand. Fraternities and Sororities have repeatedly forced the removal of secrets from websites and stopped the sale of ritual books on ebay. If fraternities have successfully accomplished this, why havent the freemasons? I understand that at some point the publication of your secrets one time compromises them, but still, why would they support people making money off of their traditions?

I am not certain but it seems as if they should enjoy the same legal protections. The only question is has its wide spread and state by state governance created a situation in which they are unable to coordinate a legal effort to stop the publication of secrets? I doubt it.

If anybody has any ideas, let me know

Suprise

So Alito shocked everybody by breaking from the conservative block on his first vote ever as a member of the Supreme Court.

Sutter anybody?

So why do I bring this up? Simple. About two hours ago I finished an argument in which somebody was telling me that the seperation of powers is a joke because the judicial branch is just a function of who controls the white house and who is in the senate and that as long as the approval process was political, we could never get a good, representative justice. My response to this was that 1. this is a central element of our constitution and 2. Judges don't always vote just along political lines. He then said, Bush's justices would, to which I said "well Alito just proved your statement false, try again?

The conversation ended shortly after with him fairly unhappy.

State of the Union

I think this is the part of my blog where I give the obligatory comment about the state of the Union Address that was delivered last night.

First and foremost, some observations:

1. Alito looked to be amazed at his surroundings, like he couldn't believe it was happening. This was a fun change from the normal boring reactions on people's faces. It is nice to see that these people, while amazingly smart are in fact real people.

2. I love crazy-outspoken-straighttalking-conservative-Arizona-Senator-Man, but man, he looked like a HUGE dork during his emphatic clapping fit. I could not help but burst with laughter.

3. More hard talk about the Arab world, more naming of countries, but I doubt there will be any action towards them.

4. I totally agree with the announcer (I dont remember which channel, I kept flipping) that said judges and generals always seem uncomfortable during the speech.

As for comments, I am torn. I thought it was the best job I have seen him do so far, but at the same time it did contain a large amount of sketching broad stokes that I am not certain can be filled in. I am glad to see him seeming like the president again and I hope this can be turned into some meaningful action instead of him getting rolled on everything for the next three years despite still having control of congress.