Used to be you needed a Visigoth to take my house

Now, the Supreme Court says a shopping mall developer can just sweetly ask for it, and it's his. It's a wonderful country. There's a reason liberals fight tooth and nail to stack the judiciary with their team. It's the only way they can get their agenda into law, since none of this would ever get by voters.

But never mind persuading voters, in this case, the Supreme Court simply rewrote the 5th Amdendment.

After the rain cleared out today, it's now sunny and gorgeous. A couple people in the office are leaving for other jobs (as have quite a few others, and they won't be the last) so we went for a farewell lunch down on the river's edge, at Pracna.

I might take the kids over to the lake tonight, assuming the weather holds up. I mowed last night, so I have grass to bring over to the compost heap.

I'm reading a history of the Teutonic Knights. Great stuff. I always like reading about Europe and what it was like all those centuries ago. Terrain that is now settled and civilized was in many cases wilderness or dangerous or a collection of little villages.

There were so many many armed conflicts in Europe, large and small, over those centuries. Armies from the East (Mongols, Muslims, Tatars) neighboring countries bashing each other and trying to expand territories, etc.. often it was the defenseless little guy that always suffered most. Farmers and peasants simply slaughtered in all the fighting, or sold into far off slavery. It was a different world. Well, sort of. Man's penchant for attacking is fellow man hasn't changed much.