Mrs. Crucis and I were startled by our doorbell this morning. It was our neighbor, Gordon, who, having not seen us for a few days, was checking on our welfare…he also cleared our driveway, sidewalks and steps with his snowblower. Judging by the average observable depth, we received over 8″ of snow.

We’ve always been very independent. We have had to learn, as we’ve gotten older, that some things should not be done…like shoveling snow.

Gordon and I discussed sharing the cost of a snowblower at one time. I didn’t hear more until I saw Gordon unloading one from the back of his truck. I went over and visited a bit, helped him get it out of his truck. Gordon told us we would not have to shovel snow anymore, he’d take care of that.

That was three years ago. Gordon has kept his promise.

***

Vlad the Putin lusted after the Winter Olympics and got them. It was his chance to show the world the recovery of the Russian Alliance. Athletes and reporters gathered in Sochi and stories are beginning to emerge. Unexpected, by the west, stories.

• Visitors are warned to not drink the water. Some received further warnings to not touch the water, either. One tweet from a reporter said she washed her face with Evian like a Kardashian.
• Journalists found this advice in their bathrooms: “Please do not flush toilet paper down the toilet! Put it in the bin provided.”
• One German photographer told the AP over the weekend that his hotel still had stray dogs and construction workers wandering in and out of rooms. — WaPo.
• Tweet from Stacy St. Clair @StacyStClair.

  My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, “do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous.” #Sochi2014

  9:02 PM – 3 Feb 2014 from Адлер, Sotji, Russia

Sorry, Vlad, your New Russia isn’t ready for prime time.

***

My favorite picture from the Superbowl…

***

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled law students and most news junkies with this statement, “Kidding yourself’ if you think internment camps won’t return.”

The context of the statement was a discussion with law students that the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II, was wrong, regardless of SCOTUS approval.

It was a wake-up call for the students that reality often does not follow logic, nor law.

Scalia: ‘Kidding yourself’ if you think internment camps won’t return

By Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press, Monday, February 3, 2014

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Scalia was responding to a question about the court’s 1944 decision in Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu for violating an order to report to an internment camp.

“Well of course Korematsu was wrong. And I think we have repudiated in a later case. But you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told students and faculty during a lunchtime Q-and-A session.

Scalia cited a Latin expression meaning, “In times of war, the laws fall silent.”

“That’s what was going on – the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot. That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war. It’s no justification, but it is the reality,” he said.

Avi Soifer, the law school’s dean, said he believed Scalia was suggesting people always have to be vigilant and that the law alone can’t be trusted to provide protection.

Soifer said it’s good to hear Scalia say the Korematsu ruling was wrong, noting the justice has been among those who have reined in the power of military commissions regardless of the administration.

To paraphrase Scalia, “During war, all legal bets are off…anything can and may be justified during the panic and chaos of war.” In some instances, like our current political environment in Washington, it applies to politics as well.