I've started reading the 3rd chapter about the state of the Judicial Branch. It's an easier read than the 2 previous chapters for the main reason that it's not PISSING ME OFF like the other chapters did.
That being said, I haven't posted on my blog in a long time, longer than I wanted to go without posting. I haven't done so mostly because I've been too lazy to discipline myself to sit down and take the time out to write about whatever. Also, I hadn't been writing because I had stopped reading the book. I had stopped reading it because the last 2 chapters I read really upset me...to the point where I wasn't sure if I was going to even want to finish it. But yesterday, while Frank was reading his new book What Jesus Meant, I decided to be productive and pulled out the book and started reading chapter 3. I want to say I got maybe half way through. It's a LONG chapter!
This book has made me reaffirm something else about books that affect how I read them: Since I already have a hard enough time looking forward to reading, I need some frequent senses of accomplishment as I read. And these "accomplishments" come in the form of finishing chapters. If chapters are short, I'll finish it faster because I'll see my progress which, in turn, motivates me to read more and ultimately finish. If the book has few chapters, the book better be damn short, because I *hate* chapters that are 50 pages long. I hate that. And this current 3rd chapter in Broken Government is like 70 pages long. Grrr.
Besides the layout of the book, school has gotten busier, and I've had to deal with burn-out issues. Today is Memorial Day (thank you, troops!), and tomorrow is Tuesday, June 1st. Our last day of school is Thursday, June 3rd. That pisses. me. off. I *hate* that out school year goes into June! Ugh! The kids are tired and have checked out. And the teachers, including myself, probably checked out after Spring Break. I don't want to go back to school tomorrow. In fact, even though today is Monday, I feel like it's a Sunday since we had a 3-day weekend. And don't get me wrong; as much as I LOVE 3-day weekends, this one is always hard because it's a big tease before the summer comes. That's just fucked up. *shrugs* WHY?! Why make us teachers, who work so hard all year, be teased this way? Are we seriously just supposed to fill a certain number of working days? Because if that's the reason why we're going into June, then that's stupid. I'm sorry, but it is. Anyway, I should probably shut up considering there are plenty of people who wish they had the same 3 months off (paid) that teachers do. I'm bitching about how I have 3 more days of school left, and other people have to earn vacation time. For us, it's part of the package.
I'll make it, but I'll probably bitch on the way out about how school should've ended on Friday, May 28th. The good news is that next year, we DON'T go into June, and we'll have a week off for Thanksgiving as well as Spring Break. That I think is appropriate; a week off in the Fall, and a week off in the Spring, with 2 weeks off between semesters...and the random days off we get sporadically.
Back to the book.
So, this chapter about the Judicial Branch is pretty much talking about how those justices whom have served on it, how they've become nominated, and how the parties in power have affected which judges end up serving. It also explained something I didn't know about, but am not surprised about; we have apparently 4 different types of judges: minimalists, fundamentalists, and 2 others I can't recall. But the most common were these 2 I've mentioned. I can't remember what the deal was with minimalist judges, but fundamentalist judges are those who base their decisions by interpreting the Constitution as it was written in its time. So they apply it to a contemporary situation based on its original context. I thought it was interesting, but this chapter isn't anywhere nearly as fired up in its writing as the previous 2 chapters were. But I'm not finished with this one either. The author is about to discuss how the branch was affected by Bush Sr.'s reign, as well as W's reign, and they both have a few pages dedicated to themselves.
Frank already finished his book, which made me slightly jealous because I wish I could read faster than I do. That's the main reason why I don't buy books that become movies. I've never read any of the Lord of the Rings series, nor The Chronicles of Narnia, nor the Harry Potter series. None of them, because as thick as those books are, it'll take me forever to finish whereas I can enjoy the story (though I know they're not usually faithful to their books) by watching a movie and be finished in a few hours. I know people who've read books...BIG books, within a 24-hour period. I don't know if I could ever do that.
*sigh* I better finish this post. I have some work I gave myself to do that I need to have ready to distribute to my students over the next couple of days. These last 3 days will be CRAZY.
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