My World of Wonders aka The Wednesday Ws July 3rd edition

Where have I been this week? The farmers market, the gym, the pool, old town Alexandria, the Dentist,  

What broke this week? My Toto and my Peugeot. My bathroom has a Toto toilet, a masterpiece of Japanese design and engineering, except for the flush handle.  The plastic flange that holds it to the tank, failed for the second time since I have lived here.  It is easy to change, and  Amazon stocks parts.  A few years ago I was in Sur Le Table and found a Peugeot pepper mill on clearance sale.  Before Peugeot made cars, they made the world's finest pepper grinders. A few days ago, I twisted it and the grinder didn't turn.  I ordered a new one from Uncle Jeff, when it arrived I dumped the peppercorns out of the old one, thinking I could put them in the new one, a half a dozen plastic and metal parts came out. It was truly broken.  Why did I replace it, the adjustable grind on it is a work of art.  

Who have a talked to this week? Not much of anyone. My Sweet bear. 

What am I watching / listening to? The greatest bike race in the World, the Tour de France is on for the next three weeks. 

What have I been pickling?  I have a half gallon of dill pickles and two pints of pickled golden beets working away in the kitchen. 

HoW is my sister doing? She had a minor stroke at work, and surgery to remove a blockage from an artery in her neck. The incision starts just below one ear, and ends in her cleavage. She is home, doing well, healing, no apparent long term damage.  She looks like the winner in a knife fight in the back parking lot at McDonalds.

What do I think of the Supreme Court Ruling on immunity? Don't get me wrong, I loath HeWhoShallNotBeNamed, he a vile human being and totally unfit to be in charge of anything. The opinion follows hundreds of years of legal tradition, that government officials are immune for acts in the performance of their official duties. This goes back to the English Common Law, of sovereign immunity, and has been the law of the United States since before we were a country. The immunity does not extend to acts outside the performance of duties, ah- like running for office.  Reading the opinion, this controversy is a result of careless charging and overzealous defense arguments. Both sides should have paid attention to the concept of immunity during the first year of law school. The chorus of scorched cats and those celebrating are making the same error of reading individual sentences out of the opinion, and not the conclusions in the opinion (linked above, and fairly well written.)