Just Excellent

Pres. Obama sure picked a great bill to be the first one he signed.

Mr. Obama was surrounded by a group of beaming lawmakers, most but not all of them Democrats, in the East Room of the White House as he affixed his signature to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law named for an Alabama woman who at the end of a 19-year career as a supervisor in a tire factory complained that she had been paid less than men.

After a Supreme Court ruling against her, Congress approved the legislation that expands workers’ rights to sue in this kind of case, relaxing the statute of limitations.

“It is fitting that with the very first bill I sign — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — we are upholding one of this nation’s first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness,” the president said.

He said was signing the bill not only in honor of Ms. Ledbetter — who stood behind him, shaking her head and clasping her hands in seeming disbelief — but in honor of his own grandmother, “who worked in a bank all her life, and even after she hit that glass ceiling, kept getting up again” and for his daughters, “because I want them to grow up in a nation that values their contributions, where there are no limits to their dreams.”

& this is also good news. The next step, of course, is to bring these war criminals to justice, Iraqi or American? It just doesn't matter, as long as the thugs who murdered 17 people are held accountable for their actions, as long as the consequences do not include the barbarous death-penalty.

US security contractor Blackwater was unprovoked when it opened fire on civilians in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 people and wounding 22, an Iraqi probe into the shooting has found.

My emphasis.

NOTE: I know, loyal four readers, that there has been a dearth, in fact, a lot of dearth, in the blogging from coldH2Oville this week. Part of the problem is that I have been obsessing on firewood. We will not have enough for this winter, so I need to decide whether to dig the last of the oak out of the snow & bring it on down to the house, or, pay an exorbitant price for a face* cord or two of dry, split wood. & these, dear readers, are the only options we/I have.

*This link tells you all you about the measuring of wood, & how to not get ripped off.

You may also see wood advertised by a "face cord" with the length of the pieces. A 24 inch face cord is 24 inches wide by four feet high by eight feet long.

There have been other probs, to be sure, but the firewood thing is the best excuse, far better than, say, getting my blood pressure to go up!