Pursuant to an exchange happening in the comments, allow me to respond to a point argued by the Chief Justice — which is at the very heart of his decision — and add it to the response from the dissenters. I do this because it will become clear to many longtime readers of this site just how perfectly Roberts’ argument, and my rebuttal to it, replays the intentionalism discussions so
July 3, 2012
Flashback: “Roberts’ Rules”
Published in the Atlantic, 2007, the interview with Chief Justice John Roberts that set the stage for the deconstruction of the Constitution at the hands of one supremely overconfident thinker, a man whose greatest flaw is his inability to see how his unblinking devotion to his supposedly measured humility is itself a form of dangerous hubris. Before long, the conversation turned to judicial disappointments. “It’s sobering to think of the
July 3, 2012
Open Letter to Hugh Hewitt and All the Other “Optimists” Out There [dicentra]
POINT I I’m sure you’re familiar with the myriad YouTube parodies of the Hitler bunker scene from the movie “Downfall,” e.g., “Hitler reacts to Tim Tebow beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoffs in OT“. If you haven’t seen it with the original English subtitles, take a gander. Hitler’s top advisers hid from him the fact that Steiner’s forces had been unable to mount an assault, because they were
July 3, 2012
Ric Locke … [Darleen Click]
I haven’t paid a lot of attention to my feeds over the past week. Bad me. It’s Lung Cancer. Stage III, inoperable. Median survival prognosis: One year after diagnosis. Which is, as it turns out, the reason I haven’t been accomplishing much, including posting here and making progress on the sequel to Temporary Duty. The details are complicated, and I don’t have the energy to fully explain. Medical insurance? Of
July 2, 2012
Slob photographer, Joe Klamar, gives people a chance to get their Ugly American hate on … [Darleen Click]
Oh … I meant Slav photographer A set of portraits of American Olympians has generated negative feelings in the photography community because of an “amateur” and “shoddy” look that some think was intentional. The photos were taken for Getty and AFP at the USOC media summit by Joe Klamar. While other photographers at the event chose to shoot the portraits straight up, Klamar’s had a different feel. Members of the
July 2, 2012
“Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence Attacks House Efforts To See Holder’s Gunrunning Documents”
The masks are coming off. People dead from gun violence tied to a federal government program the details of which they’re working hard to keep hidden from Congressional oversight? No biggie. WE “GUN SAFETY” ADVOCATES DON’T NEED TO SEE THAT AND RESENT THAT YOU PARTISAN HATERS DO!” Listen: Why even pretend to be shocked by any of this? They don’t care about safety. They care about power: getting it, holding
July 2, 2012
protein wisdoms
From long-time commenter LBascom, comparing the Border Patrol and the Secret Service : Two federal protection agencies; one protects the country’s borders, one protects the country’s temporary political representative. One is told to take a bullet if they must to do their duty. The other is told to run and hide under threat. I find it illuminating of our ruling elite’s mind set. They have no intention of living under
July 2, 2012
“Why are Republicans so awful at picking Supreme Court justices?”
Mark Theissen, WaPo, who nails it precisely. Good on him: […] compare the records over the last three decades. Democrats have appointed four justices — Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen G. Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. All have been consistent liberals on the bench. Republicans, by contrast, have picked seven justices. Of Ronald Reagan’s three appointees (Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy) only Scalia has been a
July 2, 2012
“Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’”
Boom. Boom Boom Boom. Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher, and the rest of the useful idiots may wish to sniff off the ideological ties between “Fast and Furious” and the adamant gun-control agenda of people like Holder or Dennis Burke. And the thinking conservatives wishing to avoid the taint of “conspiracy mongering” may work extra hard to show skepticism over any such border enforcement/domestic policy overlap. But the truth is, we
July 2, 2012
We already know what you are. Now we’re just haggling over price.
Several days after the shock of the Roberts’ decision and many of the thinking Republicans are ready to move on — and in order to do so, they’re intimating that we bracket the argument that the decision itself was an illegitimate overreach by a rogue Court whose Chief Justice we now know was bullied into changing his opinion over fears that his court may appear politicized (the four lockstep votes