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Monthly Archives: June 2009

Per curiam

The Minnesota Supreme Court finally ruled in Al Franken’s favor. It was a per curiam decision. Per curiam means”by the court”. Per curiam decisions are often used in cases where the court feels the case is so bogus that a full fledged opinion is not necessary. But they can also be used to emphasize that […]

Sotomayor voted a racist, 5 to 4

My mind is boggled. The Supreme Court has overruled a case in which Judge Sotomayor participated, which proves that she is a racist. That, according to Limbaugh, et. al. Much of the media duly repeats that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Ricci case somehow proves something about her, as a person, a judge, or […]

Yet another book report

I just finished Dean Baker’s Plunder and Blunder, The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy. Baker is one of those economists who saw the bubble coming. He was therefore ignored at the time and continues to be ignored, much like those of us who saw the Iraq debacle coming were ignored then, and are […]

There are aliens among us

I think, perhaps, that I am beginning to understand the fundamentalist fear that gay marriages will somehow destroy their own. A few days ago I pondered Jenny Sanford’s odd declaration that marriage is an enduring love is primarily an act of will. Apparently, this attitude is ingrained in the fundamentalist creed, at least the fundamentalist […]

Why we need high speed rail

I just got back from Maine, where we had a little mini-reunion of the guys to whom I was closest in college. We had a great time, once we got there. But. The most logical route from here to Maine is up 395 in Connecticut, 290 to 495 in Massachusetts, then up 95 through New […]

Friday Night Music

Who else, given yesterday’s events? It’s actually hard to find good stuff on Michael Jackson. Embedding is disabled on all the music videos. There’s some concert footage from after he went totally off the deep end, or over the top, whichever you prefer. It also goes without saying that the no lip sync rule goes […]

Contrast and compare

At the Washington Monthly Steve Benen writes about the fact that the right may be opposing Sotomayor out of a generation old sense of grievance about the confirmation battles involving Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He suggests they take the advice that they, including Scalia, have given us about Bush v. Gore: get over it. […]

Mark Who?

What has a shorter attention span than the American Media? Give up? Nothing, and nobody. A few minutes ago my wife and I finished last night’s Daily Show/Colbert. We were about to turn our attention to Keith Olbermann, which was being saved to my hard drive as we watched Jon and Stephen. (That way we […]

An act of will

At times like this I realize my inadequacies as a wordsmith. What original slant could one possibly bring to the Sanford story? Sure, we all know that you couldn’t make it up, but that doesn’t help a guy in my situation. As I write, the story is already over 5 hours old, and in this […]

It’s all about us

Tom Tomorrow puts it succinctly, as always.