Monthly Archives: December 2009

Sockpuppet time!

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s sockpuppet Justice Clarence Thomas, who rarely speaks up or says anything of any intelligence during case arguments, spewed forth a testy snit during Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s first opinion delivery today.

While Thomas apparently concurred with the court’s majority opinion, it looked like he just had to get his two cents in about a phrase that Sotomayor used in the opinion reading. Sotomayor used the phrase “undocumented immigrant” for the first time in the Court’s history, rather than “illegal immigrant”. Thomas’ whine?

“with a sweep of the court’s pen, [Sotomayor] substituted ‘value judgments” and ‘what the court thinks is a good idea’ [for the text of a law]“

Thomas was a legal nitwit prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, and he continues that sterling record of nitwittery today. I would love to see for myself if he actually puts much effort into the work he does for the Supreme Court.

“He that doeth evil/Hateth the light”

(KJV, John somethingorother, Jesus to Nicodemus)

Not all is going well with the climate accord talks in Copenhagen.

Someone leaked a bunch of email exchanges that indicate that the treaty to be signed at the end of the accords will hand most of the power over to developed rich countries and emasculate the U.N.’s ability to police violations of the treaty. Less developed countries are raising hell and disrupting the sessions.

While I do not agree at all with the spirit of the climate accord, I have to laugh at those pretentious asshats who continue to think that the best way to get business done is to conduct it secretly in smoke-filled rooms away from the public eye.

And while I also don’t normally agree with leakage of confidential documents to the media, there are times when you have to overturn the rocks and expose the slimy, slithering, lying vermin to the light of day.

Anatomy of a fatality

Jennifer Smith’s 61-year-old mother dies in a car accident. The other driver was talking on his cell phone.

What does Ms. Smith choose to do?

Does she sue the caller, who pled guilty to negligent homicide? Nah–he likely doesn’t have that much money.

Does she make impassioned pleas to get people to stop driving while calling, to prevent more occurrences? A humanitarian gesture, but no money in that.

Jennifer Smith chooses to sue the phone provider and the wireless company the caller uses. Gobs of liquid cash there.

Too damned grim to put in ‘Quote to raise eyebrows’

(from a ‘Raw Nerve’ talk between actor William Shatner and wingnut godbag pillhead Rush Limbaugh)

William Shatner:
If you have money, you’re going to get health care. If you don’t have money it’s more difficult.

Rush Limbaugh:
If you have money you’re going to get a house on the beach. If you don’t have money you’re going to live in a bungalow somewhere.

Shatner:
But we’re talking about health care.

Limbaugh:
What’s the difference?

Whom can you hire?

At this time it is illegal in the United States to fire, refuse to hire, or fail to promote an employee based upon the employee’s race, color, gender, religion, or national origin. Not everyone has always agreed with that (segregationists, churches, ERA opponents).

The new bill in Congress called ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) will extend the same employment privileges to employees regardless of sexual orientation. Not everyone agrees with that now, despite the fact that small businesses, religious businesses, and the military are explicitly exempt from the provisions of the bill.

I hate that the government must enact legislation that controls how businesses run their businesses. However, social justice traditionally lags far behind the establishment of rights and privileges.

Daffy Duck was at the helm of the governor’s office in Arkansas

In 1997, then Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee strong-armed Arkansas parole board members, broke established protocol (and a couple of laws), ignored a mountain of evidence (and made some up in his own mind), and granted parole to rapist Wayne Dumond.

Six weeks after being released, Dumond raped and then murdered two other women.

In 2000, Huckabee forced the parole board’s hand again and paroled mentally-unbalanced, five-felony-conviction-holder Maurice Clemmons. (He broke parole soon afterward and was returned to prison to complete his sentence.)

This week Clemmons repaid Huckabee’s hospitality by gunning down four of Seattle’s finest. He was out on $150,000 bail pending a charge of pedophilic rape.

Mr. Huckabee? How long are you going to let religious zealotry and political maneuvering make your decisions for….

Oh, never mind. I guess never:

Huckabee: “Should he [Clemmons] be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State.” (emphasis mine)