The Desert of the Real

Ok, so, it’s not JRB. However, based on initial reports, it sounds like I may be happy anyway. More happy than I would’ve expected to be with a Bush nomination anyway. If he is truly a strict constitutionalist in the order of Scalia then we should throw our support behind him. It won’t be easy getting him through, and it’s unlikely Bush will appoint someone as good or better should he fail to secure the confirmation.

Now we just have to spin the chamber for Roberts and see what he turns out to be. If God shows us mercy, all we’ll get is a hollow click. Heaven knows we don’t deserve such mercy, but I hope and pray for it all the same.

Yes, it’s true, we can all give thanks for Harriet Miers showing the good judgement to withdraw from nomination. I appreciate her not stubbornly pushing forward into the confirmation hearings. I’m sure she’s not happy about it, and I can understand that. Nobody enjoys being the subject of such strong opposition.
(more…)

Back when this news first broke, Steve Hays had some interesting comments. Specifically pertinent to this discussion is this snippit:
(more…)

Here is my next response to Hays. He responded in comments on his blog this time, so it’ll probably show up there later today when I have had a chance to be sure this is what I want to say…and all I want to say.
(more…)

Here we go again. This time with Steve Hays, which I must say is incredibly difficult. I have tremendous amounts of respect for him, and have greatly benefited from the things he has written. However, I simply cannot agree with his approach on this. Since I spent so much time posting on there, I haven’t had much time to finish my other things I’ve been trying to respond to, so here’s a copy of my most recent post there instead. :-)

(more…)

I went and saw Serenity with my brother tonight. I was impressed. I really enjoyed the film. It had some good solid themes in it, particularly libertarian themes. Which is rather interesting given that Joss is a typical hollywood socalist. It is a truly creative blending of action, western, and sci-fi. You can see some of the typical struggles Joss has with some areas of his writing, but overall it’s very good, especially considering it’s his first movie. I’m truly impressed. Especially at his ability to weave the political stuff in without being overbearing.

The star wars flicks had good themes too, but they practically hit you over the head with it in most places, so when they were subtle, most people completely missed it. So I am inclined to say Joss did a better job with that in this film than Lucas did in his, though lucas had a tougher challenge given the existing story and the more complex themes he was trying to present.

Had an off-the-cuff thought here a moment ago. Just the other night, some neighborhood kids thought it’d be fun to smash in the rear window of my car with a baseball bat. (Our other neighbor, who is also black, came home and saw them milling about and followed them home…even he was unwilling to confront these boys, or ‘punks’ as he called them.) Not just hit it, but completely smash it in.

Yet…oddly enough…I don’t hear anyone hollering about it being a hate crime. Surprising? Not really. After all, I’m white. I’m sure I had it coming.

So she covered the shirt, but during a nap while passengers were boarding in Reno the cover came off. And Southwest employees insisted, change the shirt, or change flights. “I didn’t feel that I should have to change my shirt, because we live in the United States, and it’s freedom of speech and it was based on the move “The Fockers”, and I didn’t think it should have offended anyone.”

This story provides some interesting insight into how far we have fallen as a society. Particularly is it regards our understanding of liberty.

The backlash from a terrible appointment continues. When even the “thank you sir, may I have another” conservative lackeys are crying foul, you know the leadership has really crossed a line.

Ah yes, another demonstration of President Bush’s keen political acumen. How wise he is to pass over all of the eminantly qualified supreme court judges, whose solid commitment to the rule of law and to the constitution have been demonstrated through fire, to select a long time personal friend with no judicial experience.

Yes, once again, as with Roberts, Bush picks an unknown to try and avoid stirring up arguments. After all, it worked so well with Roberts and before that with Souter, why not do it again? Oh wait, Souter didn’t work out so well did he? And the jury is still out on Roberts (if you’ll pardon the pun).