Some Brief Notes

I've had quite a few topics I've wanted to write about lately, but I think my literary writer's block has spilled over into other areas. All right, it's not writer's block so much as writer's frustration, or writer's exhaustion. Basically my paying gig has been so taxing over the last several weeks, as have the strains of BH's job search, that putting written words together in something resembling a logical order has just been too much for my teensy little brain. There! That at least touches on the two or three most important personal issues I've been coping with lately.

One small thing I stumbled across today is a blog in Britain with the same title as my blog, and (not surprisingly) the same quotes from Sieyes in the top bar. Very weird feeling. I felt bad that they had so many more posts than I did but then I realized that it was a community blog. Whew.

I am not going to talk about the BP oil spill except to say that I find the continuing support for offshore drilling among the American public deeply depressing. There's nothing more to comment on other than repetitive exclamations of horribleness.

As for the Kagan nomination, I'm going to have be consistent and say that no blank slates on the Supreme Court means no blank slates on the Supreme Court. I don't care if Obama thinks Kagan is neat - I need to think she's neat before I'm willing to give her the power to re-write the constitution for the rest of her life. The fact that she's purported to agree with Obama on executive power - one of the areas where I am the most disgusted with Obama's presidency - only gives me added reasons to reject her. Supreme Court nominees shouldn't be given a pass on their judicial philosophy - they should be positively grilled on it. The problem with the Bork nomination wasn't that Bork was savaged by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but that Bork was a reactionary whose judicial beliefs were far outside the mainstream of American political thought. The process worked precisely as it was supposed to and should be repeated for each and every person who is nominated to the bench. If I was on the Judiciary Committee and Kagan - or any other nominee - dared to stonewall me the way that nominees have been doing for going on two decades now, I would vote against them. By the way, I think Matt Yglesias is on to something and we should end lifetime appointments to the bench. 18 years would be enough. Heck, let's institute age limits for Senators and House members, while we're at it.