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November 02, 2005

Great Point About Gender/Racial "Balance" on the Supreme Court

Powerline, responding to a Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel editorial.

The MJS:

In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.

Powerline responds:

...the liberals at the Journal Sentinel apparently think that Supreme Court justices are like House members who represent constituencies, and are supposed to vote according to the wishes of those they represent. That's a stupid idea, obviously. But stay with it for a moment. If that is their theory, then why do the same liberals consistently praise Supreme Court decisions that frustrate the wishes of most Americans?

And Brainster's Blog wants to know if David Souter should have an asterisk next to his name, since he does not, apparently, reflect the views of most white Americans.

There's a word for this sort of thinking. That word is racism. Or at least a notion of racial-solidarity and, implictly, disdain for those outside the race that approaches racism.

Really, if liberals want to continue the good work they did in the sixties overcoming racism, they cannot also dabble in "good racism" when they find it politically expedient to do so. White people might start to get the impression that if lockstep "What's good for my race?" thinking is okay for everyone else, maybe they should start joining in the fun again.

Naked Testicle Spiderman ain't too happy about it either. At least I assume he's not happy about it. He uses the words "apotheosis" and "ontological," which tells me he's so angry he's been reduced to using made-up, hobo-gibberish pretend-words that just pop into his head. But I dig on that kind of lunatic senselessness.

Thomas “deserves an asterisk” because he doesn’t “think” black—black thinking having now been reduced to a single ontological class that is presumably recognizable by how well it tacks with the positions of black leaders and progressive politicos who, in a perverse cycle, define the very “black” interests that mark one as authentically black.

Wasn't it the mayor of Vienna (forget his name; the mayor in the 1930's, as Naziism rose in power) who said, "I decide who the Jews are?"

Via the Blogometer.

posted by Ace at 12:35 PM

Comments

Yup, that is a great point.

Why didn't *I* think of that?

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on November 2, 2005 12:47 PM

Oh. Wait, never mind. Your post works now.

Whew.

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on November 2, 2005 12:49 PM

Excuse me, Ace, but how do you know what Goldstein's naked painted testicles look like?

And if Jeff's resemble Spidyman, which cartoon character do your naked painted testicles resemble, Ace? Come on – cough up.

And last but not least, pictures, please. :)

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 01:05 PM

Yeah, what's the deal with the whole "Naked Testicle Spiderman" thing? Did I miss a memo?

Posted by: Sean M. on November 2, 2005 01:10 PM

Wasn't it the mayor of Vienna (forget his name; the mayor in the 1930's, as Naziism rose in power) who said, "I decide who the Jews are?"

I thought Herman Goring said that.

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 01:14 PM

Sean, it's in this great post, which is great not because of Spidey's testicles, but because of Bbeck's wonderful, magical rack.

We all love Bbeck here. Some of us just more than others, especially after you get a few mojitos in the frisky redhead.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on November 2, 2005 01:18 PM

yeah yeah, Bbeck. What about the chick in the peace through hot chicks in Tshirts with bombers girl in the blogad?

Posted by: joeindc44 on November 2, 2005 01:20 PM

Yeah, what's the deal with the whole "Naked Testicle Spiderman" thing? Did I miss a memo?

It's the newest cool meme on Ace's site. Kind of like "the guys get shirts", only with a naked paunchy guy who painted his body to look like Spiderman. In a fit of exquisite cruelty, Ace posted this filth along with the luminous bbeck modeling Ace's (now sadly defunct) t-shirt.

I guess it's all part of the AoS cult. Ace giveth, Ace taketh away: all glory be unto Ace.

Posted by: Monty on November 2, 2005 01:22 PM

Nah, I'm pretty sure it was the Mayor of Vienna. And I think he said it in the 1890's, not the 1930's.

I think his first name is Kurt, but I'm not sure if I'm thinking that just because the only Austrian politician I can think of is Kurt Waldheim.

Posted by: ace on November 2, 2005 01:22 PM

Ace, you're thinking of Kurt Lueger. Hitler didn't like his social, cosmopolitan ways, but he did approve of Lueger's anti-semitism. But Goering said it too, in some context that escapes me just now as I sit here, like Captain Queeg, juggling hairy man-balls in my hand and muttering incoherently out of the window at my dirty Malasian whore of a neighborhood watch block mom.

Posted by: Christopher on November 2, 2005 01:27 PM

muttering incoherently out of the window at my dirty Malasian whore of a neighborhood watch block mom.

She wouldn't happen to have a sister who is a pirate hooker, would she?

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 01:28 PM

While, we are making the Supreme Court "look like America" why don't we mandate it be 5 to 4 in favor of conservatives since we have won all the recent elections?

Or is that going a little too far? I mean we don't really want it to look like America per se unless by America we mean Paul Krugman, Jesse Jackson and the man-hater Maureen Dowd.

Posted by: Aaron on November 2, 2005 01:32 PM

Speaking of racism, I think the cover of Michele Malkin's new book where she prints the nasty email with names and addresses she receives is great. Kick their asses, Malkin!

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 01:33 PM

He uses the words "apotheosis" and "ontological," which tells me he's so angry he's been reduced to using made-up, hobo-gibberish pretend-words

Indeed.

Posted by: apotheosis on November 2, 2005 01:39 PM

I determine who is a Jew.
Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna

I could mock those upper Midwestern Aryans for their general stupidity inthinking they can determine who's "really, really black." But I won't because this naked testicle thing has me puzzled too. A little more info, please--but not too much more, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Posted by: utron on November 2, 2005 01:50 PM

And Sortelli made fun of me for trying to use my hair rays to keep testicles from becoming any more unruly then they already are, when I was just trying to help. Take that, Sortelli! Bzzzz.

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 01:57 PM

You guys keep pushing, and somebody'll repost the Naked Testicle Spiderman picture. Do you want that? Do you?

Posted by: S. Weasel on November 2, 2005 02:00 PM

No.

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 03:25 PM

She wouldn't happen to have a sister who is a pirate hooker, would she?

Hey, I'm into one-eyed, one legged Romanian Gypsy midgets. She doesn't have one of those by chance??

Posted by: rls on November 2, 2005 07:20 PM

Hey, I'm into one-eyed, one legged Romanian Gypsy midgets.

I don't think Ace wants you dating his sister.

Posted by: on November 2, 2005 07:37 PM

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Classic Rock Mystery Click
This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker.
And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win
Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.

Sarah Longwell spotting

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thanks to stevey

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David French just posted:

Populists ask what conservativism has ever conserved?
Well its about to conserve birthright citizenship!
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I couldn't hate this queen of the cuck-chair more if it paid seven figures and came with a corner office.

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In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
Great marketing arranged by Amazon to promote Project Hail Mary. Okay not really but it does work out that way.

TJM talks John Boorman, director of Excalibur

Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.