Justice Sunday

The Justice Sundays have been rather amusing to me. Unaccountable judges running rampant over the rights of individuals! To live in a theocracy or whatever. Without getting into the specifics of the ridiculousness of the Zell Miller Variety Hour, I have been thinking about the potential unintended consequences of this gathering. This is not a liberal Supreme Court and it will arguably be less liberal once Bush appoints Roberts and, eventually, Rehnquist's successor. Now it is not nearly conservative enough for the Sunday Justice Crowd. They believe that their particular faction can continue its straglehold on the leadership of the Congressional Republicans and, to a certain extent therefore, on the country. It's just the pesky court that is getting in the way of a brighter tomorrow in which we can once again persecute people for sodomy.

However, if and when the Democrats take back Congress, and they will, then the Court will be the last best hope for conservatives everywhere, particularly the Sunday Justice Crowd. If through their actions, they reduce the public cachet of the Court, which would be a significant accomplishment, in the medium term I can only see that benefitting liberals. After all, Brown v. Board is, in my view, the exception to the rule. I would much rather see the Congress having more power particularly since I realize that DeLay will not always be hammering away at its moral character and collegiality.

Seth Is A Bum

Mr. Suave, Debonaire, Hippiesance man of Athens, Ohio,
Seth Lawrence Weinberg, can't find the time to post on
brothersweinberg, but can find the time to head down to
Hilton Head, SC, and live it up with the gang at Wasko's
phat beach pad (that Wasko has access to a phat HC beach
pad is a real thing of beauty, but I won't go into that
now). Hope you're having fun down there, Seth. Don't
worry about transmitting the important human story of the
Weinberg boys over The Internets. Nothing to aggrandize
The Triumpherant. You selfish Hillbilly. I hope you get
stung by a sizable jellyfish. Go back to Berkeley.

I'd also like to take this time to thank Chris Rhodes for
reading this blog. I think that makes 6 of us.



Give em' a good zinger for me!

gnashing of teeth

There's been a lot of rending of garments and gnashing of teeth recently within the progressive community in regards to the upcoming replacement of Sandra "The Only Reason that Women Still Have Reproductive Rights" Day O'Connor. And rightly so. But I think it's important to keep a number of things in mind.

First, there is no such thing as strict constructionism. The Constitution contains countervailing dictates, either of which could be strictly construed. Do you strictly construct, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech" or that Congress can do everything "necessary and proper" to run the country. What is strictly necessary, strictly speaking? Who knows.

The process of making judicial decisions is one of balancing the text of the Constitution with precedent and prevailing cultural mores. Then there is an extra dash thrown in that really gives the dish its flavor ... the judge's own personal ideology. For example, the supposedly states' rights loving Rehnquist Court was responsible for the overturning of the Florida Supreme Court's recount ruling. Why? Because they Republican. Yeah. Good times.

But even knowing party affiliation and personal opinion, it's impossible to know what someone is going to do once they get an irrevocable lifetime appointment to rule with impunity. Just ask President Eisenhower how that whole Earl Warren appointment turned out.

I think that the Democrats are making a mistake in demanding that they be able to ask a prospective nominee what her personal opinions are on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. We can't know a head of time how those preferences are going to translate into rulings, particularly over the course of several decades.

The best that we can hope for is that Bush will mess up and choose someone with a brain and a heart whose rulings may trend conservative but who will not be an outright disaster in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. Oddly enough, Alberto "The Geneva Convention is quaint" Gonzales may be that person and the conservative groups have already started their pr campaign against him.

They've got us over a barrel, though. Will we really be able to fillibuster our way to two new moderate justices? Unlikely ... so I guess it's time to get back to the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth. Oh yeah, and and to preparing to fight hard in the next election cycle because it is from the electoral results that these sorts of outcomes flow ... remember how we said that the real problem with Bush getting elected would be his appointments to the Court?

Well, welcome to now ...

Worst. Finals. Ever. (?)

You know, I'm really getting sick of this "this is one of the worst years in basketball, neither of these teams could hang with the greats" line.

On one side, you've got one of, if not the, best power forward of all time. He's got to be in the top ten of all time of "guys I would pick first if I were starting a team." As his running mates we have a sick fast slashing frenchie who was Duncan's second banana when they won the Championship ... when he was 19. They are teamed with an up and coming superstar (with a heck of a schnozz) who won a gold medal in a team sport by himself. They run with one of the best defenders of all time, one of the most scary clutch shooters of all time and a somewhat more than serviceable center. At least as serviceable as, say, Luke Longley.

On the other side you have what is widely consider to be the best defensive team of all time and one of the teams with the most heart ever. They have been written off in half the playoff series they have been involved in in the last two years. This is the team that beat Kobe and Shaq (still in their respective primes) and broke up that dynasty. But they also have a fearless point guard with icewater in his veins, the most well-conditioned player with the best midrange game currently in the NBA, Tayshaun who is a threat on both ends of the floor, Rasheed freaking Wallace as their THIRD offensive option and who in the history of the NBA can compare with Wen Ballace? No one.

So they bump and grind each other and make each other look bad to the casual fan. But screw the casual fan. The problem with the first four games is that they were blowouts not that they were overly defensive. And those games were just setting the stage. Anyone who couldn't appreciate the last two games needs to go back to cross-stich.

Game 7 baby. Tonight.

Mendleson Music Critique

The middle Weinberg bro's thoughts on some recent releases
and trends.....

Mucho Popular:

New Coldplay: YAWN. Like the hit song but nothing else is
doing it for me. Yet. Pretty confident this won't happy.

New Beck: YAWN. Dude, you lost your mojo after Midnight
Vultures. Back then, the music was infused with this unique
creative signature and energy. I don't know what to write other
than its gone and your attempting to settle into this Dylan niche
is swell, but I'm not buying or listening to your recs anymore.

New White Stripes: YE-AH! I really like. Super-over-hyped band,
but genuinely talented and genuinely different sounding from
all the crap on the radio. But can we let Meg take the lead
vocals on more than one song, Jack?

Hip Hop:

Common: Havn't heard enuf yet. Seems like it could be good.
I'm tickled to learn the dude used to be a member of the Alkoholics.

Blackalicious & Gift of Gab: I'm going to give these folks a real
try. Starting from the beginning. Bought Black's first album today
for 7 bucks. Great song, "Don't let money change ya" Good sign:
I've downloaded nice-sounding songs off Limewire that don't seem
to be on any studio release records.

Indy:

Any band called, "The something." You are fucking worthless.
I hate you. In 10 years, no one will remember you, and my youth
will be gone. Rasheed's defensive decision making angers me
less than your shallow, shitty tunes.

The Shins are OK, if a little too fruity. The Deadly Snakes are
playing The Union this summer.

The baddest mother

From Shaq's "Sunday Conversation" with ESPN last week:

ESPN: People said that "he is really motivated this year because he really wants to stick it to the Lakers." How true is that?

Shaq: I don't let earthlings motivate me. I only let factors motivate me. The only thing that motivates me is, when I'm done playing, I want people to say, 'He's the Baddest Mother (expletive) to ever play the game.' Right now I am hearing that from some of the people. When I am done playing I want to hear that from all of the people. So right now I have three championships. That's cool. I could probably retire now and wait 10 years and most likely be named into the Hall of Fame. Whoopty do. Right now I am not satisfied with my career just winning three championships, because I have been there five times, and I should have five right now. Should have five. Should have six, including this year, but it didn't happen that way.

First, off, this dude is a hilarious genius. He's not the baddest mother, that was probably Jordan if only because he was a lot meaner and less human. Shaq's got this idiot savant who's actually not an idiot thing going on and I love it.

Don't think he's right about these Finals, though. I think they have been kind of boring, but only because they haven't been particularly close after the first half of Game 1.

triumph

I always find Triumph the Insult Comic dog to be quite hilarious. Check out his most recent appearance on Conan where he goes and makes fun of Michael Jackson supporters. This one definitely has a sincere twinge of sadness in it, though. When he went to the Republican National Convention, they deserved his vitriol. When he made fun of the Star Wars fans, they were all more or less in on the joke. This group of desperate people, though, is quite pathetic and, for the most part, unamused by his antics. The pajamas bit at the end, though, is quite classic, though not in any way classy.