Elena Kagan, Obama's Supreme Court Nominee, will be confirmed.
The real issue, to my mind, is that once again we have a Harvard/Yale/Columbia/Princeton Northeasterner being nominated to the Supreme Court. The fact that she was NOT a judge is only a plus. The fact that she has ZERO respect for the Constitution is a somewhat greater issue... still, she will be confirmed. But you never know. Elevation to Justice has sobered many others in the past, let us hope that will be the case again here.
Are there REALLY NO SMART PEOPLE from the South or the West? The High Court, if Kagan is nominated, will be comprised of 3 Jews and 6 Catholics, with nary a WASP in sight - and WASP's make up the largest segment of the population... and they used to run the joint... Sheash!
Or was this really just abortion balancing. Kind of like a modern day Missouri Compromise or Connecticut Compromise?
Our politics have never been so contentious. This pick was not one to make that situation any better.
14 comments:
Through 5000 yrs of written human history mankind has swiveled back and forth upon religion/morals. Nations rise and fall on these principles. With an absolutist view of the world you identify certain things as right or wrong. In the dialectic materialism or what is commonly now referred to as humanism there is no right and wrong, their is just the power of now. Of the force of the mind to install progress, to what they do not know. You miss the fact that her world view imposes on her all that she is. Why would she accept the constitution? She stands upon the alter of secular humanism and pounds her fist "we shall no longer be like those of old, we have a new idea, we carry a new flag". Her actions and life are just the evidence of what she believes. Just because you can do something does not mean you must. If we have no soul there can be no right or wrong. You might as well shut you blog down. Every debate in here is substantially based on the idea that certain things are right, that there is a foundation to look to. If the constitution was just a pragmatic document, its value would only be for the era it was written. But we do not believe that. We think there are principles worth defending or we would not debate. We would crassly follow the desires of our own hearts.
Dex,
How many more 20-something philosophers like you are there out there?
Amazing.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Hopefully many. We have some tough times ahead. :)
Coal Guy:
He really does blow me away sometimes..
as do you and many others commenting here.
Unreal.
I don't connect gay with being a Constitutional Constructionist... but I hear your broader point that her "world view imposes on her all that she is".
Not being as quick as I used to be, I need to noodle that for a bit...
Any thoughts on why it is that there are no people smart enough outside of a few schools in the NE to work in high office or Government Sachs?
And just to be completely clear, she does have GS ties too: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/07/elena-kagans-goldman-sach_n_568350.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=541108,b=facebook
I'd say there are plenty of people smart enough outside of Yale/Harvard/GS/northeastern circles. It's just that TPTB have a world view that doesn't recognize anything or anybody outside of their domain as being worthy or important. Why should they? It's not like they actually care about anything else in this world. They won't go until they are shoved out by whatever means it takes, IF even removing them at all ever becomes important enough to the rest of us to even try.
It seems that you have to be a member of the club. Harvard, Yale and Princeton allow one to become known to TPTB. We poor schlubs from the hinterlands will never measure up. Having moved to Massachusetts from flyover country, I am still amazed at the superior attitude of the population in general, let alone the elite. There must be some -ism to attach to it.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Big Surprise Obama hires his friends and people he was/is associated with. Just like Bush Jr. did as well, even if they aren't particularly qualified. Qualification in a plutocracy isn't required beyond knowing the right people or being lucky with what vagina you pop out of. If this was a libertarian meritocracy, then merit would actually matter more--but conspicuous education, is shorthand sometimes for merit, but also to show that you have connections to people of power/influence. College education is often used now as a sort of "work permit" more than a sign of being truly educated. I worked at a few colleges, plenty of dumb-asses there who know more about Paris Hilton, then they do Adam Smith.
This lady is smart I'm sure, but its irrelevant, Obama wasn't going to nominate someone most non democrats would ever be happy with.
In Dex's comment, the last sentence is most certainly what nearly everyone does, we just have a large arsenal of cognitive distortions/denial of reality to help people feel better about themselves, no matter what the desires of their 'heart' lead them to. Most people aren't living live's based on Braveheart speeches, but on base needs, and pretty primitive emotional reasoning, Reason is only the Tip of the iceburg. -Meiyo
Demand Destruction In Play (from "The Times") (aka why oil prices will never exceed $100 for long .. short-term) ...
"Until the market mayhem over Greece took the shine off the oil price, American petrol prices were hovering at that critical $3 a gallon number, which causes blue-collar rage. Oil analysts are seeing demand destruction, the point at which the price begins to alter motorist behaviour. Between January and March, consumption of road fuel began to decline much as it did in 2008 when American eyeballs were popping at $4 gallons. When prices are too high, Americans drive fewer miles, not helpful when the world is on a cliff-edge of debt, insolvency and possibly a new recession."
Lets see if I remember right (I am not looking it up although I should) It has been something like 51 years since a democrat President has nominated a White, Protestant, Male to SCOTUS.
Oh well least it wasn't to replace one of the conservatives.
Just my opinion but those justices who usually go conservative (Roberts, Scallia, Alito, Thomas and Kennedy) are the most important men on earth currently. If anything were to happen to one of those 5 or one was to retire right now it could get ugly very fast.
Meiyo,
Think you missed my point. Jeffers was commenting on the idea of her sexual orientation in relation to opening of the spot on the Supreme Court. I tried to respond to that in an analysis of the philosophy she follows. Her ideas on sexual liberation are related to her ideas on government. Does it have to be this way, no? But let’s be clear, she is just a radical leftist. To comment on her actions without debating her philosophy is short sighted. Her sexual orientation is of little importance unless it effects the philosophy she approaches the court with (secular progressive). To deny that is absurd. World views filter how you see things. Her and people like her (the elite) surely know how they interrupt how they see the world. This philosophy permeates what they think, write and do. Notice the progressive movement is always in the business of destroying the family, destroying the church, glorifying the state and finally imposing the new moral guidelines which is nothing but perversion of the idea of equality. They refuse personal responsibility. I believe the slippery slope has turned into a waterfall. Maybe average Joe six pack does not care, but I am talking to what I perceive is a very intelligent group of people. I can always dumb it down to USA Today Standard, but what fun would that be. :)
Warren Burger, the 15th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was educated at the University of Minnesota, and then the tiny William Mitchell law school in St. Paul.
He was Chief Justice.
He was one of us, from fly-over country.
He did a good job.
And he was nominated by... drum roll, Richard Nixon, a Republican. But Nixon was a Republican who did not like the elites, even though he had to bring them on board (think of the noxious and pompous counselor to the king, Kissinger).
Regardless, I have to admit that Obama and his nominations make me sick. He is full of pomp and circumstance and his own voice, and he thinks that nominating a gay liberal woman to the Supreme Court is a sign of increasing diversity at the top, when it is simply more of the same.
The divide is between the ignorant (in what matters) clueless elites, and the diminishing, remaining productive classes (everyone from firemen to factory workers to entrepreneurs to farmers).
Kagan is of the parasite class, for sure. She has never even been a judge. Fear for the republic. And I'm from the progressive/liberal tradition!
Really good summation article on oil today by Nedler ...
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52738
Hey Greg
What has happened to the mad scientist he hasn't posted on his site for 3 months.
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