Bakers in Nablus in the West Bank have created the world’s biggest kunafa (some sort of pastry involving goat cheese), 243 feet long in order to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Why, there’s Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad. And the only guy using a fork to eat his kunafa is the American Consul-General in Jerusalem Jacob Walles.
Meanwhile Gaza is working on its bid to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest prison camp. Fingers crossed.
Yet another demo by Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox against the municipal parking lot, this time without rioting (update: well, a few stones thrown at passing cars), possibly because they were tired out from rioting earlier in the week over the arrest of a mentally disturbed ultra-O. woman for starving her 3-year-old son almost to death (they were against it: the arrest, not the starving thing). The authorities released her on bail into house arrest (how house arrest is different from, you know, being an ultra-Orthodox woman, no one has explained). She has 4 other children and another rugulah in the oven.
Funny, I had a late lunch but I’m suddenly hungry.
Gene Weingarten has some questions for Cheney’s publisher.
Headline of the Day (London Times): “Charles Taylor Defends Use of Human Skulls.” At roadblocks during the coup. He says it was an effective means of gently encouraging people to obey soldiers’ orders. But not stringing human entrails against the road, he entirely denies that ever happened. And only skulls, not human heads with the flesh still on them: “I would not have tolerated anyone killing and putting a human head up.” And only “enemy skulls.” Also, “We are not talking about skulls lying around all over the place [but only] at certain strategic junctions.” So that’s okay then.
Linda Chavez began her testimony at the Sotomayor hearings today with the only honest words of her career: “I testify today not as a wise Latina woman”.
In this morning’s questioning, Cornyn continued to be befuddled by the whole concept of a “wise Latina woman.” “Isn’t that a contradiction in terms,” he asked?
Cornyn was also befuddled by the notion that there is some “indefiniteness” in the law, which is kind of the reason we have a Supreme Court in the first place.
Cornyn was still further befuddled by the notion that judges bring “life experiences” to the bench, which is why we don’t pick the Supreme Court by putting the names of every American into a giant hat.
Tom “OMG, Lesbians in the Bathrooms!” Coburn posed a hypothetical case about abortion: “Let’s say I’m 38 weeks pregnant and we discover a small spina bifida sack on the lower sacrum... Would it be legal in this country to terminate that child’s life?” Sotomayor explains to him very gently (because you know what pregnant men are like) that abortion is actually regulated at the state rather than the federal level.
Coburn asked over and over whether there is a “right to personal self-defense.” Finally, she set up a scenario: But, under New York law, if you’re being threatened with eminent death or very serious injury, you can use force to repel that, and that would be legal. The question that would come up, and does come up before juries and judges, is how eminent is the threat. If the threat was in this room, “I’m going to come get you,” and you go home and get -- or I go home. I don’t want to suggest I am, by the way. Please, I’m not -- I don’t want anybody to misunderstand what I’m trying to say. If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend...
COBURN: You’ll have lots of ‘splainin’ to do.
SOTOMAYOR: Waaaa, Ricky! I may have added that last bit.
Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, surely one of the human race’s ten most appalling living members, asks an important question at his war crimes trial in The Hague: “People have me eating human beings. How could they sink so low as to think that of me?”
CONTEST: Provide a better answer than whatever Sotomayor said, which I can’t even remember, in response to Lindsey Graham’s question, “Do you think you have a temperament problem?”
ALTERNATE CONTEST: Provide a caption for this photo:
Sotomayor: “we’re not robots who listen to evidence and don’t have feelings”. That’s just a dreadful calumny against Robot-Americans.
The corollary of the Republican complaints against the idea that a “wise Latina woman” might bring something to the bench, is that a judiciary composed entirely of dumb white men and/or robots would not be lacking in any way. Would they care to argue this case?
Speaking of robots who don’t have feelings, here is a super-awesome ad just released by California’s robot overlord. The music, the Teutonic enunciation, the way he sits at an angle to the camera, the way he stands up as he intones, “I am standing firm for a balanced budget that does not raise your taxes,” the way the color of every part of his head comes from a bottle, the way he calls for us to stand (firm) with him but sounds like he plans to kill us all...
SIZE MATTERS: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-Way Down South in the Land of Cotton) asked Sotomayor: “do you think that Frank Ricci and the other firefighters whose claims you dismissed felt that their arguments and concerns were appropriately understood and acknowledged by such a short opinion from the court?” What, Jeffy, “Go eat a bag of dicks” too pithy for you? Of course we all remember Scalia’s famous opinion in Bush v. Gore:
Chuck Grassley: “Judge Sotomayor, I’ll be asking you about your ability to wear that judicial blindfold.” Kinky.
Lindsey Graham attempted to out-brown her: “No Republican would have chosen you, Judge; that’s just the way it is. We would have picked Miguel Estrada. We would all have voted for him. And I don’t think anybody on that side would have voted for Judge Estrada, who is a Honduran immigrant... So the Hispanic element of this hearing’s important... my Republican colleagues who vote against you I assure you could vote for a Hispanic nominee.” So that’s okay, then.
(Update: By the time I got around to writing the post, I’d forgotten why I selected the quote: No Republican would have chosen Sotomayor? Hey Lindsey, who appointed her to a judgeship the first time?)
A WARNING TO KEEP HER HOT LATIN BLOOD IN CHECK: “Now, unless you have a complete meltdown, you’re going to get confirmed.”
WHAT BOTHERS LINDSEY: “It just bothers me when somebody wearing a robe takes the robe off and says that their experience makes them better than someone else.” Especially if they’re wearing women’s underwear but they’re not a woman – I’m looking at you, Scalia.
SO THERE: “I think your experience can add a lot to the court, but I don’t think it makes you better than anyone else.”
Tom Coburn, who brings to the Judiciary Committee, as he told John Roberts, his “medical skills of observation of body language”:
SOMETHING REMARKABLE: “It is truly an honor to have you before us. It is -- says something remarkable about our country that you’re here.” And something remarkable about you that you’re still awake... Ms. Sotomayor?... hello?
“And I assure you, during your time before this committee, you will be treated with the utmost respect and kindness.” ACCUSATION OF RACISM IN 5,4,3...
EVIDENTLY SOMEONE WHO COMES FROM THE HEARTLAND GRASPS AND HOLDS MORE THAN A WISE LATINA DOES: “And I’m worried that our Constitution may be seen to be malleable and evolving when I, as someone who comes from the heartland, seems to grasp and hold and the people that I represent from the state of Oklahoma seem to grasp and hold that there is a foundational document and there are statutes and occasionally treaties that should be the rule, rather than our opinions.” Can we just agree that anyone who’s ever argued that there is more wisdom in one part of the country than another or used the phrase “San Francisco liberal” or “un-American parts of our nation,” can just shut up about the “wise Latina” thing?
“During the campaign, he promised to nominate someone who’s got the heart and the empathy to recognize what it’s like to be a young, teenaged mom. The implication is that our judges today don’t have that. Do you realize how astounding that is? The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, to be African-American or gay or disabled or old. Most of our judges understand what it’s like to be old.”
WHERE EMPATHY COMES FROM (THE STORK?): “We expect a judge to merely call balls and strikes? Maybe so, maybe not. But we certainly don’t expect them to sympathize with one party over the other, and that’s where empathy comes from.”
Just as I turned on the Sotomayor hearing, heard Lindsey Graham say “wise Latina woman”; turned off Sotomayor hearing.
But Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (by the way, that is the way he referred to himself before he became “Jeff” to run for the Senate) has helpfully posted his opening remarks online.
LEAHY BROUGHT BROWNIES! “I hope it will be viewed as the best hearing this Committee has ever held.”
SO THEY CAN HEAR YOU CALLED A RACIST OVER AND OVER: “I know your family is proud, and rightfully so. It is a pleasure to have them with us today.”
“I expect this hearing and resulting debate to be characterized by a respectful tone, a discussion of serious issues, and a thoughtful dialogue”. FIRST ACCUSATION OF RACISM IN 5,4,3...
DUDE, YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND: “our legal system is based on a firm belief in an ordered universe and objective truth.”
He warned of “a Brave New World where words have no true meaning...” I mean, “rhubarb” could mean “rutabaga”! It’s a madhouse I tell you, a madhouse!!! “...and judges are free to decide what facts they choose to see.” I was going to make a Fox News joke or something, but in a court, isn’t “deciding what facts they choose to see” actually called “applying the rules of evidence”?
“We have seen federal judges force their own political and social agenda on the nation, dictating that the words ‘under God’ be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance and barring students from even silent prayer in schools.” Putting aside that “under God” was a late addition to the pledge, any court ruling wouldn’t actually govern the content of the pledge, just what can be said in a secular public school. Also, in addition to the metal detectors that schools now have, which they didn’t have in my day, are there also telepaths to ensure that students don’t engage in “even silent prayer”?
“Judges have – contrary to the longstanding rules of war – created a right for terrorists, captured on a foreign battlefield, to sue the United States government in our own courts. Judges have cited foreign laws, world opinion, and a United Nations resolution to determine that a state death penalty law was unconstitutional.” Note that Sessions, in the sentence immediately preceding the one expressing his disgust with foreign laws, world opinion etc being mentioned in an American court of law, suggested that “longstanding rules of war” should have precedence over the United States Constitution.
CALL IT RHUBARB: “Call it empathy, call it prejudice, or call it sympathy, but whatever it is, it is not law.”
CLUELESS: “Could it be that her time as a leader of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund provides a clue as to her decision against the firefighters?”
EMPATHY IS ALWAYS PREJUDICE: “It seems to me that in Ricci, Judge Sotomayor’s empathy for one group of firefighters turned out to be prejudice against the others. That is, of course, the logical flaw in the ‘empathy standard.’ Empathy for one party is always prejudice against another.” And there’s the Republican party’s philosophy encapsulated for you.
BECAUSE HE HATES US, AND WANTS US TO SUFFER: “I hope the American people will follow these hearings closely.”
A SLIGHTLY STONED, MELLOW JUDGE? “And, at the end of the hearing, ask, If I must one day go to court, what kind of judge do I want to hear my case?”
I don’t think I’ll be C-SPANning them, because watching them will lack one oddly perverse pleasure of past Judiciary Committee hearings: yelling at Joe Biden to shut up already.
Afghanistan’s Shia family law, the one that was postponed after an attempt to sneak it through in spring (Karzai claimed he had signed it without reading it), is back in slightly revised form. It contained many objectionable provisions, including permitting girls to be married off immediately after menarche, though the Western press focused almost entirely on the one stating that wives could not refuse their husband’s sexual demands. My googling today shows that many newspapers have shortened an AP story on the new version to two sentences, saying that “The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.” In fact, it also says that husbands may deny food to wives who deny them sex. Guardianship rights over children are given exclusively to men, the payment of blood money is allowed as sufficient punishment for rape of a child. The provision that wives must have their husband’s permission to leave the house seems to be gone. Not sure about child marriage.
So Sarah Palin delayed her resignation until the 26th because she had to have a picnic first, or something. Since she was out fishing for salmon yesterday, I assume she also had some vacation days to use up. What other vital business is she finishing off?
She is also sharing some philosophy with her many loyal followers.
After keeping her captive a week, Israel finally releases former Congresscritter Cynthia McKinney and 15 other activists who had tried to bring a ship of food and medicine and crayons to Gaza (4 are still being held). Evidently they would have been released earlier if they’d signed a confession. Israel’s UN ambassador had said, “clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel.” Well, yes, obviously that was one of the purposes, but you know, there’s a reason why someone bringing food and medicine to Gaza makes you look bad. If people getting the food and medicine they need is, you know, normal, commonplace, then food and medicine can’t be a “propaganda vehicle.”
Speaking of propaganda vehicles, Zelaya’s attempt to return to Honduras by plane was (literally) blocked. I think he should do it again and again, three times a day. They can get their tanks off the runway and let him land – or lose the use of Tegucigalpa’s international airport.
Speaking of propaganda vehicles, the BBC’s caption for this picture reads, “Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blesses motorcycles before a procession to mark the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, a victory by Russia’s Emperor Peter the Great against Sweden.”
A diagram (creator unknown) of things to say/not say during sex.
BECAUSE SARAH IS ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE EFFECTIVE PATHS: Anchorage Daily News: “Palin said she is embarking on a ‘different, more effective path’ than finishing her term. Asked how, she said she didn’t know at this point, other than to campaign for political candidates who represent the values she supports.”
And ABC, one of several news media lined up to interview her as she did whatever one does with dead salmon, notes her comment that all those ethics complaints against her would go away if she just became president: “‘I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,’ she said. There is no ‘Department of Law’ at the White House.”
Russian tv asked Obama what he doesn’t like about himself. “I don’t like my golf swing.”
The LA Times has an article about a Marine whose recruiters knew he was autistic (he was recruited out of a group home for disturbed youths) and that he was legally barred from signing contracts. It didn’t work out very well.
