Althouse: "A quarrelsome claque of five right-wing justices... These arrogant men scorned..."

July 4, 2007

"A quarrelsome claque of five right-wing justices... These arrogant men scorned..."

"... new Chief Justice John Roberts was willing to summon merely the right-wing rump of the court... the court's right-wing gang ... The right-wing rump of the court... the decision of this gang of five... these five willful justices stand in the schoolhouse door..."

That's one way to write about the Supreme Court -- chosen by Jesse Jackson, who means to inspire "massive resistance" to the Court's decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District.

39 comments:

steve simels said...: And let the thinly veiled racist spew begin.

Happy 4th of July!!!!; 7/4/07, 8:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Glad to see you're honoring the day by attacking nonexistent comments. Hope you find all the phantoms you're looking to fight in celebration of the nation's birthday, you very strange little man.; 7/4/07, 8:43 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Can't forget those two basic rules of progressive debate.

1. if a minority says it, it can't be racist

2. when a progressive lacks a good argument, fall back on labeling the opponents as racist.

Steve and Jesse provide examples: "Once more, men in robes stand in the schoolhouse door, only this time their robes are black, not white."; 7/4/07, 8:44 AM
dave™© said...: This place really is for brownshirts too fucking stupid to make the cut at Free Republic, isn't it?; 7/4/07, 8:56 AM
Bissage said...: (1) Now there’s a battle cry for you: “Liberty, equality, diversity; to the barricades!!!”

(2) Or how about: “What do we want?!”

“Diversity!”

“When do we want it?!”

“With all deliberate speed!”

(3) By the way, I read The Reverend Jackson’s essay in three voices. I started off with my own but almost immediately segued into Jackson’s voice. But then, somewhere around paragraph six, Jackson turned into Michael Palin doing the poofta judge:

“No, just a minute - I must finish you know. Anyway, I finished up with 'the actions of these vicious men is a violent stain on the community and the full penalty of the law is scarcely sufficient to deal with their ghastly crimes', and I waggled my wig! Just ever so slightly, but it was a stunning effect.”

(4) The Jesse Jackson voice was funnier.

(5) Does he honestly believe he can shakedown the SCOTUS? Still, we can’t blame him for trying.

(6) Iffen he were to buy hissef another shed, he’d be The Reverend Jesse “two sheds” Jackson.; 7/4/07, 9:01 AM
steve simels said...: The Drill SGT said

Good to see you.

Give my regards to the Construction Worker and the Indian Chief on your Village People reunion tour.; 7/4/07, 9:11 AM
paul a'barge said...: Althouse,
Is it the holiday? How else to explain the sudden coincidental appearance of a cluster of morons, such as Steve and Dave.

Perhaps there's no room at the Kos Inn?; 7/4/07, 9:23 AM
Bissage said...: YES!!!!!! That’s the spirit, Mr. Simels. Today you’re full of piss and vinegar!!! The Spirit of ’76!!!

Boy, did you ever let Sarge have it. Pow, right in the kisser!

And you did it with your superior knowledge of POP MUSIC -- the thermonuclear device of God’s justice here on Earth.

That makes you some kind of an avenging “Earth angel, . . ., Earth angel, . . .”

I think I speak for everybody here at Althouse when I say it’s good to have you up and full of beans.; 7/4/07, 9:29 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Happy Independence Day to everyone. I put some flags out - not too many other homes on my block did but it looks like rain.

Watched the small town fireworks last evening- headed to the Wissahickon for a nice long hike then get back to catch some small town Soap Box Derby races. Hard to beat that huh?

Re diversity and schools, let's consider declaring today the 2nd Independence Day from big-school districts and self-interested only teacher unions.

Let's free all kids and their parents to choose a school that works. I say charter schools and school choice for all.

This may be the way to go if you are running for president! Especially if you are a republican. No Jackson would ever agree to this of course.; 7/4/07, 9:39 AM
Bissage said...: And speaking of baked beans, Mr. Simels, may I ask a favor?

We’re having a Shindig! to celebrate Independence Day and, seeing how you’re a big deal POP MUSIC CRITIC and all, I thought maybe you could recommend a list of first-rate pop music, appropriate for the occasion.

It’ll be an informal affair for family and friends. Chicken, shrimp, steak, hot dogs, hamburgers, beer, wine, booze. Some of the men might wear short sleeve seersucker dress shirts.

Pretty standard stuff, really.

But your expert advice could make it all extra special!

Whatever you recommend, I’ll play. I’ll put my brother-in-law in charge to make sure it all happens just as you say it should.

Please, Mr. Simels, please give us your expert recommendation.

Think of the children and how happy they’ll be!

I’ll even put a sign out where everyone can see it: THIS FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION HAS BEEN MADE EXTRA SPECIAL BY NOTED POP MUSIC CRITIC STEVE SIMELS.

Thank you ever so much, Mr. Simels.

Please?; 7/4/07, 9:49 AM
Simon said...: It just kills him that he can't say five white Justices, doesn't it? All of these people who made so much hay over which side the only female Justice was on in Ledbetter and Carhart are strangely silent about which side the only black justice was on in the school cases. (To be clear, I mean to criticize their invocation of Ginsburg's gender, not their failure to invoke Thomas' color. If one's color or gender is affecting how you're deciding cases, you're very likely doing it wrong.)

Earlier this week, I asked someone who opposed to the decision point blank: do they believe that "segregation" is the forced separation of the races by government, or that "segregated" is an antonym of "diverse"? They made clear their view was the latter. Seattle operated segregated schools, they argued.

These cases unmask a basic fault line through society about what Brown v. Board stood for: did it stand for freedom from government classifications based on race, or did it stand for government classifications on race when it concluded that its purpose in so doing was benign? To most people, I think, it means the former, because I think that most people understand on an intuitive level that there is no such thing as "benign" racial discrimination, and that even if there were, as Justice Thomas points out in his concurrence, segregation was understood by its authors as a benign policy. Men do not usually undertake actions they believe to be evil; they act in the belief - even if wrong - that their purposes are just and benign.

And then there was the lawprof who wrote at Slate to explain how conservatives had "co-opted" Brown, and I have to admit, she's caught us red-handed. You won't believe how we did it.; 7/4/07, 9:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "And you did it with your superior knowledge of POP MUSIC -- the thermonuclear device of God’s justice here on Earth."

LOL.; 7/4/07, 10:01 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Actually, I was a Drill Sergeant in 72, that would have been Jim Croce and "You Don't Mess Around With Jim"

By 79 (peak Village people period)I was a Captain and the song of the week would have been YMCA.

How's my Pop Music history lesson for the week :); 7/4/07, 10:10 AM
JackDRipper said...: The SCOTUS decision is looking better every day.

Great decision in itself and now predictably ole mumble mouth is having a fit coming to terms with it.

Only thing better would be to have Pres. Romney replace JP Stevens with Michael Luttig and I'll start believing there's a God.; 7/4/07, 10:14 AM
Tully said...: STAN: Uh, excuse me. Excuse me, can I have your attention please? What are we doing? [the crowd quiets down] It's been nine days! Doesn't it seem like we should accomplish something?

HIPPIE: We're using the power of rock and roll to change the world! Woo! [the crowd cheers]

(South Park, 2005)

You're set, Sarge. Nothing's really changed. Just ask Ted Nugent.; 7/4/07, 10:17 AM
rcocean said...: Just shows what an idiot Jackson is -as usual.

The Seattle case wasn't about "diversity" or "integration". The Seattle schools have never been segregated, and are already "diverse".

The Seattle school board simply decided that every school had to contain, IRC between 25% and 50% whites.

So kids ended up getting bused around solely on the basis of race, to achieve some arbitrary goal of racial balance.

But we all know why the MSM and Jackson are taking this course. Yap about the "Right-Wing" court and thereby make it easier to appoint a future liberal justice as "balance". Or to mobilize the left against some "right-wing extemist"; 7/4/07, 10:21 AM
Balfegor said...: Jesse Jackson, who means to inspire "massive resistance" to the Court's decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District.

Wow that's an awkward choice of words. And he clearly did it on purpose. Is he trying to shoot himself in the foot?; 7/4/07, 10:22 AM
Cedarford said...: I plan on spending this 4th as our family did last year - hanging with neighbors, including 2 guardsmen back from Iraq. Drinking beer and setting off illegal fireworks and teaching kids how to set illegal fireworks off safely.

Much barbecuing! 2 pork shoulders have been slow-roasting and smoking since last night as our family's contribution, along with enough rum and mojito base to get even an Australian drunk.. Kids will also learn how to safely use gasoline to start charcoal fires (gas leaves no aftertaste unlike charcoal lighter fluid - trick is to douse it and light it before much gas vapor forms).

It is just a little way to assert liberty and independence from safety Nazis...and to have the lil' buggers later tell their educrats that fireworks and gasoline are damn fine things when handled safely.

Two Muslim doctors will attend! (Both are drug researchers, not MDs). Last year they and the guardsmen got along famously. No pork, beer for them! Last year they brought Hebrew National kosher dogs to the picnic.

The guardsman wussed out. Last year they said drunkenly they would try and get a little C-4 to set off. No go. Probably because of the 10-20 year stretch in Leavenworth if they tried it and were caught...I'd settle for a flash-bang grenade. Those babies are impressive!

Just another patriotic day in Red State America.

Happy 4th!

****************
As for Jesse Jackson, his era as Head Negro In Charge ended 15 years ago, his ability to shake down corporations ended 3-4 years ago. He is yesterday's news. Like Al Sharpton, Jackson is still desperately angling for power and relevance and concomittant moolah that the two unelected "Reverends" get less and less of these days. Jesse doesn't even get the attention his Pal Al does with his dog and pony shows whenever an "outrage" happens.; 7/4/07, 10:22 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Is it the holiday? How else to explain the sudden coincidental appearance of a cluster of morons, such as Steve and Dave.

School's out for summer. Alice Cooper; 7/4/07, 10:24 AM
Simon said...: JackDRipper said...
"Only thing better would be to have Pres. Romney replace JP Stevens with Michael Luttig..."

I don't think anyone who abandons their post is fit for promotion. There are any number of people I would nominate to the Supreme Court ahead of Luttig, no matter how good he looked a year or two ago.

(And FWIW, I think it's highly unlikely that if Romney ever becomes President, Stevens will still be around - he might end up as the veep in this cycle, but I don't see him getting the nomination.); 7/4/07, 10:26 AM
mtrobertsattorney said...: Is Steve Simels the blogger the same Steve Simels who is the world's foremost authority on the music of Lawrence Welk?; 7/4/07, 10:28 AM
Steven said...: Is Jesse Jackson, or in fact any one of the critics, literate?

The decision, meaning the portions that five justices agreed to, didn't overthrow race-based diversity programs. It merely said that you can't use strict population proportionality without explaining why strict population proportionality is necessary to achieve diversity.

For example, let us consider a two-school district where the 500 students are 40% black, 20% white, 20% Chinese, and 20% Cuban. If pure geography results in one shcool where the racial makeup is 33% black, 25% white, 21% Chinese, and 22% Cuban, while the other school is 48% black, 15% white, 19% Chinese, and 18% Cuban, you can't use racial quotas to equalize the percentages in the schools unless you can show one of the schools is insufficiently integrated to have an educational benefit from diversity.

And of course, there's Stevens's insane "No member of the court I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today's decision," repeated by Jackson. What, not even Rehnquist? Is the man senile, or just lying?; 7/4/07, 10:36 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Cedarford said...The guardsman wussed out. Last year they said drunkenly they would try and get a little C-4 to set off.

Ah, my misspent youth, lost under a banana tree in the rain, cooking C-rats over a small chunk of burning C-4. Those were the days :)

For all those progressive Pop music critics listening, C-4 needs both heat and shock to set it off. Thus, (normally, YMMV :) you can burn it without having it explode. We used to take little chunks out of claymore mines (never had any VC complain about that) in order to have something to heat meals with. Now days they give our soldiers fancy ass heat tabs... makes em soft I says...; 7/4/07, 10:40 AM
SGT Ted said...: Hey we're even beyond heat tabs now.

We have heater sleeves for our MRE's that make a most impressive water bottle bomb. Crunch up, pour into bottle add water and seal, wait for kablooey fun!; 7/4/07, 11:09 AM
JackDRipper said...: Simon - "I think it's highly unlikely that if Romney ever becomes President, Stevens will still be around - he might end up as the veep in this cycle, but I don't see him getting the nomination."

Romney will be President and Bill Owens of Colorado will be VP.

Bet on it.

Owens will recommend fellow Texan Luttig to replace Stevens on the court.; 7/4/07, 11:28 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Ann,

When I first read the comment "Let the thinly veiled racist spew begin", I honestly thought Simels was talking about Jackson's rant. (No, really.) But I think maybe his 9:11 comment was meant as a clarification, and that he was actually referring to himself.; 7/4/07, 11:31 AM
Simon said...: JackDRipper said...
"Romney will be President and Bill Owens of Colorado will be VP. Bet on it."

Funny you should put it quite that way, because the people who do bet on it at tradesports aren't betting on it. I would be very surprised if Romney got the nomination, although my presumption is that he'd win in the fall.

Personally, I think the ticket's going to be Thompson-Steele, and the first nominee will be Sykes or Clement. I'd be exceedingly surprised if Luttig ever gets nominated, and frankly a little disappointed. Just as Romney flip-flopped once on abortion and presents little convincing reason why he might not again, so after Luttig abandoned ship prematurely once, there's no reason to believe he wouldn't again (even if one were inclined to reward such action). Luttig is a smart guy and was a great judge, but you don't abandon your post.; 7/4/07, 12:12 PM
Bissage said...: Hey, be careful there, Sarge.

Mr. Simels is a POP MUSIC CRITIC, and the term “progressive” has very serious implications in the nomenclature of POP MUSIC.

Don’t misuse it like that or Mr. Simels might loose the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.

You were able to dodge that Village People bullet.

But what happens if Mr. Simels drops the hammer with an allusion to Sister Sledge?

Wouldn’t that be the Big Bopper!!!; 7/4/07, 12:13 PM
Brent said...: Why oh why do all the intelligent people keep missing the point of Seattle?

The point is: government - even local government - has no business interfering in the lives of students in any such way.

But, the "community" decided that integration is necessary. No the "community" didn't. The people in power, with their misguided understanding of what it means to "educate" a child is, decided about real children and real families

WHY? That horse, and it's successes and failures is dead.

Tell your local government - especially all you "keep your hands off my body" liberals - to just leave the students and families ALONE. Do your job:

Build the schools
Staff the schools
Teach the students in your school's area - and teach them the basics before ANY social crap - and teach it well.
Shut the **** up about any and everything else.

What a world of problems we would avoid if people in power could only bring themselves to not overreach with their pet philosophies and ideologies!

But no, we have to experiment on everyone's kids.

I'm certain that there is a special area of hell waiting for school board members and education bureaucrats . . .; 7/4/07, 1:05 PM
mythusmage said...: Balfegor,

Is it trying when you actually do?

On Appropriate Pop Music For This Thread

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone

And the folk that spurred us on
Sit in judgement of our wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song; 7/4/07, 1:07 PM
Kev said...: ...what B said at 1:51. Government should defend the borders, do a little bit to help the proverbial trains run on time, and otherwise leave us alone.

As I've said elsewhere, it's time not only for term limits for Congress, but also for bureaucrats of all stripes. With the exception of the military and maybe the Postal Service, nobody should be suckling at the government teat for more than ten years of his/her working life.; 7/4/07, 2:59 PM
TMink said...: I have decided that our Steve Simels is not THE Steve Simels. I have read and enjoyed the real Mr. Simels. He is a very good writer, and has a lot of thoughtful points to make.

I rest my case. You sir, are no Steve Simels.

Trey; 7/4/07, 6:33 PM
Wade Garrett said...: Here's what bothers me about this Supreme Court decision:

Southern cities had de jure segregation, which the Constitution ruled to be illegal. Immediately thereafter, city councils and state legislatures began re-drawing district boundary lines in order to maintain all-white schools, or as close to all-white schools as they possibly could, while still complying with Brown v. Board. They knew how to do this because northern cities had already been doing it for decades.

Justice Roberts' opinion was pithy, but also smug and naive. If he believes that racism will disappear in the wake of this opinion, because it eliminates racial classifications, then he has another think coming. All he has done is open the door for elected officials to gerrymander school districts to exclude young black students. Our schools will be segregated again in no time. Not simply "undiverse." Segregated.; 7/5/07, 9:34 AM
Brent said...: Wade -

Racism does not exist today in America because of segregated schools.

The data for successful racial attitudes coming from forced integration schools in America over the last 14 years has only been evidence of incredibly diminishing racial attitude returns.

Forced integration - and that is any child and family forced - has seen it's day. It is time to stop using children as pawns for someone's outdated notion of the value of forced school racial "diversity".

America's young people, as reported last week in the Times, are much more tolerant and open in racial attitudes than in previous generations.

And Wade, here's the startling point - it happened to a generation that was schooled in fewer integrated schools per American public school student than the previous 2 generations. Mark that: Fewer

So how did those preferable race relations happen without the "word from on high" order to integrate and racially diversify? Finding the answers to that is a far better use of your time and children's futres than effortlessly throwing out the "well, segregation is bad, because, it just is , OK." Of course forced segregation - the refusal to allow someone from the neighborhood to attend because he or she is of a different race - is wrong.

Again - why are younger people more tolerant racially, to the point of a majority (for the first time in this survey) believing that they would have no problem dating someone of a different race?

Which is just an additional proof that "school integration" - while sounding noble and divisive - is no longer working to change racial attitudes.

Racism is still a problem. But the racial hucksters - Jackson, Sharpton, et al. are banking on an emotional, non-thinking reaction to any accusation of racism that they may make. In the meantime, they do damage to the cause of race relations on this country.

SO, drop the idea that forcing someone else's child to go to a school away from his neighborhood friends will simply make racism eventually go away.; 7/5/07, 12:14 PM
Wade Garrett said...: I agree with you about the charlatans who, in the name of promoting tolerance, continue to use race to divide people. Trust me, I get it.

But, I think there is a much larger truth here, which fans of the Supreme Court decision willfully ignore. Yes, today's children are more racially tolerant than were children of 50 years ago, but that is largely due to the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the civil rights movement which grew out of its aftermath. I'm wary of any move away from federal oversight of racial segregation, because but for the federal government's intervention over the past 50 years, we would still be living in a backwards, racially segregated, near-apartheid society.

People who say that the school your student attends should be based solely on market forces ignore the fact that state and local governments rigged the system for decades in the name of allowing "market forces" to re-segregate their schools. Consider the countless cities who created new, smaller, suburban school districts, then tore up otherwise vibrant black neighborhoods in order to build highways, allowing rich white people in the new, distant suburban school districts the hassles of a length commute. Of the five cities in which I have lived, that fact pattern is true for all of them, with the exception of Madison, which never had a black neighborhood, or a large black population, to begin with.; 7/5/07, 3:26 PM
Revenant said...: Is Jesse Jackson, or in fact any one of the critics, literate?

Jesse Jackson is neither stupid nor ignorant, although his followers are typically one or both of those things. He's found a schtick that makes him a lot of money, and he's milking it for all it is worth -- which is obviously quite a bit, given that he somehow went from "son of teenage unwed mother" to "multimillionaire" without having any career outside of "activism". Nice work if you can get it, I guess.

It doesn't matter if Jackson's claims make sense or not, because he's not appealing to people who actually know anything about politics. He's appealing to angry black voters who aren't smart or educated enough to have something intelligent to be angry about, and channeling that anger into his own bank account.; 7/6/07, 4:49 AM
Revenant said...: but for the federal government's intervention for the first 20 of the past 50 years, we would still be living in a backwards, racially segregated, near-apartheid society.

There was an error in your post. I've corrected it.

No sensible person can think that federal oversight was necessary to keep American society from becoming "near apartheid" after the later 1970s. Especially since that federal oversight *ended* years ago -- the programs thrown out by the Court were cooked up at the local level.; 7/6/07, 4:55 AM
Wade Garrett said...: Right, because without federal intervention hundreds of years of racism and self-segregations would magically have ended of its own accord in the mid-70's.

How silly of me to suggest otherwise.; 7/6/07, 7:26 AM