Althouse: "My wife calls me Mr. Clueless."

May 25, 2010

"My wife calls me Mr. Clueless."

Says Justice Scalia, sitting next to Justice Breyer, who seems quite a bit less clueless.

18 comments:

Ron said...: if Mr and Mrs Clueless fight in the bedroom, does she invoke "separate but equal?"; 5/25/10, 5:48 PM
Trooper York said...: Does he use the "Clue" brand of condoms?; 5/25/10, 6:03 PM
Trooper York said...: That the one with the picture of Colonel Mustard with the really big candlestick.; 5/25/10, 6:06 PM
reader_iam said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/25/10, 6:23 PM
reader_iam said...: That was wonderful, all the way around.

***

Also, clearly Justice Breyer is a man of discipline, at least in this instance: Only *two hours*?; 5/25/10, 6:24 PM
Unknown said...: It's always that way with powerful men. Their wives watch them trying to figure out how to set the VCR, too.; 5/25/10, 6:30 PM
ricpic said...: Breyer is such an enlightened fellow and such a sure vote against the interests of bitter clingers everywhere.; 5/25/10, 6:51 PM
jr565 said...: Why are women allowed to get away with calling men clueless or stupid, and why do men go along with it (other than to get along and not have women withhold sex that is).
If men went around saying, "my wife is so clueless, what a dunce" people would be up in arms about sexism. Yet if you watch any commercial that addresses a relationship between a male or female the maile is almost always the idiot being corrected by the woman. This is also true on many most tv shows. Yes, guys can be clueless, but is it possible that woman can too?; 5/25/10, 7:20 PM
jr565 said...: If he's so clueless and she's so smart, why is he sititng on the supreme court?
Clearly he lets her get away with saying such things, because he's a gentleman (and it's probalby said lovingly or is a running sign of affection between them). But if angered he could pull out a sam kinison on her "I'm clueless? Who's sitting on the supreme court making decisions that impact the entire country and who's sitting on their at home doing nothing? Huh? Huh! WRARRRRRRR!!!"; 5/25/10, 7:27 PM
Damon said...: What a matter of perspective. I think that makes Breyer look pretty clueless actually. Sitting spell bound as tweeting goes on.

My wife just today emailed her boss, general counsel, if he read blogs and forwarded a link to this blog as a recommendation. His simple response back was "No."

Reality is he is way too busy with life to follow blogging or engage in the "national conversation." It just isn't relevant.

Blogs are way more in depth than some random tweeting. I think it speaks more highly to Scalia than slack jawed Breyer amazed that people would waste their time as such.

I wish he was more appalled than amazed. Is tweeting, I mean following tweeting, that special?; 5/25/10, 7:30 PM
Dr.D said...: It is all a matter of who has insight into the big issues of life, and who sees the small details.

Anybody that truly thinks he is clueless is not too bright themselves.; 5/25/10, 7:34 PM
reader_iam said...: I'd bet quite a bit of money that Mrs. Scalia is aware of Justice Scalia's intelligence and achievements in life (as I'm sure he's aware she's aware). I also doubt Justice Scalia thinks Mrs. Scalia has just been sitting her on her ass for the past 50 years of their long marriage and partnership (whether he might joke that way or not, we cannot know, of course).

Also, the Scalias have nine children, which to my mind sorta speaks both to the "fear of withheld sex" and "sitting on her ass" thing. Of course, I'm making assumptions here, too... .; 5/25/10, 7:57 PM
Damon said...: Dr.D - Who said they think they are clueless? He said his wife says he is clueless, way different. And, I am pretty sure given the context of the discussion it was in reference to technology.

So your post doesn't reveal your "insight into the big issues of life."; 5/25/10, 8:04 PM
Meade said...: Besides, she doesn't just call him "clueless." He said she calls him "Mr. Clueless."

As Ron suggests above, the respect between Mr. and Mrs. is probably reciprocal. Still, given the tension, no doubt, in their own home, they adhere to the dual federalism legal theory.

wv: "lagalist" A 5L law school student.; 5/25/10, 9:30 PM
David said...: My wife calls me that too? She thinks I would make a great Supreme Court justice, if I had a clue.; 5/25/10, 9:53 PM
Fen said...: Why are women allowed to get away with calling men clueless or stupid, and why do men go along with it

If you're clueless and stupid, you cant be trusted to do the chores, fix the heater, etc.

Just sit back with your Bud where you won't hurt anyone.

All kidding aside, waht edutcher said. Columbo's wife found him incompetent in the mundane world too.; 5/26/10, 1:39 AM
reader_iam said...: Blogs are way more in depth than some random tweeting.

This is true, in so many cases (though by no means all--I mean, how long have you been reading the blogosphere and how broadly have you traversed it, much less message boards etc. before it, over time, including this moment in time?). In terms of a different hand, there is plenty of tweeting--even some random tweeting--that is no more lacking in depth and meaning than most blog *comments* in the universe of blog comments, word or character count notwithstanding.

In order to put too fine a point on this (no missed word there), I'm willing to take a step both farther and further along the path: There is bad blogging and great tweeting, bad tweeting and great blogging, great blogging and bad commenting, and bad blogging and great commenting (and so forth).

In any case, in the clip embedded by Althouse, Breyer's notable comment about Twitter specifically referred to the turmoil and protests in Iran surrounding the elections there last year. (What he clearly wasn't talking about was the documenting of breakfasts, for example, or romantic conquests or the cute thing someone's kid said yesterday or whatever, and nor was he referring to the links to recipes or pet pix or music videos or whatever--you know, the standard sort of thing used to dismiss the medium all together.) It was an example of a real-time, grassroots, raw and even rough--rough and even raw?--sort of sharing of unfolding, uncharted, significant events one could characterize as news (not to mention history in the making--though, of course, only time will truly tell, to be picky).

You don't have to like Breyer, his view of law or his role on the court to understand or get that, or at least to try to understand or get that.; 5/26/10, 2:11 AM
Phil 314 said...: Did Justice Breyer confuse Twitter with Youtube. Did he really spend two hours reading twitter feeds?; 5/26/10, 9:54 AM