Althouse: At the Tulip Café...

March 28, 2012

At the Tulip Café...

... open wide.

32 comments:

john said...: I have been cruising Utube for various cuts of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Most are just great and tonight they all bring a tear to my eye.

rip Earl.

(Steve Martin is also a very good picker.); 3/29/12, 12:16 AM
bagoh20 said...: Thanks for the work Professor.

This is the most in depth I've ever examined this process. With all due respect to the court and the process, I was not impressed. The good was fine, the bad was pathetic. The arguments were not any better than some I read here by commenters all the time. Not me, but others. The SG was terrible. Maybe he had nothing to work with, but he didn't even try to convince anyone. He was the perfect lawyer to represent this President and the Pelosi Congress. Convinced of their correctness regardless of the facts or the law. You could condense it to: Just do it because we passed it, or in the Presidents words: "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."; 3/29/12, 12:23 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I was watching Miss Bala (2011) before and I paused it to come in and comment how much I was enjoying it.. when I found no cafe.. so I went back to finish the movie.

It was really good.. well done.

(if you don't mind subtitles.. the movie is in Spanish); 3/29/12, 12:33 AM
bagoh20 said...: I did far too much commenting today. I apologize. I have a life, no really, I do.; 3/29/12, 12:48 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I been trying not to get too worked up about the Supremes oral arguments.

That way, if we win, I can be pleasantly surprised.. and if we loose, I can say, see, I told you so.

My superstitious winning baseball strategy is in effect.

If I want something to happen I root against it happening.. and If I don't want something to happen I root for it.

Its not like the Supremes are bothering to look at the constitution.. If they are not going to look at it, let alone follow it.. why should I?

Even the commentators have admitted as much.

Its depressing.; 3/29/12, 12:48 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I mean I sort of instinctively knew this thing was bad.. but it was not like this is rocket science.

All the polls have been saying the same thing pretty much all along.

Even the way they passed it, pretty much said the thing was not above board.

dont beat yourself up bagoh20

Sometimes I post so I can challenge myself to get fronted.. how is that?; 3/29/12, 12:59 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: You know whats depressing too..

The making of the political outcome of the case front and center.. as if the fact that the law is fatally flawed is a sideshow.

That Obama open mike chat with the Russian leader.. the oral arguments are like an open mike chat with ourselves..

It was depressing (maybe embarrassed.. certainly uncomfortable) to me.. I dont know.. I wish I could express what I mean more fully. Its just a feeling.. maybe it will pass.; 3/29/12, 1:29 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: A feeling you cannot express?

Try another language and see if we get it that way. Try sign language or hieroglyphics, they're both very graphic.

Or draw us a picture. Or photoshop someone else's picture to make it say what you want.

Sing it. Or dance it. Bake it and make it talk.; 3/29/12, 1:49 AM
Ben Morris said...: Serious question: Is this post Prof. Althouse's "subtle" way of bragging that she's about to/just did get laid?; 3/29/12, 2:01 AM
Anonymous said...: The arguments were not any better than some I read here by commenters all the time

You should listen to the arguments in Roe v. Wade. Pathetic. Actually in my (limited) experience, the more contentious the case the worse the arguments are. Same thing happened with the Prop 8 stuff. And it's not because the more contentious issues are actually more unclear than others.; 3/29/12, 4:44 AM
Anonymous said...: I have been cruising Utube for various cuts of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Most are just great and tonight they all bring a tear to my eye.

rip Earl.

Coincidentally I was doing the same last evening. Dang.

Earl Eugene Scruggs, 1924-2012.
RIP Mr. Scruggs.; 3/29/12, 5:50 AM
edutcher said...: Gorgeous pic, Madame. Just another reminder that Spring is here.

And that the long winter of this Administration is that much closer to an end.

"THERE'S MORE TO COME, but I can't get to it tonight. It's just too onerous for now. "

I thought you looked tired in that video yesterday morning. As bag and Lem have said, a big "Thank You" for all your hard work on making the arguments understandable.

As was the case a year ago, ANN beats all the other news networks in its coverage of the most momentous events of our time.; 3/29/12, 6:08 AM
KCFleming said...: I, too, offer my thanks to Althouse for her work on the case.
Herculean.
Or Sisyphean.

I came away more troubled, however. I seriously expected some examples of great intellect during the case, and saw but a few.

I was truly frightened by the Administration's effort, and moreso by Kagan. She barely belongs on my city council. 'Wow. Wow.'

Yet here she is deciding my fate, and that of my children, and beyond. I was repeatedly filled with waves of nausea or panic, realizing that partisan hacks and socialist poltroons were in charge, even of the judiciary.

I have been losing faith in government for some time. This cements it. We're no better than Cuba or any other banana republic that makes shit up as it goes along.

Despair.; 3/29/12, 6:54 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/29/12, 7:12 AM
KCFleming said...: In re: Martin/Zimmerman, my conclusion was not on guilt or innocence, but on how much our police have failed us.

As in Britain, they are no longer in our service, and no longer preventing crime.

They are, as Peter Hithcens, noted, merely a fire brigade, dispatched for murders and drugs and Big Crimes.

If they come at all.

The reason Zimmerman felt he had to police his neighborhood is that the cops don't and won't.
Despite numerous break-ins, they do nothing.

They act merely as documenters for insurance claims. They prevent nothing. They catch no one.

A beat cop should have been doing what Zimmerman attempted, with the needed training and civil authority.

But we don't have beat cops.

We have Call Centers that wait until someone is killed to do something.

We have Cop cars, with some unnamed figure hidden from view, remote, unapproachable.

Citizens are just supposed to take it. To be passive victims. To be robbed and then collect insurance. Or bury the dead.

The cops will not come; this I have learned full well. Hell, there are some neighborhoods even they won't go in.

They are a paramilitary, and answerable only to the State; they do not serve the public. I have as much to fear from them as I do the thief. More, perhaps, especially should I deign to defend myself. And if they kill me, no matter how it happened, it's no harm no foul (e.g. no-knock raids).

Martin's death will be An Example for all sorts of things.

To me it is a tragedy created by the final death of cops who used to Protect and Serve. Now they are merely reactive, military, and my rulers. I am to do what they say, without question, and be happy they bother to document a break-in.
Online, not in person.
What are you, nuts?

Despair #2.; 3/29/12, 7:14 AM
Phil 314 said...: I prefer the more classic shape and red color.

Its hard to believe that such a flower could lead to the archetypal market bubble.; 3/29/12, 7:32 AM
AlphaLiberal said...: Funny piece on Scalia, his bored and arrogant self.

Ann's hero. Yet, a fraud.; 3/29/12, 7:52 AM
AlphaLiberal said...: Scalia rants from the bench as if he's on talk radio. Good point - the Cornhusker Kickback was not in the final bill. So why does Scalia bring it up? It's irrelevant.

Because he's legislating from the bench.; 3/29/12, 8:00 AM
Sydney said...: The Zimmerman case has taught me that our national press is shameful and not to be trusted. They are nothing but rabble rousers uninterested in the truth or in the basic principles of our system of law.; 3/29/12, 8:03 AM
Carnifex said...: @Pogo

Damn son! Welcome to the club!

As for these flowers, at least they aren't thrusting themselves at me like some 2 bit hooker trying to score the last buck she needs to make her crack nut.

@ Lem

I feel like that too, and then Chip steps in and sez "Here's the point they were trying to make". He makes it look so easy. Bastard (j/k).

I think Chip and Crack may be the most talented writers on this site.

And finally, no one believed me when I said my cat changed the way this blog shows on my computer, so it's still all in one row. I am learning to like...errr...live with it.; 3/29/12, 8:12 AM
Hagar said...: Considering the way Harry Reid managed this bill, does anyone know if Reid (and his leadership?) deliberately deleted the severability clause, or did someone surreptitiously do it, or did the page it was on just get lost, or failed to copy, somewhere along the way?; 3/29/12, 8:16 AM
damikesc said...: I am curious: Palin was guilty because of an ad that had a crosshair on it.

There is a KillZimmerman Twitter account active. Spike Lee tweeted the wrong address of him. The Black Panthers have put a bounty on his head.

...so, is this the civility the President called for?

Even not knowing if he is guilty, I'm inclined to side with him because his opponents are so vile.; 3/29/12, 8:17 AM
Carnifex said...: As our esteemed Kagan would say, "Wow! Wow!"

A liberal complaining about judicial activism? Tell me Alpha, how does it feel to be the recipient of judicial fiats, and rants? Because as a anti-abortion conservative, I would have no idea what that felt like.

I imagine it's like saying to a judge, "But the law states specifically A=B" And the judge replies, "Not only does A=B, by a shadow of a penumbra, it equals the whole damn alphabet! How can you not see that?" "Case dismissed. Never darken my doorway again."; 3/29/12, 8:21 AM
Patrick said...: Very sorry to hear about Earl Scruggs. I guess we all have to go sometime, but only a very few leave a mark like he did.; 3/29/12, 8:49 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Yet here she is deciding my fate, and that of my children, and beyond. I was repeatedly filled with waves of nausea or panic, realizing that partisan hacks and socialist poltroons were in charge, even of the judiciary.

I'm with Pogo. Disturbed.; 3/29/12, 9:04 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If you look at the airline industry.. it used to be regulated like, if more, the health care industry.

Now tickets are cheaper, we have more choice and the dam things are still safe. None of the predictions the naysayers made have come to pass.

Maybe pogo has it right.

Despair.; 3/29/12, 9:16 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: AlphaLib, nice link to a piece by lefty hack Charlie Pierce. Is that what he does in his spare time when he's not writing about sports? Good source. Run with it.

If I had time, I'd count how many times each justice referred to the Constitution, Amendments, and Bill of Rights. I suspect that Scalia did it quite a bit. I suspect the liberal justices did it less frequently. It's pretty clear Breyer is making shit up as he goes along. I expect the highest judges in the land to, you know, apply those documents to the case, much to your consternation.; 3/29/12, 9:22 AM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/29/12, 9:26 AM
edutcher said...: Pogo, Sam Colt didn't make his fortune selling six-shooters to the Army, Navy, Texas Rangers, or itinerant cowboys.

He made it by selling them to shopkeepers and homeowners in places like New Your, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

AlphaLiberal said...

Funny piece on Scalia, his bored and arrogant self.

Ann's hero. Yet, a fraud.

Poor baby, the Lefties are on a real losing streak these days, so he has to knock someone of real accomplishment.; 3/29/12, 9:28 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I started to follow the arguments but they lost me at the tax that its not a tax.. a tax sometimes and not others.

Like the Clintonian 'oral sex is not sex' contradiction.; 3/29/12, 9:39 AM
edutcher said...: Like the old Subaru Outback as - the car that's an SUV.; 3/29/12, 9:48 AM
syd B. said...: Just how bad was the Obama budget presented to Congress and rejected, 414 - 0? I mean, even that ball washer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, voted NO!

Disgraceful leadership from the President down to the last hanger on in his administration. Shitforbrains, every last one of them.; 3/29/12, 9:49 AM