[W]hen a Supreme Court justice pointedly cites the facts in a decision he wrote, and gets them exactly wrong, it is more than embarrassing. It makes for headlines among the legal cognoscenti.Nina notes that some Scalia law clerk " is — to put it in delicate terms — likely having anatomical changes made to his or her body." I think that's a reference to the old guillotine metaphor heads must roll.
I'm not sure I rank as one of the cognoscenti, but here's my headline for Justice Antonin Scalia's booboo: "Nino's No-No."
Or am I inclining toward French imagery because Scalia's horrible error appeared right under a subheading that read "Plus Ça Change: EPA's Continuing Quest for Cost-Benefit Authority"?
If you're going to dissent, criticizing the comprehension of others, and you get flashy about it with attention-getting language — like "Plus Ça Change," which requires more than the ability to read French — you're glaring light on any mistakes of your own you may make. If you take an imperious tone, you're setting yourself up for a harder fall if you trip.
The "Plus Ça Change" phrase has, along with the correction of the mistake, been replaced by the very modest "Our Precedent."
"Plus Ça Change" requires more than the ability to read French because it's only the beginning of a longer phrase, and the meaning is only understood by those who know how the phrase ends: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." But it's just what is a reasonably well-known aphorism in English: The more things change, the more they remain the same.
The French aphorism, by the way, comes from the 19th century writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, who also said, on the topic of abolishing the death penalty: "Je veux bien que messieurs les assassins commencent"/"Let the gentlemen who do the murders take the first step."
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It was a Boo-Boo. But for Scalia's enemies, it's always a No-No.
"This is not the first time the EPA has sought to convert the Clean Air Act into a mandate for cost-effective regulation," Scalia wrote Tuesday.
Fixed: This is not the first time the EPA has sought to convert the Clean Air Act into a mandate for cost-ineffective regulation,"
I always translate it as "Look for the woman."
Wrong metaphor. Other end of the body.
And it is still about the EPA and CoE assuming powers to control development on Black Rock Mesa as infringing on navigation in "waters of the United States."
I love the NPR comments! According to them, this court will bring back slavery. I don't know if that will be necessary, as they have ruled that the EPA had the authority to deem CO2 a pollutant.
But my favorite bit was Nina's editorial flourish, describing Scalia's "brilliant rhetorical stamp." I wonder if she was being sarcastic.
Look, let's face it (pun intended) ... when Nina Totenberg arrives at a farm pasture in which bulls are grazing, she backs up against the barbed wire fence.
As Scalia would no doubt inform anyone who asked, "Nono" is Italian for grandfather, and "Nona", grandmother.
You're welcome. And congrats on the 3o!
http://gawker.com/5023609/jesse-jackson-i-wanna-cut-obamas-nuts-off
There's the metaphor.
Or ass.
In any event, Sotomayor doesn't look so foolish, so alone anymore.
All the same, we take our chances
Laughed at by time, tricked by circumstances
Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose
The more that things change, the more they stay the same
Every Rush fan knows what it means.
/nerd
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