When is it okay to shout "Fire!" and cause a panic? Brett looks more like he's smelling... not smoke but ... woman?!?... oh, I don't know, but now, I'm reading the Wikipedia article "Shouting fire in a crowded theater" and I see:
People have indeed falsely shouted "Fire!" in crowded public venues and caused panics on numerous occasions, such as at the Royal Surrey Gardens Music Hall of London in 1856, a theater in New York's Harlem neighborhood in 1884, and in the Italian Hall disaster of 1913, which left 73 dead. In the Shiloh Baptist Church disaster of 1902, over 100 people died when "fight" was misheard as "fire" in a crowded church causing a panic and stampede.When it's not a real fire, but a political situation, who's to say the perception of a smoldering fire is wrong? Me, I have very little sense of smell, so I've got to rely on other people to alert me about literal smells that signal danger. In the metaphorical realm, where the "smell" is of a developing political problem, those who "smell" it earliest could either be wrong or really giving us a useful early warning that we can pay attention to, contemplate, and maybe do something about before it's too late.
In contrast, in the Brooklyn Theatre fire of 1876, the actors initially falsely claimed that the fire was part of the performance, in an attempt to avoid a panic. However, this delayed the evacuation and made the resulting panic far more severe....
In his introductory remarks to a 2006 debate in defense of free speech, writer Christopher Hitchens parodied the Holmes judgement by opening "Fire! Fire, fire ... fire. Now you've heard it", before condemning the famous analogy as "the fatuous verdict of the greatly over-praised Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes." Hitchens argued that the socialists imprisoned by the court's decision "were the ones shouting fire when there really was a fire in a very crowded theatre indeed.... [W]ho's going to decide?"
As for the smell of a woman — the smell I imagine Brett Kavanaugh to be screwing up his face about — I tried googling that...
"You know what's kept me goin' all these years? The thought that one day... never mind... silly. Just the thought that maybe one day, I'd -- I could have a woman's arms wrapped around me... and her legs wrapped around me.... That I could wake up in the morning and she'd still be there. Smell of her. All funky and warm. I finally gave up on it." That's the key "smell" quote from "Scent of a Woman."
These days, the idea that you'll wake up one morning with "a woman's arms wrapped around me... all funky and warm" feels metaphorical and horrible. Life was going so well. You were climbing the heights. What a good man you are, admired by all, up and up you go, and then you wake up one morning and she is "still... there..." and she's "wrapped around" you all right. Smell of her.
ADDED: What am I really saying here? Have I bitten off more than I can chew? It's my Kavanaugh gnaw.
AND: I am genuinely working my way toward what I want to say about Kavanaugh's predicament. The most straightforward thing I can say — and I have only figured this out after writing this post to pre-chew things — is:
1. This seat on the Court is especially important because of the threat to women's rights. Justice Kennedy was the 5th vote in key right-of-privacy cases, and women's continuing domain over our own bodies is at stake.
2. Kavanaugh has used his relationship to real-life women as some assurance that he will do right by women. We've heard much talk about his coaching girls' basketball and his hiring of female law clerks. He has forefronted his goodness with women, putting it in issue to meet very specific, important questions we have about him.
3. It's not a case of whether it would be fair to prosecute him for sexual assault after so many years and with this little evidence, but a question whether this person should be confirmed to take Justice Kennedy's seat on the Court and to have power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of women's rights. He has no right to the seat that's comparable to a right to remain free from criminal penalties.
4. Why should we Americans accept this man's power over us? He's been portrayed as a super-human paragon, and I don't think that can be the standard for who can be on the Supreme Court. It's dangerous to go looking for paragons. Maybe they've got a hard-to-detect dark side that has driven them to a life of saintly good works.
5. I assume all of the Senators are thinking primarily of their own power and how all of this will play in the November elections and in future elections. They are power-seekers and Kavanaugh is a power seeker. I am not seeking power. I am wary of the people who exercise power. I don't trust any of them, and I find it very hard to decide whom to trust here. It's tempting to say, it's wrong to use this device to defeat Kavanaugh. But to say that is to join everyone who insists on thinking of this all in terms of partisan politics. I'm having flashbacks to the Bill Clinton era, when I saw so many fake feminists put party politics first. I didn't. I didn't do it then, and I'm not going to do it now.
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347 comments:
1 – 200 of 347 Newer› Newest»Is it okay to yell "molasses" in a molasses flood?
That's what these hearings always seem like to me. Molasses.
Looks like snake eyes came up on this roll.
In the metaphorical realm, where the "smell" is of a developing political problem, those who "smell" it earliest could either be wrong or really giving us a useful early warning...
A pretty good rule of thumb is he who smelt it, dealt it.
When are you going to give up your Marxist feminism, Althouse, and acknowledge it for the vicious madness that it is?
It has been a great weapon for women who love to play backstabbing office politics.
Your desire for power seduced you.
No law professor in this post. It’s poet Althouse.
This is a god damn serious allegation. I view it as a despicable last minute hit job. Kavanaugh could lose his rightful confirmation due to a LIE made up be a lefty.
This did not happen. Kavanaugh wouldn’t throw away his future - even if he was drunk - over a freshman girl. His mother was a prosecutor and judge. His mother would have killed him and he knew that.
At worst, they were making out and he started to feel her up - with a top and swimsuit on - and she freaked out. That’s my theory.
And what of the other girl at the party?
I’m also betting the other girls at her HS will savage her.
I have two personal aspects to this. Clarence Thomas is married to my Creighton classmate. I saw her suffer through those lies. Like me, Kavanaugh is Catholic and went to a Jesuit HS. I believe Brett,
The "fire" analogy by Holmes is often misinterpreted. You should yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater - if there really is a fire raging.But you should never falsely shout "FIRE" in a crowded theater, when there's no fire.
The "false" part of Holmes' analogy often gets overlooked.
As for the smell of a woman —
Hannibal Lecter: ...Now then, tell me. What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?
Clarice Starling: He said, "I can smell your cunt."
Hannibal Lecter: I see. I, myself, cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps … but not today.
I thought the smell was something fouler, like an unprovable accusation deliberately withheld for days by a senator to be sprung at the last minute in an attempt to derail a perfectly valid nomination of an honorable, intelligent man.
An accusation that was partially recorded in 2012, the year Kavanaugh's name surfaced as a possible Romney pick.
I think it's irresponsible to waft up big smelly word clouds that add credibility to things that have not passed a formal process of defining and verifying credibility. To let them hang off the side of that process and give them those advantage might be fun but isn't credible or worthy of discussion within the context of what the originators want it to be.
The scent of bullshit is easily recognizable.
35 year-old accusations by crazy Leftwing women - memories of which are conveniently "recovered" in couples herapy -- are not generally reliable.
It also looks like Kavanaugh's mother -- also a judge -- oversaw a bankruptcy foreclosure case on a house owned by the accuser's parents.
And that the Washington Post was contacted by Kavanaugh's accuser in July, and decided to sit on the story ever since, giving Feinstein a chance to spring her surprise at the last minute.
This is a god damn serious allegation. I view it as a despicable last minute hit job. Kavanaugh could lose his rightful confirmation due to a LIE made up be a lefty.
The LIE is the same LIE they recycle for any situation where they are desperate. It always fails to meet the standard of criminality or the lower standard of worthy of formal investigation by criminal investigative bodies, yet always the demand the accusation is sufficient to circumvent the formal process and extrude the desired political effect.
“His mother was a prosecutor and judge. His mother would have killed him and he knew that.”
And his mother was the judge in the home foreclosure case of his accuser’s parents.
"These days, the idea that you'll wake up one morning with "a woman's arms wrapped around me... all funky and warm" feels metaphorical and horrible. Life was going so well. You were climbing the heights. What a good man you are, admired by all, up and up you go, and then you wake up one morning and she is "still... there..." and she's "wrapped around" you all right. Smell of her."
Two things: 1) As I'm sure someone else HAD to have pointed out by now, the Democrats are desperate because, long ago, the Mormon eyepatch Harry Reid wrecked 'em, so this is a Hail Mary pass because they have no other political options but something "crazy". It won't work.
2) I came home from work one day, laid down on the bed, and still smelled the woman I had been with the night before. I involuntarily yelled "NO!" and stripped the bed to immediately do laundry. There wasn't anything wrong with her. She smelled great. But it was my bed.
Everybody go back to their seats. Michael Moore and I have figured out that the Evil Genius of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is at it again. He sent his special communicator Conway to all the AM shows to say the accuser of Mr. Perfect "needs to be heard."
This farce will only back fire in the slimy Dem Senate Obstructionist's face as false accusers... just like Tester's attack on Dr/Admiral Jackson, who was a real doctor unlike the Phd from Academia performing a service for the Resistance.
FDS. Feminine (Feinstein) deodorant spray.
the melodrama moves to the next malodorous step:
Debra Katz, the attorney for Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in the 1980s, told NBC's "Today" that Ford believes the incident was "attempted rape" and is willing to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"She's a credible person.”
April 2014: From Rate my Professor:
"Christine ford is the worst educator I have ever experienced. Avoid taking her class and avoid any interaction with this person. I feel like she has something wrong with her and I am surprised no one has caught this. Also avoid fullerton's MSW program as long as she is there."
The fire in a crowded theatre trope is often used to excuse limitations on free speech.
It has always seemed to me to be less a speech issue than a fraud issue.
You can't defraud people.
John Henry
From “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”:
BIG DADDY
Think of all the lies I got to put up with! Ain't that mendacity? Having to pretend stuff you don't think or feel or have any idea of? Having for instance to act like I care for Big Mama!—I haven't been able to stand the sight, sound, or smell of that woman for forty years now!—even when I laid her!
1. CBF went to Holden-Arms. WaPo better call every single girl in her class and find out who else was st this party.
This woman’s name is critical.
2. In a foreclosure action, the judge has no discretion. If the documents are proper, the procedure was followed and the debt was unpaid, then the collateral is forfeited.
Maybe CBF is lying for money. Five or ten million in Bitcoin sounds fair.
"It was spting and the smell of cunt was in the air"
Henry Miller
Quiet days in Clichy(?)
John Henry
If the Republicans screw this confirmation up. I will go into the voting booth in November and vote straight Democrat down the line. I prefer a quick death to torture.
Lol. Ford’s former students are going to come out of the woodwork now and start lighting into her.
She wanted The Arena. Now she’s got it.
Personally I think Kavanaugh is a pussy but he can prove me wrong this week. Trump is enjoying this show. Kavanaugh isn’t his guy. He’s establishment GOP. He worked for W. Maybe W will come out and vouch for Kavanaugh. Probably not. W is a pussy.
"And his mother was the judge in the home foreclosure case of his accuser’s parents."
-- ... Sort of like how Roy Moore ended up signing the yearbook of a woman whose case he'd later adjudicate. Fate is a funny thing.
Ah, now Crack, that's where we differ. I always loved the scent of a woman in my bed.
Maybe Republicans should elect better Republicans. The Coke Turtle needs to get his people in line.
"This is a god damn serious allegation. I view it as a despicable last minute hit job. Kavanaugh could lose his rightful confirmation due to a LIE made up be a lefty."
If it works, then there are going to be a lot of really pissed off people, because Feinstein cheated, and Americans hate cheating, or at least moderates and conservatives do. The left, not really, if the cheating is going to give them more power. She cheated by holding this back for two months, until the hearings were over, in order to delay the vote until after the election, where no Trump state Dem Senator is going to be risking reelection by voting against confirmation. We watched the,Dems make one bogus argument after another uwhy the confirmation hearings, then votes, should be delayed, but were saving the big one day until too late. It might be almost legitimate if she had a plausible excuse for the two month delay. She doesn't. She is cheating, and was planning to do so since July when she found out about this allegation, and was obligated to turn it over to the committee, and intentionally did not. And making it worse, much of this country is going to see that the charges are BS in the first place. This is what teenagers do, if it indeed happened. We all lived through that phase ourselves, and most of us again as parents (and now again as grandparents). But it probably didn't. The accuser is apparently a left wing whack job, who apparently marched against President Trump. No doubt the trauma and violence of Trump's election so triggered this woman that she recovered these repressed memories when Trump nominated Kavenaugh. And being a leftist psych professor, no doubt she believes that twaddle.
If her parent's posh house was foreclosed on, I'd say there was a story going on at home.
"1. CBF went to Holden-Arms. WaPo better call every single girl in her class and find out who else was st this party."
-- They can't, since they don't know when or whose party it was, and she never told anyone until her therapist session 30 years later.
This isn’t a serious allegation. The DC Fools are pretending to take it seriously because they are DC Fools.
Why did the WaPo state that the incident occurred in her "late teens" when summarizing the therapist notes, but farther down in the story state that she was 15 and Kavenaugh was 17? Is 15 a "late teen"?
"She cheated by holding this back for two months, until the hearings were over, in order to delay the vote until after the election, where no Trump state Dem Senator is going to be risking reelection by voting against confirmation."
-- If Feinstein thinks it is worth delaying over this, it makes her waiting even more curious. More importantly, the woman claims she thought Kavanaugh would kill her too. That's attempted murder he's being accused of.
"Is 15 a "late teen"?"
-- You round up, so technically, yes.
(Mid-teen would be more accurate, but the WaPo is very, slightly, technically accurate.)
At this point, Kavanaugh has to stay in the process and go through with the hearings. If he doesn't, he validates the charges.
One is reminded of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill brouhaha. Thomas survived. Hill disappeared into the leftist wilderness.
If the GOP were smart, they’d hold the vote. If he gets voted down, then next man up. Kavanaugh is a typical GOP Judge. There are dozens of people like him.
He’s made his way in this GOP world and understands.
If Flake or some of the other RINO's let this transparent ploy to Bork/Thomas this nomination, then every single time there is an important political moment they can trot out some dem donor lying cunt to make undisprovable claims from 30 years ago.
Not that it's important, but you don't round up from 10. The teen years are 13-19. So 15 is on the lower end, even if rounding.
Isn't it passing strange two Republican judges happened to get cases involving women they harassed, both coming to light in, what, a year or two of each other?
Fate is fickle.
It's not next man up. Anybody who throws his or her name in now knows what is headed for them- a mysterious allegation from decades before.
"Not that it's important, but you don't round up from 10. The teen years are 13-19. So 15 is on the lower end, even if rounding."
-- I hadn't thought of it like that. Eh, I doubt the WaPo *cared* either way.
Thomas had balls. When he said “this is high tech lynching” I knew he was the right man for the job and that he was going to get confirmed.
Kavanaugh isn’t Thomas.
Darkisland said...
"You can't defraud people."
That's rich, coming from a defender of homeopathy.
"When are you going to give up your Marxist feminism, Althouse, and acknowledge it for the vicious madness that it is?"
Is it mad or is it so sane that it just blew your mind.
Matthew Sablan- I think we are actually lucky WaPo deemed her a late teen, and didn't turn him into a raping pedophile by making her a young teen.
I wonder if the Dems haven't shot themselves in the foot again.
Kavanaugh strikes me as a squish. I could see him "growing" in office.
But now they made him feel like a victim and maybe carry a grudge. Also he'll be a piranha in the liberal culture of DC.
He may bind with Thomas.
Where's peter iron rails iron weights? This is his bailiwick.
These guys know the game. Kavanaugh stepped into The Arena a long time ago. Thomas gave these guys the back of the hand. He had game.
Kavanaugh knew what he was in for. He needs to get his Irish up. His wife out to be going after this woman with a hammer and tongs. His daughters should get some shots in too.
The therapist notes seem to state "four boys" and "late teen", both of which are inconsistent with the story today. That Kavenaugh was two years older than she was is the type of detail that she could overlook or never have known. In short, it is the type of detail that starts to unravel a story if she is retrofitting her timeline 30 years after the fact in 2012.
"Two things: 1) As I'm sure someone else HAD to have pointed out by now, the Democrats are desperate because, long ago, the Mormon eyepatch Harry Reid wrecked 'em..."
Makes you wonder how much casual Crack word play you don't notice....
She already covered that by claiming the therapist's notes were incorrect; four boys were at the party, only two in the room (according to her.) Of course, that makes me wonder what else they got wrong.
This stunt just makes another step towards the much needed refreshment of the tree of liberty that this country so desperately needs.
At house I don't know where, at a party I don't remember who invited me, upstairs, behind a locked door with music playing loudly so no one heard, two guys so drunk that they might not remember, assaulted me and were too drunk to get my clothes off. I escaped while they rolled around on the floor drunk, went back to the party without telling anybody, and without any friends noticing my state and got home I don't remember how and never told my parents. This was the defining moment of my life.
Does this seem likely?
More often than not, misogyny seems to be entirely justified.
It's not unusual for a guy to wake up with the scent of women whether the girl's still there or not, until he showers.
I suspect Crack smelled his right hand.
A 35 year old allegation from high school at the 11th hour & sitting on it til now? uhhhhhhh nooooooo. No one is going to investigate this fairy tale & certainly not the FBI who already has enough political baggage from 2016.
Is it the Kavanaugh gnaw? Naw!
So, what do we know about this party? It happened 30+ years ago. In Montgomery County. At a two-story house. At a time of year someone might wear a bathing suit under other clothes (so, late spring through the summer?) There were a total of four boys there. Kavanaugh and Judge (what an ironic last name for Accused #2) and two unnamed. There were at least two girls there (Ford + another unnamed one.) No parents were present; there was alcohol. Loud music.
Am I missing anything?
Leftists lie. This woman is a leftwinger and I'd bet my savings she is a liar.
My theory about Kavanaugh/Ford is a "Rashomon" scenario: It's entirely possible that BOTH of them are telling the truth *as each of them remembers it*.
I'll bet Kavanaugh would pass a lie detector test too.
Two drunken teenagers get involved in...something. Being drunk, they're acting more or less on impulse.
Years later, EACH of them sincerely remembers the incident somewhat differently.
There was an episode of Star Trek Next Generation, "A Matter of Perspective," with a similar scenario: Some alien woman claimed Riker had tried to rape her. Riker insisted he had been a perfect gentleman when the woman tried to seduce him.
The telepath, Troi, discovered that BOTH Riker and the woman were sincerely relating the account, but *each from their own perspective*. The objective truth might be somewhere in between, but we can never know for sure.
I get exactly what you are saying.
No, feminism did not blow my mind.
I grew up the only son with three sisters.
I've been on intimate terms with your "heads I win, tails you lose," philosophy almost since birth, Althouse.
And I saw almost from birth how a female child masterfully manipulates her father.
Kavanaugh will come out fighting. He's Irish. Like me.
The FBI could ask her what perfume the she was wearing the night she was fiendishly raped. Than match that brand to what Mr Perfect gives to Mrs. Kavanaugh to wear for him when she wears her drunk teenager costume for him on Rape Night.
Try yelling "theater" at a crowded fire sometime.
the fatuous verdict
I loves me some understatement.
Modern anti-speech socialists could take lessons from their predecessors who were throwing people in jail - not just getting them fired, etc. - for speaking out against slavery in the form of conscription.
You are clearly a master of backstabbing office politics, prof.
In fact, that is really the subject matter of your blog.
It's entertaining, I guess. I spent a lifetime positioning myself so that I could make a good living without playing backstabbing office politics.
Why do you find this crap a worthwhile expenditure of your time and your life?
People are different, I guess.
This woman is a leftwinger and I'd bet my savings she is a liar.
Liar and/or mentally disturbed. I don't see much of a distinction in her case.
Feinstein is a despicable money grubbing money whore - a Hillary Clinton clone.
Media not interested in her spy. Diane and her husband have pocketed millions and become very wealthy with her time in the senate.
"When you're a future Supreme Court Justice, they let you do what you want. You can grab 'em by the one-piece bikini"
- Young Brett Kavanaugh
"My theory about Kavanaugh/Ford is a "Rashomon" scenario: It's entirely possible that BOTH of them are telling the truth *as each of them remembers it*."
-- I see no reason to believe that. With the sudden revelation that Kavanaugh oversaw a case related to his accuser -- just like with Roy Moore -- my suspicion is heightened, if that were possible.
Just -- seriously. What are the odds two judges sexually harassed women who happened to later come before them?
At last we can all agree, Democrat and Republican alike, that Bill Clinton is a rapist and Hillary his accomplice-after-the-fact.
That is what the Democrats are saying here, isn’t it?
And, no, I’m not dredging up WJC. I’m dredging up why you and your’s voted for him and his.
I don't care who's on SCOTUS, but I will tell you with some degree of certainty how this "accuser" arrived at this destination.
She's been living on a college campus. She attended feminist meetings where speakers competed to come up with more heroic stories of surviving male abuse.
She elaborated the story each time she told it and began to believe it as her reputation depended on that.
I'm asking you all to reflect on the new movement toward "credibly accused". As I said yesterday, this term is being brought to us by the people who want to do away with due process, and want judges who would help them do so.
"What am I really saying here? Have I bitten off more than I can chew? It's my Kavanaugh gnaw."
I smell ya.
You shouldn't yell "Fire" at your firing squad.
Di Chi Spy Fi had a Chinese spy on her staff.
She had another staffer leave and raise $50 million for Fusion GPS.
I believe Fusion GPS is behind the Kavanaugh smear.
Scrubbing Ford's online presence took resources.
This was not a cheap effort.
Senator Collins asks the right questions. If Feinstein deemed the letter credible, why was it not surfaced earlier? If not deemed credible, why surface it now?
No surprise the despicable Feinstein sat on this for 2 months.
The Washington Post sat on this story for 2 months also???
That's not journalism, that's activism.
First Bork gets Borked by the despicable Lyin of the Senate.
Then Clarence Thomas gets hit with lefty professor's lies.
Harry Reid eliminates the filibuster for federal judges.
Now this.
All's fair in love and war, and Trump is president because working republicans finally, finally, realized it's war.
Pass the popcorn
Don't underestimate the difficulty of appearing before a Senate committee - with a few smart GOP Senators and staff - ready to tear her story to bits. She's never been in a forum like that. The whole world will be watching.
Kavanaugh, on the other hand, handled himself beautifully.
Where is the other woman who was at the party? How did CBF get home? She didn't have a driver's license.
"If not deemed credible, why surface it now?"
-- She gave it to the FBI and journalists, hoping they'd do the dirty work of verifying it. The FBI passed, and Farrow got pretty much nothing. There was no way to handle it WITHOUT putting Feinstein's name on it, so she gave in and did so.
Ann's addendum 1-5.
Trump won the election. He appointed Kavanaugh. We really have little idea of how he will rule on future cases and that's the way it should be. SCOTUS should decide cases on the law; not politics. He's said as much re: Roe.
Althouse's rationalization is that it is okay to tell outlandish lies in order to advance a political agenda on the non-political branch of government.
That view is very bad and dangerous.
Another way to view this is that if Kavanaugh is not confirmed and the Dems take the Senate is that the Dems will never vote for a Trump nominee even if he wins re-election. That puts our democracy in danger. Elections have consequences.
"Having for instance to act like I care for Big Mama!—I haven't been able to stand the sight, sound, or smell of that woman for forty years now!—even when I laid her!"
Tennessee Williams Gay projection.
“Collins asked if Democrats believed Ford, ‘why didn’t they surface this information earlier,’ and if they didn’t believe Ford, ‘why did they decide at the 11th hour to release it?'”
Make Feinstein the first witness under oath.
I'd say there's a bigger chance a rapist will be ok with abortion rights, than a saint. Democrats should be careful what they're wishing for
With apologies to your anosmia, Althouse, the more details (maybe I should use scare quotes: “details”) that come out, the more smoky this episode smells. Why was she at a party with a swim suit underneath? How many teenaged girls go to parties like that? She escaped the grasp of two older, stronger males, one of them a varsity defensive football player? Suuuuure. She can’t remember where the party took place, who (besides Kavanaugh, Judge, and herself) were there, or even the month it took place. According to some reports, she cannot even precisely remember the date! Smoke, pure smoke.
Oh, and she may have reason to have a grudge against his family. Interesting, that.
And to me Kavanaugh’s picture suggests someone who smelled a fart, not the scent of a woman.
The committee should have a private Telephone interview with her and Kavenaugh and Judge. And that's it.
The Vote should not be delayed.
But, of course, these old fart Senators can't even tie their shoes in one day. Get in at 10 AM, talk about tying shoes for 2 hours. Then take 2 hours for lunch. Then 2 more hours of talk, then finally the shoes get tied at 3 PM - and its time to go home.
They should have voted last week.
"More than two dozen of the [65] women who signed onto the letter did not immediately respond when contacted by POLITICO on Sunday about whether they still stood behind their defense of Kavanaugh. Two of the women who signed the letter declined to comment."
No comment?
Hmmm...
Althouse said, "Why should we American's accept this man's power over us? He's been portrayed as a super-human paragon, and I don't think that can be the standard for who can be on the Supreme Court. "
My first thought is that he is portrayed as a paragon because the play demands he play that part. His own character has nothing to do with the character the play demands.
That thought lead to Shakespeare. All the great characters know they are acting. And even the minor ones comment on the spectacle before them:
...All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
...And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
I see no reason to give this woman an audience to smear Kavenaugh. Why cross-examine her? She can't even say when and where the assault took place!
Kavenaugh and Judge say it didn't happen. What more can they add? It really, really, really, didn't happen?
bbkingfish wants those women to become Joans, the Plumbers.
with a few smart GOP Senators and staff
Assumes facts no in evidence. All evidence points to the contraposition.
Let me repeat: She CANNOT say WHEN and WHERE the assault happened.
Go to to police and say "Somebody tried torape me - but I can't remember the exact location and can't say whether it June, July, or August"
They will laugh in your face.
It smells like teen spirit.
I am extremely disappointed by the Republicans on the committee and Grassely specifically. I Grassely should say he is going to treat the story with exactly the same seriousness as Feinstien. Hold it for 2 months and then hand it over to the FBI. The vote will take place as schedule. Again honoring the example of Fienstien. Also Grassely should publicly request advice from the Chair of the Democrat Party as to how to handle allegations of past sexual claims.
If it works, then there are going to be a lot of really pissed off people, because Feinstein cheated, and Americans hate cheating, or at least moderates and conservatives do.
@Bruce Hayden, if it works Eleanor plans to vote straight Democrat, so there’s that.
Gotta hand it the Democrats and the left: they do fight their corner. And they fight it very effectively, at every level in every venue: on the streets, in the schools and the boardrooms and the media, in the entertainment industry, in government and the courts. Much more so than the other side, my side. They are constantly and continually on the attack, taking the initiative.
Stop complaining. When are you going to realize this is total war and act accordingly? Take the gloves off. Play dirty. No mercy.
A homeopath has come forward claiming Crack asked him for a folk remedy at a party when they were both in high school.
Scrubbing Ford's online presence took resources.
This was not a cheap effort.
Yes, this was planned for a while. The vague dates makes any alibi impossible and also makes any other witnesses hard to find.
The "Rate my Professor" entry was missed by the scrubbers and means she is a nut.
The foreclosure is a motive and an opportunity for revenge, Why did they have that big house and couldn't make the mortgage payments ? What "exclusive" girls school did she attend ? Any classmates remember anything ?
The delay is to make the inquiry too late to keep the vote on time.
What's with Flake ? Kavanaugh was Romney's guy, not Trump's.
I too was a victim of an assault - 35 years ago.
It was a buried memory, but this caused me to remember.
I can't say when or where it was, but it was the Summer of 1983. A blond woman tried to pull my shorts off. I fought her off, but as she left she shouted "Next time, put on some damn Pants".
Why should we American's accept this man's power over us?
The same could be said of anyone who's given power. Why do we trust humans with so much power at all? Historically people are pretty bad.
Stop complaining. When are you going to realize this is total war and act accordingly? Take the gloves off. Play dirty. No mercy.
No thanks. The quality of my day to day life is too important. I don't much care who wins at politics so long as they leave me alone.
Same with Althouse's love for backstabbing office politics. She can have it. I found a way to make a six figure income without engaging in that disgusting crap.
Kavanaugh is now Trump's Guy.
Which explains Flake.
I just look forward to never confirming another justice, cabinet member or any other nominated person in a bipartisan way again. Burn it down.
She could not withstand 5 minutes of cross examination. It is a slur and an outrageous stunt.
Moreover, Mrs. Ford regrets she cannot appear until December.
"I don't much care who wins at politics so long as they leave me alone."
That's nice.
I guess when politics affects great big wonderful you, you'll get involved.
We'll try to struggle along without you.
Veritas Project tapes, released in full online, and Democrats yell "doctored!"
36 year old charges without times, dates, or location and Democrats yell "The seriousness of the charge demands a full investigation!"
Please to explain.
This is nothing more than what the Dems have been doing to Trump since before the election.
It's only because it's not been aimed at Trump that the nation can clearly see it for what it has always been.
I am not sure the Rate My Professor is her. It's from Cal State Fullerton, and the person with that name there does not look much like the other photos.
Answer: we need an all female leftwing Supreme court. be even better if they were all brown females. None of this white crap.
My husband asks this question: If she doesn't remember where is was or when it was, how can she be sure she knows who it was?
@rcocean
Don't hold your breath.
Knowing how to be left alone by government is a skill that I've practiced for a lifetime.
Leonard Leo: Pull my finger.
GOPe: When I said I would never leave you.
Schumer: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. The confidential documents I’m leaking, you can't know. The unsourced op-eds I have to write, you can't be any part of. I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of you quasi-deplorables don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.
[Jeff Flake lowers his head and begins to cry]
Schumer: Now, now...
[Schumer gently places his hand under his chin and raises it so their eyes meet]
Schumer: Here's looking at you kid.
I had a similar event happen when I was in high school - some guy tried to grab me in a dark parking lot. Similar in that it was a scary thing that threatened physical harm, but that I was able to get away from before that really bad thing happened. And I remember exactly when and where it happened. That she can't recall some of these key details bothers me a lot. It casts doubt. Reasonable doubt.
We have a justice system for a reason - the right to face your accusers, to have representation, to be able to testify and cross examine. The point of all this is to keep us from having a society where someone can just denounce you and ruin you.
The fight isn't the Dems so much as the media, who have a business to run, and the business needs viewers. That drives everything. Dems are free-riders on the MSM business model, owing to the composition of the MSM audience.
Christine Blasey Ford admitted she was an alcoholic back then and regretted being so easy. She told her best friend she had 64 sexual partners between 11th grade thru college. She is also liberal activist who wrote on her FB in '16, "Scalia-types must be banned from law!"
Ann, on a completely different note, loosing one's sense of smell is an early symptom of Parkinson's.
I would get that checked out if I were you. There are diet interventions that help. Like Keto.
Our wonderful blog hostess is even-keeled and insightful on most issues, but she is vexed on the abortion issues
She seems to be finding a new Constitutional Amendment which states, "Thou shall not appoint a 5th Justice to the Supreme Court who is not A Priori Committed to upholding the decision in Roe v Wade."
Suggest you return to first principles.Ann.
1. Did Trump win the election? Yes
2. As elected President, does Trump have authority to appoint a Justice to a vacant Supreme Court seat? Yes
3. Is Brett Kavanaugh qualified?
4. Does Brett Kavanaugh have a good character? Yes
5. Will a majority of the Senate confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court under the "advise and consent" clause of the Constitution? Likely
6. Are Democrsts actively trying to stop him by playing the Spartacus, give us more documents, and sexual harassment smear cards? Yes
7. Should a majority of the Senate resist efforts to smear Kavanaugh based on 35-year old, silly high school allegations? Yes
8. Should the Senate impose an "uphold Roe Litmus Test" for SCOTUS judges? No
9. Should Kavsnaugh be confirmed? Hell Yes!
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
"Is it mad or is it so sane that it just blew your mind."
I'm going with madness. The statement above is a nice example of doubling down on madness in a clever lefty way.
I greatly appreciate your perspective and your blog, but there are times when it becomes evident you spent your career in academe.
i don't give a shit about what he did in high school. I hope the story is true. Humanizes. As to the accuser I believe I met her at a cocktail party in Palo Alto in the 80s. She kept using the N word in an " ironic" way, but she was clearly enjoying how the word rolled off the tongue. She was, is, by the way, batshit crazy.
I will never understand the obsession with preserving the "right" to kill your unborn child.
Althouse is saying we need a pro-choice justice regardless what happened 30 years ago.
Not considering that that choice being made by the supreme court is what made the unending fight start. Decide it democratically and it goes away. A decision is only a fighting matter where it's not decided by a vote. Process unfairness is detected and not forgotten. Process fairness is recognized and the fight moves to something else.
I'm pro-choice and anti-Roe/Wade.
Maybe the Senate staff could reach some f the 64 men she fucked as a teen alcoholic.
She seems to be finding a new Constitutional Amendment which states, "Thou shall not appoint a 5th Justice to the Supreme Court who is not A Priori Committed to upholding the decision in Roe v Wade."
It's because she knows how absurd the whole line of "reasoning" is in Roe and the whole line of privacy cases.
A high school date tried to put his hand up my skirt. Fortunately for this guy, he's not a SCOTUS nominee or he would be toast! TOAST!
I will never understand the obsession with preserving the "right" to kill your unborn child.
It's not a child unless you want a child. What it is is determined by looking at the parents, not the fetus. That's the way the language works and so it's the way your thinking works.
Argue without misusing the language and you'll find the truth.
How convenient that she had this "recovered" memory in 2012-an election year- and Kavanaugh was Romney's short list for Supreme Court nomination.
A homeopath has come forward
I don't think you can diagnose her as a homeopath based on her behavior in this case.
A high school date tried to put his hand up my skirt. Fortunately for this guy, he's not a SCOTUS nominee or he would be toast! TOAST!
I've done that myself. Actually we need another base for over panties and under panties. Girls may allow one and not the other.
rhhardin: "A decision is only a fighting matter where it's not decided by a vote"
Gay "marriage" is also one of those cases. It's also one that the professor wants protected.
"We The People" be damned.
This seat on the Court is especially important because of the threat to women's rights. Justice Kennedy was the 5th vote in key right-of-privacy cases, and women's continuing domain over our own bodies is at stake.
@Althouse, I see you’ve bought into the Democrat talking point that Kavanaugh will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. I think you’ve swallowed bullshit, Professor. And if by “women's continuing domain over our own bodies” you mean “abortion at any point during the pregnancy and by any means,” then IMAO you are out of step with the electorate. There will be restrictions on abortion, both because at a certain point the fetus is viable outside the mother, and because abortion needs to be SAFE.
Why should Kavanaugh have power over you? We can turn that around — why should Ruth Ginsberg have power over me? In the end one reaches the conclusion that no one should have power over anyone so let’s just dissolve the government.
When did she take the polygraph?
If she took the polygraph a while ago then this whole story falls apart. The story is that she wanted to remain anonymous, didn't intend to testify/make her self public, etc. If that's true she would have no reason to take a polygraph. Unless she took the polygraph very recently (after she believed her identity to have been leaked--which could only have been in the last few days) then the story being put out there doesn't make sense.
It's not a case of whether it would be fair to prosecute him for sexual assault after so many years and with this little evidence, but a question whether this person should be confirmed to take Justice Kennedy's seat on the Court and to have power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of women's rights. He has no right to the seat that's comparable to a right to remain free from criminal penalties.
So within the context of this device what's the standard for deciding if he gets to sit on the court? That no standard of evidence should apply? The existence of the accusation is sufficient?
...and why should we believe we have the right to use this device within the context of having power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of women's rights? If you fear those consequences there are elections to influence those decisions as they relate to women's rights. Voters voted on them. Elections have consequences. Should we get to subvert those elections because we don't like the consequences or because the issue is too 'important'? What's the point of going through the process if we aren't going to respect it?
Althouse and the rest of the feminist movement are so obsessed with protecting Roe for two reasons:
1) They know how absurd the "reasoning" is in the whole line of privacy cases and especially in the case of Roe. They can't allow a review to Roe because the decision is simply indefensible.
2) They know that if the issue was returned to the people and states, in most places pro-life would win.
Someone has a severe case of pathological homeopathaphobia. It's tragic, but it can be treated with essential oils.
They know that if the issue was returned to the people and states, in most places pro-life would win.
I doubt that. Until the biological clock starts pressing women like abortions, having other priorities in life. Men are mostly indifferent to positive on choice.
Althouse wrote:
"but a question whether this person should be confirmed to take Justice Kennedy's seat on the Court and to have power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of women's rights."
It isn't judge Kennedy's seat, it is a seat on the court. There are no Republican or Democrat seats. Women's rights include the right to bear arms, the right to not have oppressive government in other life matters aside from the "right" to kill your baby up to the baby's due date. I am certain justices appointed by Obama have no interest in my right to bear arms or not be forced to join a union, or have my property taken by the government for anything they deem as a public good, to increase their tax base or buy votes.
Elections have consequences.
Birkel@8:49 Seems like the accusers brother is a lawyer for a firm that represents...wait for it....wait for it some more....keep waiting because the MSM will not report this....still waiting.....Aaaand it's Fusion GPS. Yes, there is the Fusion GPS connection. Democrat Party's own Dirty Tricks Incorporated.
Ha ha, Althouse sides with a potential liar — a troubled woman who slanders and libels all men.
It was pretty shitty of Althouse to copy my “gnaw/Kavanaugh play on words — but, you’ve done that in the past.
but a question whether this person should be confirmed to take America's seat on the Court and to have power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of unborn children's rights.
Seems like the accusers brother is a lawyer for a firm that represents...wait for it....wait for it some more....keep waiting because the MSM will not report this....still waiting.....Aaaand it's Fusion GPS. Yes, there is the Fusion GPS connection. Democrat Party's own Dirty Tricks Incorporated.
Wow! Just wow!
Gretchen said... isn't judge Kennedy's seat, it is a seat on the court. There are no Republican or Democrat seats
Yes, indeed. That trial has already been tried: Well, with all due respect, it's not the Kennedys' seat, and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat...
The story is that she wanted to remain anonymous, didn't intend to testify/make her self public, etc.
Exactly like Anita Hill. This is yet another case of a woman getting herself in too deep with casual lies.
Michael Fitzgerald,
Color me unsurprised.
Di "Chi Spy" Fi is the gopher for this lie.
McCain played the gopher in the dossier lie.
Fusion GPS is the Democrat Fixer Operation.
Fusion GPS is the reality that the Democrats projected into Michael Cohen.
Pure-T projection.
Re Shouting Thomas, No thanks. The quality of my day to day life is too important. I don't much care who wins at politics so long as they leave me alone.
It's not about you.
Well that would make it intetesting:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/richard-epstein-nails-it.php?utm_campaign=Roost&utm_source=Roost&utm_medium=push
Man. Fusion GPS is everywhere.
It's not a case of whether it would be fair to prosecute him for sexual assault after so many years and with this little evidence, but a question whether this person should be confirmed to take Justice Kennedy's seat on the Court and to have power for a lifetime to make decisions that will quite specifically determine the scope of women's rights
Why should the scope of women's rights be held as a higher priority than all the other cases the Supreme's will decide? Must I suffer unfavorable decisions about tax law or the rights of unions or the right of government to compel me to buy a private insurance product? We don't get à la carte in politics so why does your thing get to win?
I have a couple questions for the accuser:
1. Were you a virgin at the time of the incident?
2. If so, when did you subsequently lose your virginity and under what circumstances?
3. To question 1, again, if not, when and under what circumstances did you lose your virginity?
4. If you answered question 3, how many sexual partners and instances of intercourse had you had by the time of the incident?
Inquiring minds want to know.
There's no reason to ask questions like Henge poses. All that should be asked is for things that *can be verified*.
Yes, this nominee is to replace Kennedy, but Kennedy has not created a mold from which all potential replacements for his "seat" are to be drawn.
You can't make the claim about woman's bodies, health, and rights when it comes to abortion. If there is any justice, both the father and mother have equal rights when it comes to determine the course of their child's life. Of course the woman carries the baby (women are different from men) by except in cases of incest or rape, the act of sex was a voluntary act that took two people, a male and a female.
The key issue is not woman's health, but when do human rights become established? If a baby is considered human before birth, terminating that life at any point without their consent is very "troublesome". Given that minor children cannot give consent in certain situations, the state has a duty to protect that child.
Why should we Americans accept this man's power over us?
In terms of abortion, this man will not have power over you. At most, he will return power over you to the states, where the Constitution says that it belongs. The same power over you that the state uses to prohibit you from murdering your fellow citizens. And (assuming your state does prohibit abortions,) they will do it for the same reason as they prohibit murder.
Kavanaugh doesn’t have a right to the seat but we as citizens have a right to our Senators acting in good faith to perform their role of advice and consent in confirming SCOTUS nominees. It is blatantly obvious that Feinstein has not done so.
Blogger mockturtle said...”Seems like the accusers brother is a lawyer for a firm that represents...wait for it....wait for it some more....keep waiting because the MSM will not report this....still waiting.....Aaaand it's Fusion GPS. Yes, there is the Fusion GPS connection. Democrat Party's own Dirty Tricks Incorporated.
Wow! Just wow!”
Well that answers my query from last night of whether the accuser has a brother. AND it neatly explains the accuser’s animus towards conservative men, though I did not predict or even suspect the Fusion GPS aspect.
Wow, just wow indeed. This really is war.
Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, identified herself Sunday …
This is all we really need to know about this latest bullshit anti-Trump ploy. She’s straight out of Lefty academia nutjobville.
She supposedly passed a lie detector test but it was administered by guess what, “… a former FBI agent …” I don’t trust ANYTHING that the FBI has a hand in. Too much chance that a Deep State shenanigan is being committed. Besides, polygraphs are easy to cheat.
But most folks probably believe polygraphs are accurate. Perhaps Kavanaugh should demand that a neutral party administer a polygraph to both himself and a new one on the accuser. Fight bullshit with bullshit.
-- She gave it to the FBI and journalists, hoping they'd do the dirty work of verifying it. The FBI passed, and Farrow got pretty much nothing. There was no way to handle it WITHOUT putting Feinstein's name on it, so she gave in and did so.
My thought exactly. Even the FBI (officially) and the MSM passed on this and that is very telling. I’m a bit disappointed in not posting it first.
To sum up. I think this is one of the rare cases in which Althouse wasn’t able to think outside her academic bubble on this one because this accusation stinks from the word go.
And you're not allowed to shout "shark" in a crowded Jacuzzi.
I DECIDEDLY DID assume Fusion GPS involvement.
Di "Chi Spy" Fi gets the story because her former staffer raised $50 million for Fusion GPS.
Am I wrong to wonder why Professor Ford did not stand up at the time and take action to prevent a string of sexual abuse (as she might have envisioned it) over the next 35 years? Where is her responsibility and why did she not exercise it? Maybe she should lose her {I presume) tenured position, for not acting responsibly, 35 years ago.
Regards — Cliff
@Althouse, grow up and shed your reverence for “the Kennedy Seat,” Roberts will become the new swing voter. You like and admire Roberts, right? So tell all your “sisters” to cool it.
Considered human vs considered a human is the argument. The latter is dogmatism based, if it starts at conception, and won't find agreement.
Everybody considers it human (i.e. not wolf) at any stage.
Lie detector tests don't work on women.
Blogger LilyBart said...”My husband asks this question: If she doesn't remember where is was or when it was, how can she be sure she knows who it was?”
Who, what, where, when, is old school journalism. Now get with the pogrum.
She gave it to the FBI and journalists, hoping they'd do the dirty work of verifying it.
Um, no. The last thing she wanted was for anybody to verify it. She wanted it spread far and wide.
”Seems like the accusers brother is a lawyer for a firm that represents
This is an operation. It has been planned including wiping all the social media entries. Was she a teen alcoholic, for example, as was supposedly in some facebook post?
The delay was to hold off until they had to use her, as flawed as she is.
Flake is involved somehow. That ties the committee vote.
Can the nomination for forward with no recommendation from the committee?
Althouse- all five of your points highlight beautifully why pro- choice activists might feel justified in ruining Kavanaugh in service to a greater good
If Mary Jo Kooechne might have happily sacrificed herself so Ted Kennedy could be in the Senate, why would other women not do the same? Why would her fellow travelers not suooort it?
Blogger rhhardin said...
Lie detector tests don't work on women.
Especially about sex.
I think Feinstein at least *hoped* it was true, but understood it was a radioactive claim to make without proof. She shopped it around hoping someone else would get burned if they failed to verify it, with the added bonus that if she silently leaked it, it wouldn't get traced back to her.
Then someone started whispering that Feinstein had something that could stop Kavanaugh and wasn't using it, and her proxies in the FBI and media weren't succeeding, so she had to go on the record.
The biggest surprise is it turned out... to actually not be that radioactive for her at all.
"The point of all this is to keep us from having a society where someone can just denounce you and ruin you."
This is my concern as well.
Womens rights in this case as in nearly all others is a mcguffin.
It is an emotional line in a propaganda war.
A war being fought over much more traditional ground.
This is a battle over the control of the state, over power, over control, over money, over boots on faces - who gets to wear the boot, whose is the face. It is a war over culture and continuity, over civilization.
And the courts are not and have never been some apolitical institution. In the past one could argue that politicization was a too-common anomaly. But that was when government powers were much more decentralized, and institutions of all kinds were less converged. That was before the current war. At this time it is absurd to think the courts are anything but political instruments, critical hilltops and hamlets on a battlefield.
You are in a state of general caste-war, and it is being fought everywhere. The stakes are immense, the losers, come the time, might as well never have existed, nor their ancestors, and they will have no descendants, no continuity. The losers will be the equivalent of reservation Indians, or Japanese Ainu, or Russian Old Believers. At best.
It is a situation that requires enormous perspective.
"I had a similar event happen when I was in high school - some guy tried to grab me in a dark parking lot. Similar in that it was a scary thing that threatened physical harm, but that I was able to get away from before that really bad thing happened. And I remember exactly when and where it happened. That she can't recall some of these key details bothers me a lot. It casts doubt. Reasonable doubt. "
I expect that most of the women here, who spent a decent amount of time around guys out of school, have similar stories. My partner, ever the competitor, announced that she had fought off three different quarterbacks in HS, but could only name two of them, which makes me think that the third was BS. One was a neighbor boy, older brother of her younger brother's best friend. At a party at their house, with their parents out for the night, she all of a sudden found herself thrown on her bed with a big guy holding her down. She responded that she just heard her older brother (who was putting on the party). She then told him that she would mention this to said older brother if this guy ever touched her again. Permanent trauma? Hardly, and ditto for the other dozens of times when she had to fight off guys.
That is the reality - males are the sexual aggressors. That is how we are wired. We have to be trained to control this, and it is when our testosterone levels are at their highest, and our brains almost a decade from full development, esp of their judgment abilities, that we are in high school. Girls who haven't been taught to avoid these situations, and if they end up in them, how too get out, have been ill served by their parents. No well parented 15 year old girl should be unchaperoned at a party with alcohol and 17 year old boys.
What we need is one of Ford's classmates to post that the rumor about her in school was that she gave great blow jobs and everyone knew about. Apparently it only takes one unverified "fact" to torpedo anyone these days.
Corker and Flake what a pair. Self-interested shits. When is it going to dawn on the Dems that they will have fewer votes in the Senate next year?
Now Kavanaugh knows what it’s like to be a guy on campus in 2018. Welcome to The Arena, Brett. That coaching girls basketball and hiring women clerks shit didn’t cut it. Rolling out two daughters doesn’t cut it.
No one fucking cares that Mom was a judge.
It’s Showtime now, Brett. Step up or get hammered.
Чикелит, I was quoting Michael Fitzgerald in the above post. My only contribution was the 'Wow! Just wow!"
women's continuing domain over our own bodies is at stake
Meanwhile, men can continue to be drafted and sent to die for your country.
**What's with Flake ? Kavanaugh was Romney's guy, not Trump's.**
maybe that is why Trump put him up. it is no skin off his orange scalp.
"Ann's addendum 1-5. Trump won the election. He appointed Kavanaugh."
He nominated Kavanaugh. The Senate must confirm or, under the Constitution, there is no appointment. The question is how should the Senate perform its role? As a rubberstamp, because the President won his election? It's something more than that, but what? We're learning through practice.
"We really have little idea of how he will rule on future cases and that's the way it should be. SCOTUS should decide cases on the law; not politics. He's said as much re: Roe."
And we all know that's what they say but not what really happens. We're not required to live in the fantasy world of their rhetoric. You only have to look at the split decisions on the Court to see that we certainly do have an idea how he will rule. Anyone nominated to the Court is a good talker with a strong motivation to say the well-known things that he hopes will give him a pass to a lifetime of power. We need to be smarter than that. Just like we need to get good at detecting fake news, we need to be good at not hearing these statements literally.
"Althouse's rationalization is that it is okay to tell outlandish lies in order to advance a political agenda on the non-political branch of government."
Ironically, you just told an outrageous lie about me, David Begley. I did not say that and do not think it. Care to reframe your statement?
"Another way to view this is that if Kavanaugh is not confirmed and the Dems take the Senate is that the Dems will never vote for a Trump nominee even if he wins re-election. That puts our democracy in danger. Elections have consequences."
The 2018 elections will have consequences. That's one of them. Do you like democracy or don't you? What's the danger of attrition on the Supreme Court? It could muddle through with only 8 members... or only 7. Politics is a game of nerves. I don't like any of it, but I can see that just about everyone claims the line has been crossed at exactly the point where they don't like what is happening.
Having watched the Clarence Thomas hearings I am not surprised to see Senators beclowning themselves in an effort to look 'woke' regarding sexual harassment. To have taken this story seriously even for a moment was to cave to the Progressive narrative.
Ann On your point one. How can Kavanaugh be a direct threat to women's rights when any case has to wend its way through our system to ever even be heard by SCOTUS. I find it hard to believe that someone as sophisticated as you are buys that pile of shit. What Kavanaugh threatens is the free form rewriting of the Constitution that the Dems are always attempting. As a former Constitutional lawprof I would think you would have a much greater concern about that than Kavanaugh, maybe, ruling on a case that seriously affects established women's rights.
"I can't say when or where it was, but it was the Summer of 1983...."
In the summer of 1983, I was recovering from a C-section.
Khesanh 0802 writes: I find it hard to believe that someone as sophisticated as you are buys that pile of shit.
Intelligent, yes
Educated, yes
Sophisticated, no
Our hostess is basically saying that because he may vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the overwhelming evidence of steller moral character can be overturned by this late hit from a partisan liberal California professor who scrubbed her social media history before going public.
I think that if Feinstein wanted this to be given due time, she should have acted differently. A delay is a bad idea, unless we get something verifiable to actually be investigatable.
Apparently the Dems BS has not had the desired effect on Susan Collins. She apparently has her back up!
"Can the nomination [move] forward with no recommendation from the committee?"
Yes. There can be a senate vote even if the committee votes the nomination down. The majority leader would have to want to do this.
Freeman Hunt recognizes the slippery slope.
Was it the downward motion you are experiencing that gave it away?
Kavenaugh should be suspended from coaching women's basketball until the sexual allegations are resolved. That's what happens to sports coaches.
It was many decades ago, but it was a day that I will never forget. I was waiting for my 1st period English class with Ms. Adams (sp) just before 8 a.m. A kid, who I'm sure attacked me for the color of my skin, smashed a heavy history book on my head. It nearly killed me. He and his buddy were laughing hysterically while I was crying from the intense pain.
If Kavanaugh attempted to rape his fellow party-goer, then he should NOT be elevated to the Supreme Court, and should instead be shamed out of his current position of judging others. Trump, a Class B sexual offender (I made that category up) should lose if Kavanough's accuser seems credible, and there is corroborating evidence. If it weren't for this rape accusation, he still should be reject for his poor stance on women's rights issues. After he is defeated, I hope his wife divorces him. Some things are unforgivable like trying to rape or kill someone.
Ann Althouse said... Maybe they've got a hard-to-detect dark side that has driven them to a life of saintly good works.
This is such horseshit it's difficult to believe you mean it sincerely, Professor.
His good life and good works are now evidence of a hidden dark side?
He's guilty because he's such a good-seeming guy so you just KNOW that means he's driven by a desire to cover up or atone for something awful?
Like...that's not even Kafkaesque. Kafka used more logic than that. It's more Stalinesque, really: your assertion of innocence and apparent good works & good life are proof positive of your crimes.
If you nice smart people really think this way then all I can say is a sincere fuck you.
Trumpit: And you've hated history ever since.
This seat on the Court is especially important because of the threat to women's rights. Justice Kennedy was the 5th vote in key right-of-privacy cases, and women's continuing domain over our own bodies is at stake.
...
Is there a "right" or "right-to-privacy" here that is not abortions?
If so, what do you have?
If not, can you just farkin' say "abortions"?
(I don't even care about them; I just want honest discourse on the topic.
"Abortions" and "women's rights" are not isomorphic categories.)
As a rubberstamp, because the President won his election? It's something more than that, but what? We're learning through practice.
...just don't do the practicing with reproductive rights on the line. There, I must dictate what the rules are, as altered to fit my needs.
The problem of going straight to the Senate is you have two Senators , Flake and Corker, who besides being assholes are immune to most pressure McConnell can bring to bear. 50 votes plus Pence would do it, but not 49. If I were McConnell at this point I would be more than willing to threaten to smear both Flake and Corker with a she said/he said actor. As we can see with Kavanaugh there doesn't need to be proof of any kind.
As I cool down I think what this will mean is a week's delay to get Ford and Kavanaugh back on the stand. Certainly getting Ford under oath makes sense. Ford is going to be treated pretty roughly between now and then and I suspected something more that disqualifies her "charges" will be found.
I would like to hear her answer to such pertinent questions as :
1. What and how much had you had to drink;
2. What sexual activity had you participated in prior to this party.
3. Why could you not remember when or how you got home?
4. Did you pass out at anytime during the party?
5. Were you aware of any rumors of you having previous sexual relations.
You get the idea.
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