Althouse: "Her father was an immigrant from Odessa, her mother was born four months after her family arrived from Poland. Her mother later worked as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn."

September 23, 2020

"Her father was an immigrant from Odessa, her mother was born four months after her family arrived from Poland. Her mother later worked as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn."

"Ruth used to ask, 'What is the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a Supreme Court Justice?' Her answer, one generation. It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rockstar instead.... She was not an opera star, but she found her stage right behind me in our courtroom...."

From "John Roberts Memorial Speech for Ruth Bader Ginsburg Transcript September 23."

46 comments:

D.D. Driver said...: "Ruth used to ask, 'What is the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a Supreme Court Justice?' Her answer, one generation.

Isn't the only acceptable answer now: "white privilege"?; 9/23/20, 1:15 PM
rhhardin said...: Subbookkeeper has more repeated letters.; 9/23/20, 1:18 PM
rhhardin said...: De mortuis nil sed bonum. About the dead the less said the better.; 9/23/20, 1:19 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: I can’t decide which is worse, a culture conferring celebrity status to a judge or a judge who relishes the celebrity status.; 9/23/20, 1:24 PM
Birkel said...: She may have been a charming person.
But she wanted policies that end in deprivation.
All the hagiography tells me to ignore those people going forward.

John Roberts can kiss my ass.
Also, fuck George W Bush.; 9/23/20, 1:28 PM
Francisco D said...: "Ruth used to ask, 'What is the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a Supreme Court Justice?' Her answer, one generation.

The term used before discovering that the USA was irredeemably racist was:

The American Dream; 9/23/20, 1:29 PM
tim maguire said...: It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rockstar instead

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court encouraging a cult of personality around Supreme Court Justices?! John Roberts will not be remembered kindly by history. If he's lucky, history will hardly remember him at all.; 9/23/20, 1:37 PM
Richard Dolan said...: "Ruth used to ask, 'What is the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a Supreme Court Justice?' Her answer, one generation."

Channeling her inner Tim Scott, no doubt. The two of them would have had a lot to talk about.; 9/23/20, 1:38 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Screw Roberts. Judges are not cannot be and will never be rock stars. Very few rock stars are even rock stars. Tom Petty was a rock star. RBG was a jurist who was well known for her profession in her time. Who will care three years hence? The dogs bark and the caravan moves on.; 9/23/20, 1:42 PM
Michael K said...: Squish.; 9/23/20, 1:58 PM
Jupiter said...: If Roberts' Mom had only had the right to choose, we wouldn't have to listen to his smarmy ass celebrating this evil bitch.; 9/23/20, 2:02 PM
Wince said...: Lawyers have an unseemly and unwarranted high regard for themselves and each other.; 9/23/20, 2:03 PM
Kai Akker said...: Nice. But why does it feel a bit over-lacquered?

I guess the elephant story tried to finesse her partisanship. Roberts praised her for qualities even he does not feel are judicious or judicial, IMO. Wouldn't you feel a little sick doing a PR job in a eulogy? I would.; 9/23/20, 2:06 PM
RK said...: Cute, but we haven't heard enough about her racism problem. One black clerk hired in 25 years at SCOTUS (as of 2018) and zero in 13 years on the Appeals Court for DC. Yes, that's "Chocolate City".; 9/23/20, 2:09 PM
IamDevo said...: Recall when Scalia died. Roberts spoke for about two minutes prior to the beginning of a regularly scheduled day of arguments. No "rock star" allusions, either. Roberts the "conservative?" You be the judge.; 9/23/20, 2:27 PM
Michael K said...: It is interesting that she, a Jew who tended to be major Civil Rights supporters, did not have a back clerk. OK, one in 27 years.; 9/23/20, 2:29 PM
gilbar said...: RBG was a jurist who was well known for her profession in her time

who's that again? what are y'all talking about? Did President Trump announce his appointment?; 9/23/20, 2:32 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Ruth did have strong opinions about keeping the right to abort “certain kinds of people” available as a societal good. Wonder why none of the hagiographies have explored her thoughts on that. Seems to be relevant to critical current events.; 9/23/20, 2:51 PM
Ambrose said...: What's wrong with being a bookkeeper in Brooklyn?; 9/23/20, 2:59 PM
tim in vermont said...: It’s not like the liberals don’t have Roberts. This puts the courts back in balance.; 9/23/20, 3:12 PM
paminwi said...: “Became a rockstar instead”!
THAT is exactly what I don’t want any Supreme Court Justice of ANY bent to be.
I want them to be a serious person understanding their job is NOT to be a rockstar but to be a decider of FACT NOT FEELINGS or made up facts.
Yes, the Chief Justice has become a Democrat.; 9/23/20, 3:24 PM
Ken B said...: Rockstar. Twat.; 9/23/20, 3:26 PM
Doug said...: Blah frickin' blah blah blah.; 9/23/20, 3:28 PM
Joe Smith said...: She was not my favorite person, but you can't change the fact that intelligence combined with hard work can yield impressive results.

The time may come in this country when that formula will no longer be possible.

But for now, pretty much anybody with brains and drive can do pretty well...; 9/23/20, 4:01 PM
h said...: I think we should re-read the post about Mickey Kaus and meritocracy with RBG's life experience in mind. Isn't her life experience a tribute to the American Dream?; 9/23/20, 4:23 PM
Bilwick said...: The more eulogies I read for RBG the more I'm reminded, and want to do my own versio, of Norm MacDonald's Kojak bit: "Sure, she was Mom's apple pie and the Fourth of July--SHE WAS A STATE-FUCKA!!"; 9/23/20, 4:30 PM
rcocean said...: Scalia's father came from Sicily. His mother "Panaro' was the daughter of immigrants just arrived in the USA. I don't remember any celebration of Scalia's immigrant background. And Ginsberg was born in 1933, and given the large numbers of Jews, Italians, East Europeans, who arrived in the USA from 1890-1920, its not surprising she was the "Daughter of immigrants". yO

You can thank George W. Bush for Roberts. But don't forget all the conservatives were doing handstands over him in 2005, except for Coulter.; 9/23/20, 4:31 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: I was not a fan of hers, and I don't understand the idolization, but it is pretty cool what people can achieve here. The same for Obama.; 9/23/20, 4:33 PM
rcocean said...: Ginsberg went from Bookkeepers daughter to SCOTUS judge because we had 150-180 million people and a free and open society. Try that in 21st Century America with 320 million people and outsourcing, affirmative action, and massive immigration. When did Ginsberg ever favor the native born American over the immigrant, the white over the black, or the law-abiding over the criminal? Almost never.; 9/23/20, 4:34 PM
Swede said...: She's fighting to murder children in Heaven now!; 9/23/20, 4:43 PM
Joe Smith said...: "The same for Obama."

I'm not so sure about the big O...there are a lot of gaps in his resume.

And playing the race card for decades doesn't equate to hard work in my book.; 9/23/20, 4:45 PM
readering said...: How many complaining about RBG as rock star love POTUS as stand-up?; 9/23/20, 5:31 PM
boatbuilder said...: I can’t remember a single one of her hits. Odd.; 9/23/20, 5:42 PM
DEEBEE said...: That “right behind me” sounded a bit Barack-ish; 9/23/20, 6:50 PM
Spiros Pappas said...: The Notorious RBG only had one Black law clerk.; 9/23/20, 7:31 PM
Michael K said...: eadering said...
How many complaining about RBG as rock star love POTUS as stand-up?

"Whataboutism" doesn't work anymore. Your team prefers arson as a form of voting.; 9/23/20, 7:37 PM
buwaya said...: "How many complaining about RBG as rock star love POTUS as stand-up?"

How many who listen to Andrea Bocelli bother with Cardi B?

Life is tribes. Tribes determine tastes and styles and even personalities, emotional programming, what stimuli release what hormone and how much.

What side we are on determines much more than we like to imagine. And what side we are on is often simply the fallout of circumstance. There is less free will involved in human affairs than we idealize.

Which is why civil conflicts tend to be mainly about culture. The things that make one freak out about dead RGB or laugh with (not at) Trump are the result of ones lifetime of hearing from X nearly exclusively, with nothing much from Y. Where you stand comes down to, mainly, statistically, hearing more from X than Y.

Which also explains why attempts at rational persuasion are pointless. These fights are less Socrates Academy than they are Thunderdome.; 9/23/20, 8:27 PM
pchuck1966 said...: And hired 2 black clerks in her decades on the bench (DC Circuit and Supreme Court). Shameful.; 9/23/20, 9:13 PM
rhhardin said...: How many who listen to Andrea Bocelli bother with Cardi B?

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618): Amarilli mia bella Countertenor.

The theorboist isn't bad either.; 9/23/20, 9:20 PM
Nichevo said...: It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rockstar instead....

Readering said...
How many complaining about RBG as rock star love POTUS as stand-up?

Readering, what do you mean by "complaining?" Before I eviscerate you I want to see what you think you're trying to say.; 9/23/20, 9:25 PM
Readering said...: Buwaya, that culture stuff might work if your were talking about Palin or Pence, but Trump comes from the same culture as RBG.
You think he's on your side of a divide? It's all an act for suckers.; 9/23/20, 9:42 PM
stephen cooper said...: RBG had zero black law clerks who were not huge fans of Bach's Goldberg variations. She had one black law clerk who was a huge fan of Bach's Goldberg variations. She had Zero who were not huge fans of Bach's Goldberg variations. It is fair to say she did not seem to like black people much, and it is absolutely fair to say she never once hired a black law clerk who was not a big fan of Bach's. And, let's face it, there are lots of black people who love Bach, but most of them don't.

This country, with its tens of millions of black people, gave her so much, and, in return, to black people she said "NO SOUP FOR YOU", except for that one guy who bonded with her over their alleged love for Glenn Gould's performances of Bach.

Also, Roberts has probably been blackmailed for a long time. To him anyone who has not been blackmailed for a long time is a rock star. Look at the poor old man's face ---- he is as compromised as you can be. If I were a portrait painter, I would paint the sad little man like one of those haunted losers in those old Hawthorne stories, the liars, the phonies, the hypocrites with no love in their hearts, the sad little men who were afraid of their own shadow.

Sad. Poor Roberts. Poor Miss Bader, later Mrs Ginsburg. Let's pray for them, but let's not forget that there are people in this world who do not have kindness in their hearts.

What's that you say - do I sound mean! ---- well, you are wrong ----- you won't catch me encouraging the death by abortion of 20 million or more black or Hispanic little Americans every single decade. I am not cold-hearted ---- I care about those victims. Poor young Miss Bader grew up to be a cruel and rich old woman who did not care about those victims, and poor Roberts is living a tormented life.

You know I'm right, I would love not to understand people as well as I do , but it is what it is.; 9/23/20, 10:09 PM
GingerBeer said...: Scalia was a jurist. Ginsburg an entertainer.; 9/23/20, 10:36 PM
Jack Klompus said...: "How many complaining about RBG as rock star love POTUS as stand-up?"

How does it feel to have literally zero people take you seriously as a human being?; 9/24/20, 7:50 AM
Bilwick said...: I know I've written this before, but I always find it ironic and sad that the groups who, down thru the ages, have been the biggest victims of statism (Gays, Blacks, Jews, artists and writers) have now become the State's most loyal water-carriers, always supporting the most statist candidates in any election. I think it may be some kind of delayed Stockholm Syndrome.; 9/24/20, 1:35 PM
Martin said...: This hagiography is all very amusing, but is Ginsburg known for any decisive, path-breaking opinions? Putting together a difficult majority on a really important case?

I tried Googling that and what I found may be summed up as: "No." Unless you were a woman who wanted to attend VMI, her SupCt career was a nothingburger.

She was a reliable liberal vote, but that is hardly a mark of distinction or a sign of intellectual or judicial importance. Rather, the opposite, a sign of someone who stopped thinking.; 9/24/20, 3:41 PM