@72, No she's not.

@105/109 - The Birdcage? Which scene? Thanks

I've never really understood the phoebe hate here. She's a prude, sure, but other than that? Maybe a tad conservative, but not rabid or even really offensive that I've ever seen. And I often times even agree with her measured stances.

Please, Republicans, keep the seat vacant for a year. All that obstructionism will cause you to lose the White House.

112/mike, I'm certainly not one of the haters. I like anyone who has a Vietnamese noodle soup as part of their name.

Reflecting a little today on what an absurd fucking farce of a legal philosophy Scalia shat out then called a truffle. Originalism, such a pious stance, and then he interpretted the constition with more vigor than basically any other justice. And when called on it he'd say because originalism, can't you see I'm just reading the constitution? So really either a deluded narcissist, or a wanton flim-flam man. I have far more respect for judges who have the balls/ovaries/cloaca to say all acts of reading are necessarily acts of interpretation (of course! Wittengensteinian objections only being relative to radical extension of the concept), so of course my reading reflects the context in which it's happening. Scalia's way was caveman-stupid, willfully ignorant of how texts work, and unfortunately enabled thousands of cold-hearted dickhead imitators (on purpose through his PR position rulings) at the expense of really injuring, killing and/or oppressing millions of people in his career (by his "not actually, but I'm just reading what it say, but not actually" take on the second amendment alone, for instance, among so much else).
He was a smarmy twat of a willfully blind arrogant shitbag who was going to sit on the bench until they dragged him out on a stretcher, and I'm very glad the dirt nap caught up with him before the era of President Trump.

@107: Oh, don't get me wrong, what is vacation to him is the definition of hell for me. It was the idea of dying peacefully in your sleep after spending the day relaxing in whatever form you prefer, presumably with friends and loved ones, that I found appealing.

And it's better than Scalia deserved.

@116: No worries. I understand what you meant.

The Onion has already nailed this.

"Justice Scalia Dead Following 30-Year Battle With Social Progress" (link, though it's just a photo and the headline)

chi_type @96, that's a good question to ask the Republicans when they try to obstruct Obama's selection of a justice this year?
"Who decides a Bush v. Gore style tie with a 4-4 Supreme Court"

With all due deference to the awful things he said about--and tried to do to--LGBT people, the most chillingly evil line he ever wrote was, for my money:

This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable.


To those scolding the celebrators: this man bragged about denying innocent people, rotting in prison, any recourse or relief, mocking the very fact of their innocence. He was never going to retire, obviously, and tragically the norms and values of American politics are such that he was never going to be impeached. How can a minimally decent person not celebrate a man this depraved losing his power to taunt, torture, and ruin the lives of the powerless. What kind of monster wouldn't celebrate such an occasion?

@120
But he was such a brilliant writer!

@119 How about the popular vote?

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

121, Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who apparently had a strong friendship with Scalia -- said "I disagreed with most of what he said, but I loved the way he said it." so it seems as if his style was more important to her than his substance.

@112: I'm rather fond of Phoebe too.

Oh, Scalia, the guy who was in favor of executing people whose innocence could be proved. I hope he died in a way that hurts.

I also hope that Obama nominates Anita Hill, or that Clinton nominates Obama.
And that they get TV in Hell.