James Doohan died. [link]

aw, that's sad. He seemed like a really nice guy.

Damn, so Scotty has beamed up for the last time.

Roberts is good pick. All this hand-wringing over the Rust brief is wrongheaded and really irritating.

Fair enough. And reading about him this morning he sounds like he's definitely conservative and definitely qualified but not a Borkian or Scalian ideologue.

I don't think there's any chance for the Dems to block him anyway. He got unanimous approval to his current seat. He's well within the bounds of a Bush selection, and Bush could've gone further right.

Roberts seems like he's got some respect for precedent anyway. Bush is definitely making hand signals to his far right constinuency with the "not legislating from the bench" comments.

The reality is that abortion opponents have already sucessfully made it so difficult to get an abortion in many states that it's pretty much on a state-to-state basis already.

If Bush nominates a second Supreme soon, I think he'll have to pick another woman or somebody who's not an old white guy though.

As for Clarence Thomas - I don't think he's an idiot. But I think he's completely undistinguished. He's done very little in his writing or participation on the court to indicate he belongs there.

I'm just trying to fight off a feeling of impending doom. For all his protestations, Rehnquist can't last and that means another Bush nomination. Which is going to further skew the court to the right. I'm trying to not think about the next 25 years--when my son graduates from college and is ready to start his life but he's not going to enjoy the same level of freedom in this country that I had when I was his age.

Maybe I'm stuck in Worst Case Scenario Land but it's hard to leave that place when I see comments on the Columbus Dispatch's website by Bush supporters who, in the face of the Rove debacle, STILL think this country is being led by a morally upright man who is going to keep us safe from the terroists.

I'm stuck between wanting to crawl into a hole and disappear and wanting to go out and start bitch slapping conservatives left and right.

Cash, when my parents were first married, the McCarthy hearings were going on. It seemed to them the whole country was on the side of these witch hunts and personal freedoms were being trampled left and right. People were being thrown into prison for political affiliations. By the time I got to KINDERGARTEN, civil rights were beginning to flower and by the time I got to college, well, it was the '70s. Things change.

Robin, Thank you. That is an uplifting post and I'm marking it for when I need it again. I'm trying to keep my perspective.

This is what I mean about the rubber band snapping back.

This is what I mean about the rubber band snapping back.

I'll try to remember to duck when the rock comes.

Cash, FWIW, I worry too. While I agree with Robin and Allyson that we're due for a swing back in the other direction, and I think that's the most likely outcome (though who knows whether that swing will come in 1, 5, or 10 years), I don't think it's guaranteed. Countries do occasionally degrade away from democracy, after all.

I do know I'd really love to be such a successful author that I could live anywhere. Like Vancouver or Victoria, or maybe even London or Edinburgh.