Our Mormon President-to-be

Told you so.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned Today

From wikipedia: "[Robert E.]Howard frequently corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft, and the two would sometimes insert references or elements of each others' settings in their works."

The Late Chief Justice

It seems Rehnquist's sedative-withdrawal symptoms include "paranoid delusions" of a CIA plot against him. Silly Chief Justice! He really should have known that domestic plots are the purview of the FBI, not the CIA. I have to assume the FBI jealously guards their plotting prerogatives.

Doesn't sound particularly paranoid of him, though, does it?

A prediction, but not for 2007

In advance of our new governor's inauguration, I'll go on record now predicting that Martha Coakley will be the next (elected) governor of MA, in four or eight years, depending on when Deval Patrick decides not to run (i.e. when he gets bored, if he follows recent precedent).

Legal Philosophy

Via the Volokh Conspiracy, here's an article about "legal formalism" vs. "realism" or maybe "instrumentalism." I have little (ok, no) understanding of this sort of thing. Surely there are no "formalists" who really believe that all cases are determined, and no "realists" who believe that none are (and that everything should be decided as a matter of policy). Is it just a matter of who thinks what's more important in deciding hard cases? How much attention do judges and justices pay to this sort of debate?

Well, that was exciting

They approved it, then they reconsidered, then they reconsidered reconsidering. I think.

They made SADDAM a martyr??

Wow--according to both Christopher Hitchens and Digby--how often do they agree?--Saddam's execution was even more of an appalling mess than I had thought from the vile cell-phone-snuff-movie.

Mitt Romney, Handsome Presidential Candidate

Another reason I hope the MA's fearless legislators decline to vote on that gay marriage amendment is that a vote would count as a point for Mitt Romney, who's just about to run for President. He'll have a passle of trouble getting the nomination--the Mormon thing aside, it can't be good for your central campaign message to be how much you despise the state that you were the governor of--but nonetheless I fear him. Paula Poundstone, whom we saw in November, summed it up pretty well [note that a Paula Poundstone audience in Cambridge, MA, is distinctly left-of-center, and mostly lesbian]:

Paula: "How about Mitt Romney? Is he going to be President, or what? He's so handsome and Presidential I think he's going to make it."

Audience: " Noooo!"

Paula: "No, no, really! We're just not that smart! So you're fucked."

Same-Sex Marriage up for a Vote?

The Massachusetts legislature votes today, or perhaps doesn't, on that no-more-gay-marryin' amendment (summary: it needs a quarter of the combined legislature to approve it this session and next, then a majority in a popular ballot; more than a quarter of the legislature would certainly vote for it, but more than half would vote against, so they may just kill it by running out the clock on the session, which ends today). I've got the usual mixed feelings, none original:

• I despise the amendment, so hope it fails one way or another.
• On the other hand, just letting the thing die without voting does seem sort of shabby. The Supreme Judicial Court certainly thinks so; that opinion is a nice mix of outrage and impotence.
  
• On another hand, state constitutional amendments are too damned easy to get passed. I distrust anything that reeks of ballot initiatives, and like to see them confounded.
  
• But then, my guess is that the amendment would fail the popular vote.
  
• There's also the argument that civil rights should not be subject to vote. That is both sincere and true, but not very persuasive, except maybe to waffly legislators trying to cover their asses today (I mean both "waffly" and "covering their asses" in a positive way here). Obviously no one who would vote for the thing thinks SSM is a civil right. Or, for that matter, that "gay" and "civil rights" are compatible concepts.
  
• Eventually the whole thing will be moot. In thirty years a lot of states anti-same-sex-marriage amendments are going to end up getting repealed, as today's high school students (to whom, in my limited experience, the legitimacy of gay marriage is a no-brainer) find themselves in charge of things.