It Is Time To Start Worrying About the Supreme Court (sorry, but it is)
The financial crisis that is so obvious to all of us is no more important than the one we will soon face if the Supreme Court continues on its current course.
What follows is a list of our current Justices with their birth dates. Barack Obama has at least four years. It is the duty of those who want to see our country progress, to resign, as soon as possible. Forget cancer diagnoses - look at the BIRTH DATES of theses justices! It is time for many of them to move on! At their ages they wouldn't even be able to work at Barnes & Noble!
I hear all the time how hard it is to be a justice; how "packed" their schedule is. Frankly, I find it hard to believe. They have so many people helping them they don't even have to read any more. How many people still work at GM, in hospitals, or even AIG with birth dates like these! Hard? I wonder if they even know what "hard" is.
What I do know is that Barack Obama's time in office is limited, and the justices who have progressive viewpoints simply must realize that it is time for their sinecure to end.
These are the birthdays ( and some pretty eye-opening inventions and events that occured during the year of their births) of the current Supreme Court Justices. Do you think any of these people are past their due date?
John Roberts : January 27, 1955 (Tetracycline, and optical fibers)
John Paul Stevens: April 20, 1920 (the same year that BandAids were invented)*
Antonin Scalia: March 11, 1936 (The Artificial Heart [sorry, antonin; there is no substitute for the real thing!])*
Anthony Kennedy: July 23, 1936 (Bell labs invents voice recognition machine)*
David Souter: September 17, 1939 (the electron microscope is invented)*
Clarence Thomas: June 23, 1948 (Believe it or not, VELCRO was invented, and the Wurlitzer Juke Box)***
Ruth Bader Ginsberg: March 15, 1933 (FM Radio and stereo invented)*
Steven Breyer: August 15, 1938 (Ladislo Boro invents the ball point pen)*
Samuel Alito: April 1, 1950 (the first credit card!)
* All these people would have retired from any job that was 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year; these people need to leave.
***He needs to leave because he hates his job; he hates everyone, and has a major axe to grind; he never should have gotten in. Why should he care? He has free health care forever, and a great pension -- just let it go, Clarence! Your life will be unaffected anyway.
Those justices who acknowledge that their decisions matter have the duty to resign. Time has moved on, and they are flirting with disaster if they continue on and on and on. They surely have a duty to see beyond their own narcissistic needs.
What follows is a list of our current Justices with their birth dates. Barack Obama has at least four years. It is the duty of those who want to see our country progress, to resign, as soon as possible. Forget cancer diagnoses - look at the BIRTH DATES of theses justices! It is time for many of them to move on! At their ages they wouldn't even be able to work at Barnes & Noble!
I hear all the time how hard it is to be a justice; how "packed" their schedule is. Frankly, I find it hard to believe. They have so many people helping them they don't even have to read any more. How many people still work at GM, in hospitals, or even AIG with birth dates like these! Hard? I wonder if they even know what "hard" is.
What I do know is that Barack Obama's time in office is limited, and the justices who have progressive viewpoints simply must realize that it is time for their sinecure to end.
These are the birthdays ( and some pretty eye-opening inventions and events that occured during the year of their births) of the current Supreme Court Justices. Do you think any of these people are past their due date?
John Roberts : January 27, 1955 (Tetracycline, and optical fibers)
John Paul Stevens: April 20, 1920 (the same year that BandAids were invented)*
Antonin Scalia: March 11, 1936 (The Artificial Heart [sorry, antonin; there is no substitute for the real thing!])*
Anthony Kennedy: July 23, 1936 (Bell labs invents voice recognition machine)*
David Souter: September 17, 1939 (the electron microscope is invented)*
Clarence Thomas: June 23, 1948 (Believe it or not, VELCRO was invented, and the Wurlitzer Juke Box)***
Ruth Bader Ginsberg: March 15, 1933 (FM Radio and stereo invented)*
Steven Breyer: August 15, 1938 (Ladislo Boro invents the ball point pen)*
Samuel Alito: April 1, 1950 (the first credit card!)
* All these people would have retired from any job that was 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year; these people need to leave.
***He needs to leave because he hates his job; he hates everyone, and has a major axe to grind; he never should have gotten in. Why should he care? He has free health care forever, and a great pension -- just let it go, Clarence! Your life will be unaffected anyway.
Those justices who acknowledge that their decisions matter have the duty to resign. Time has moved on, and they are flirting with disaster if they continue on and on and on. They surely have a duty to see beyond their own narcissistic needs.
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I take issue with your criticism of Sanda Day O'Connor. Her husband is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Now, he lives in a nursing home and has apparently formed a romantic relationship with another patient because he doesn't remember his lifelong family attachments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/weekinreview/18zernike.html?_r=1&ex=1196053200&en=068c63f02cc8cb90&ei=5070&emc=eta1
As someone who has watched a loved one decline from the disease, I had a very visceral and very angry reaction to your criticism. It's an incredibly painful and incredibly stressful process to lose your loved one a little more each day. In her case, as in mine, it's gone on for almost two decades. Now that her husband is well cared for and happy in his new home, who are you to chastise O'Connor for finding rewarding ways to fill her days?
March 25, 2009 8:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Orlando, of course you are right; I let my anger at her for her decision to color my thoughts about her leaving when she did. I was hoping she would hold on, but her leaving the court, I'm sure was painful I'm sure, and even more painful once she saw who replaced her.
When I'm wrong, I'm wrong; and I appreciate your taking the time to point it out.
March 25, 2009 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
You could have been kinder to Sandra Day O'Conner. Someone in my family said we are related by three or four degrees of separation or something. I mean she does kind of look like my sister.
The rest is pure satire or reality, depending on how you look at it. It is absolutely hilarious. This is funnier than my stuff.
Take out O'conner and redo this. This is high satire-crazy stuff. Top comedy. I am copying the lines and putting them away for another day with your name on them.
March 25, 2009 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, dd, I took your advice. This isn't satire, however. I meant it. I was holding my breath until Obama took office, hoping that Bush wouldn't get another chance at stacking the court. If these geezers hang on and we get another republican in the WH, it will be really bad!
But BTW, you are welcome to use my stuff any time; if you think it's funny, I'll take that as a compliment because humor is the best antidote to the republican "message." (I did think the Band Aid being invented the year Stevens was born was pretty funny though!
March 25, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I missed whatever you retracted about S. O'connor so I am curious. I was never a fan but I never despised her like I do a couple of them.
In her favor, I always thought she intended to retire during Bush's first term but considered her part in his wrongful appiontment and hung on until there was an elected President in place to replace her.
That is not to say that I am convinced that Bush's second election was completely legitimate.
March 25, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
A bit ageist? They are THE Supreme Court.
March 25, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find this post very offensive. Ridiculing these people through the inventions at their birth isn't funny or cute. It's bad taste.
March 25, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
If these people are still judging when Obama leaves office you won't find it funny OR cute. It will be a disaster! And as I said to dd above, I didn't mean for it to be amusing.
How is it bad taste to mention what was going on when someone was born? There is a whole genre of birthday card/books devoted to this.
I did not want John Roberts (who is my age, BTW) to be the chief Justice. I don't like his leanings, but I think he is doing a reasonable job from what I can tell. His relative youth and different take on how to run the court have had some positive effects on the Supremes (more transparency, for example).
Would you want a 76 year-old doctor to operate on you? How about an 89 year-old one? Ageism? No, I'm talking about reality.
March 25, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe if you were older you would feel differently. I'm not disagreeing with your political message but the way you've chosen to communicate it.
March 25, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I am 61 and I don't think that in 28 years I should be making decisions that will affect the direction of the country for decades to come. You say that if I were older I would get it? The older I get the more I realize that although I have the advantage of maturity, the learning curve for new things is harder -- not impossible, by any means, but harder.
My point was not so much that they are too old today. My point is that if they last through an Obama administration or two, they cannot possibly make it through one more, and who knows who will come after Obama. That is my point, and I brought up the contemporaneous events with their births to highlight it.
March 25, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you cville Dem, that is one of the many reasons I voted for Obama instead of Mcain also, becouse I didn't want a President that collected social security.
March 25, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink