Comments on: Thursday round-up: The Right Shoe, Judy Blume, No Obamacare for You Bluegrass Review

By: Z

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:23:08 +0000

Re Scalia, do any of these right wing types realize that that is how insurance works? My auto premium paying for others’ car accidents, etc.?

By: Perpetua

Perpetua — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:26:23 +0000

I enjoyed Lithwick’s commentary on the arguments, as she seemed to mirror my own deep disgust, even horror, at Scalia’s “argumentation”which appeared to have little Constitutional basis, and demonstrated an absolutely breathtaking refusal to understand the basic premise of insurance. (I mean, if his issue is that people shouldn’t be paying for someone’s liver transplant, it seems to me that’s a problem with the entire for-profit health care industry and nothing to do with the issue of the mandate.) Also, in addition to transplants, did you notice they specifically mentioned maternity services and pediatric care? Awesome, dudes. Thanks! I guess we know who gets sold out first.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:14:47 +0000

So glad you mentioned Rich. She was really important in shaping my thinking.

I’m too young for Judy Blume, but I was always fascinated by the buzz.

And reading the Supremes decisions based on oral arguments is always a bit tricky. But it would be great (and ironic) if the result was single payer. That option, remember, was wrecked by Joe “independent” Lieberman, who will probably go work for a fancy lobbying shop next year.

As for spring, I’ve got cherry blossoms out, my lilac is in bloom, and the first rose is about to open….

By: truffula

truffula — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:32:59 +0000

Oh, Adrienne Rich. A person I wish I could have met. Well, other than in her poems.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:56:48 +0000

“Scalia plays Torquemada; his pretense of originalism is nonsense that allows him to do what he likes. Alito is evil spirited, Thomas is dead and his body belongs to Scalia. Kennedy is an idiot. Roberts is the smart right winger. He acts better than Tom Hanks but will end up voting NO.”

That about sums it up, doesn’t it? Well done, koshembos! (I would just disagree in that I think Kennedy’s jurisprudence is, um, idiosyncratic, but he’s not an idiot. He loves his “swing vote” powers and plays it like a violin.)

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:37:06 +0000

I’m for single-payer, too, but absent that I am in favor of the individual mandate. Further to my proposed judiciary reform act above: once confirmed, justices would be able to resign only with the advice and consent of the senate, much like troubled citizens with lifetime appointments to one of the bureau of prisons’ supermax facilities. That way they can’t get up and walk off to a white shoe firm or an elite law school just because their assigned circuit happens to take them up high into the Superstition Mountains, preferably on a bad mule.

By: koshembos

koshembos — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:14:43 +0000

Dahlia Lithwick’s tweets are my source of her writings; always a delight to read a wise person. I can afford to be less prudent about the supreme court. It has very little to do with court and a lot to do with the feudal politics that is elevated, pushed and sold by the right wing.

Scalia plays Torquemada; his pretense of originalism is nonsense that allows him to do what he likes. Alito is evil spirited, Thomas is dead and his body belongs to Scalia. Kennedy is an idiot. Roberts is the smart right winger. He acts better than Tom Hanks but will end up voting NO.

The three days were a legal Mardi Gras. It’s a game; the decision to prevent health care from the people was made long ago.

Sad to hear about Adrienne Rich death; like her poetry and supported her cause. Earl Scruggs has been a great musician. Hopefully they had good health care.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:29:45 +0000

Profane: I agree with you–I’m a left-winger who opposed ACA because I resent being coerced by the government to support a for-profit industry. That’s the sticking point for me–I certainly don’t object to supporting and benfitting from a single-payer taxpayer-funded program. (I guess I like Lithwick’s analyses a lot more than you, though.)

ej: Forever the movie? That sounds like a spectacularly bad idea! But it could offer super-campy fun fun fun.

By: Profane

Profane — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:19:55 +0000

I find the commentary of Lithwick and others to be pessimistically over the top. If I had to read the tea leaves here, the SC will rule that the government cannot directly demand personal consumption of commerce – no doomsday scenario. This leaves open the prospect of a universal health care system for which there are many models worldwide, funded by taxes. That was a real prospect three years ago, absent the manner in which the politics were spectacularly bungled.

By: ej

ej — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:38:34 +0000

I read somewhere (though I cannot remember where) that they are making a film version of Forever. I want to say Blume (and maybe her son?) are involved in the process.

Should be interesting. I remember reading that one under my bed covers with a flashlight because my mother considered it inappropriate. If only she knew…