Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is dead

[JewelSong]

Levity is good. Sometimes I think the entire GOP has collectively lost any sense of humor it might have had. I've never seen such gloom-and-doom and negativity so consistently expressed in the national arena.


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[Frelga]

An Embarrassment of Pandas is a lot less embarrassing than the Embarrassment of a Congress we've got right now.
*grumpy*

Also, venery? Who hunts pandas?

[Primula Baggins]

I thought this article on TPM was a good, fairly concise summary (with speculation) about the effect of Scalia's death on some of the high-profile cases the Court is considering this term:

Scalia's Death Came as Conservatives Were About to Seize Historic Legal Gains

[Alatar]

Also, venery? Who hunts pandas?

[Maria]

I question your source, tinwë. A yoke of oxen isn't a group of oxen. It is two oxen connected by a yoke so they can pull something. It's like saying a harness of horses. And if that one is wrong, how many others of that list are equally erroneous?

An ox, by the way, is a castrated male bovine grown to full size and trained to pull things. Carts, logs, plows.... whatever the owner trains them to do. It takes years to train a good team of oxen and is very a rare hobby these days.

[tinwë]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_E ... _by_animal

"Yoke", along with "Team" and "Drove" for oxen. It's on Wikipedia, so it can't be wrong, right? Isn't that like a rule or something?

I did notice, Frelga, that Panda does not show up on the wikipedia list of venery terms. One must assume that Wikipedia has never seen Kung Fu Panda (thanks Al!)

[Teremia]

(just need to register my fondness for "Embarrassment of Pandas" as a name and as a concept)

[superwizard]

I'm not either, S'wiz (did I mention that I was happy to see you here?)

Hi! Glad to drop by! Honestly the debates about this upcoming election were just getting so charged and combative that I felt the need to drop by the one place online I know where people try and listen to each other...

[Inanna]

Oh! Thanks S'wiz. Even though am largely a Lurker on lasto


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Please bear with my typos & grammar mistakes. Sent from my iPhone - Palantirs make mistakes too.

[Primula Baggins]

I think we do try and listen to each other, even in Lasto.

It's just that it's harder to do there. Especially where most of us agree with each other, while others we consider friends and care about do not. Assumptions can so easily be blind, and people can so easily feel excluded.

But we try. We try! I do not think that anyone here has bad intentions toward anyone else here.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Bad Intentions is another good name for a band.

Just sayin'!

[Frelga]

If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, maybe bad intentions lead to heaven?

S'wiz, good to see you! If you have time to stop by a social thread, maybe you can tell us how things are with you?

[Impenitent]

What Frelgita said.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

SCOTUSblog has an interesting article about filling Scalia's seat from a former University of Chicago constitutional law professor:

http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/a-res ... seriously/

[Primula Baggins]

A very interesting article, providing an important perspective on the situation.

Plus it's spoiler-free.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, here is a possible spoiler, and one that I sort of expected (not the specific person, but someone like him):

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-vetti ... 1456344658

On the one hand, it will be that much harder for the GOP to obstruct a fellow Republican, and they have to give some consideration to the fact that if Clinton or Sanders is elected, they would get a nominee that they like a lot less than Sandoval. On the other hand, I'm sure that there will be many progressive Democrats condemning Obama for not nominating a more liberal choice.

[yovargas]

First and foremost, the person I appoint will be eminently qualified. He or she will have an independent mind, rigorous intellect, impeccable credentials, and a record of excellence and integrity. I’m looking for a mastery of the law, with an ability to hone in on the key issues before the Court, and provide clear answers to complex legal questions.

Second, the person I appoint will be someone who recognizes the limits of the judiciary’s role; who understands that a judge’s job is to interpret the law, not make the law. I seek judges who approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice, a respect for precedent, and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand.

Yes, which if this was actually true, would mean that the personal ideology of the judges wouldn't be all that relevant to everyone.

The very fact that we think of judges as left-wing or right-wing means our justice system isn't working the way it's supposed to.

[CosmicBob]

On the other hand, I'm sure that there will be many progressive Democrats condemning Obama for not nominating a more liberal choice.

The hue and cry would be tremendous. And possibly some Democratic Senators would filibuster (Franken?). I think it would be a very bad move on Obama's part, pandering to McConnell et. al.

[Dave_LF]

The very fact that we think of judges as left-wing or right-wing means our justice system isn't working the way it's supposed to.

No kidding. And it really irks me that news articles mater-of-factly state that so-and-so is a liberal/conservative justice without even bothering to pay lip service to the fact that no such thing should exist.

[Primula Baggins]

Or, he's playing eleven-dimensional chess again: maybe he doesn't want to use up the chances of a strong candidate on what will almost certainly be a futile exercise—in the hope that a President Clinton or Sanders would want to nominate said candidate. Instead, he might as well pick someone who will throw a strong light on the absurd extent of the Senate Republicans' opposition to doing their jobs.