Archive for November 15th, 2005

Courting Conflicts?

Posted November 15, 2005 By Dave Thomer

For the sake of my own sanity, I maintain a certain intellectual and emotional detachment from the issue of George W. Bush’s nominations for the Supreme Court. Whoever gets appointed by this president and confirmed by this Senate is not going to be someone I agree with on much past the possible exception of where to order lunch. And I have to make my peace with that, because heck, these are the folks that got elected. I can’t quite figure out where the dividing line between an objectionable level of near-total disagreement and an acceptable level of near-total disagreement lies.

On the other hand, when it comes to Samuel Alito, there’s something about this story from the Washington Post that concerns me. Some Senators have raised questions about Alito’s decision not to recuse himself from two cases involving the company that manages his mutual funds and the company that serves as his broker, despite indicating that he would do so in his Senate questionnaire during his confirmation to the apellate court. Alito explains it by saying that he was “unduly restrictive” with his questionnaire answer. It may well be that there’s a harmless explanation for this, but right now, it’s one of those things that chips away my faith in the cofirmation process. So I figured I would write a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, who also happens to be my Senator. I’m posting it up here as part of the So Now What? collection.

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Take Me Out to the Black

Posted November 15, 2005 By Dave Thomer

If anything bugs me the most about the fact that Joss Whedon’s Firefly didn’t even run a full season, it’s that I didn’t get to hear more of Greg Edmonson’s distinctive music for the series. At least there’s a soundtrack album, which I review on theLogBook this week. Other related reviews: