Crow: Well, what the hell. Now we're all present, let's make some decisions - just try not to look politicized. Man: The worst Congress. Man: And the worst Supreme Court. Are we winners? Punk: Or what?
That “free country” stuff has been way overinflated. Look around (carefully, without drawing notice to yourself) and you might see something quite different. Taking pictures downtown, or doing sketches, can get you picked up for questioning these days. Read-up on Germany in the ’30s for more examples of the way things are going.I was looking for an apt quotation from the McCarthy era Supreme Court about the gradual fall of night, much akin to the frog in the pot of cold water on the stove…
Politicians and lawyers basically treat laws like dogs. As with dog-walkers they take pet ideas for a walk …they meet other ideas and they sniff each others’ b-tts. Opposing ideas growl, sometimes nip at each other. Occasionally there are matings or dog fights. The winners become the law. Some laws become the studs and brooders, others are neutered or spayed. I’m channeling Bulwer-Lytton, here.
The Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions over time, as we usually see too late. They claim to enforce the law, but what if the law is an –ss? As long as humans occupy those seats politics and prevailing opinions will tinge their decisions. I think some of the recent decisions are at best illogical.
The longer a system lasts the more it becomes encrusted with irrelevance. What’s with the wearing of black robes by judges (in England they still wear powdered wigs)? I guess the clothing, and the regal surroundings, and the stiff rituals of our court systems are meant to represent noble old traditions. How do grown people feel sitting around in such costumes? Does it taint their thinking, divert them from reality? At what point did Law separate from religion? How much of it is still rooted in superstition? Does the lawyer-ly way of thinking bend their thoughts to follow twisted paths? Because of this, do laws evolve in widely beneficial ways, or do they burrow into dark niches that benefit only a few? The obfuscation of words builds legal labyrinths.
The primate part of our behavior will prove our undoing. Now that we have such a large population in which everybody demands work-free dignity, that living in consumer comfort is the standard we strive for – in which bumbling leaders can instigate destruction of higher civilization – do our laws serve to extend orderly existence into the future? There must be a new social algorithm somewhere to help us do it better than it’s done now.
Code of Hammurabi, Judaic law, Lex Romana, Magna Carta, English Common Law, US Constitution and Bill of Rights, Napoleonic Code, and many others … bits remain of each, sometimes large chunks. What’s next?
pbarnrob about 12 years ago
That “free country” stuff has been way overinflated. Look around (carefully, without drawing notice to yourself) and you might see something quite different. Taking pictures downtown, or doing sketches, can get you picked up for questioning these days. Read-up on Germany in the ’30s for more examples of the way things are going.I was looking for an apt quotation from the McCarthy era Supreme Court about the gradual fall of night, much akin to the frog in the pot of cold water on the stove…
walruscarver2000 about 12 years ago
Great, now all you’ve got to do is find the remainder of the passengers and a pilot willing to fly you. Fellow named Osbon comes to mind.
emptc12 about 12 years ago
Politicians and lawyers basically treat laws like dogs. As with dog-walkers they take pet ideas for a walk …they meet other ideas and they sniff each others’ b-tts. Opposing ideas growl, sometimes nip at each other. Occasionally there are matings or dog fights. The winners become the law. Some laws become the studs and brooders, others are neutered or spayed. I’m channeling Bulwer-Lytton, here.
The Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions over time, as we usually see too late. They claim to enforce the law, but what if the law is an –ss? As long as humans occupy those seats politics and prevailing opinions will tinge their decisions. I think some of the recent decisions are at best illogical.
The longer a system lasts the more it becomes encrusted with irrelevance. What’s with the wearing of black robes by judges (in England they still wear powdered wigs)? I guess the clothing, and the regal surroundings, and the stiff rituals of our court systems are meant to represent noble old traditions. How do grown people feel sitting around in such costumes? Does it taint their thinking, divert them from reality? At what point did Law separate from religion? How much of it is still rooted in superstition? Does the lawyer-ly way of thinking bend their thoughts to follow twisted paths? Because of this, do laws evolve in widely beneficial ways, or do they burrow into dark niches that benefit only a few? The obfuscation of words builds legal labyrinths.
The primate part of our behavior will prove our undoing. Now that we have such a large population in which everybody demands work-free dignity, that living in consumer comfort is the standard we strive for – in which bumbling leaders can instigate destruction of higher civilization – do our laws serve to extend orderly existence into the future? There must be a new social algorithm somewhere to help us do it better than it’s done now.
Code of Hammurabi, Judaic law, Lex Romana, Magna Carta, English Common Law, US Constitution and Bill of Rights, Napoleonic Code, and many others … bits remain of each, sometimes large chunks. What’s next?
Just taking some ideas for a walk …
oneoldhat about 12 years ago
kennedy,ginsburg,breyer,sotomayor,kagan
OnTarget about 12 years ago
Ya know if it come backs more then 5/4 like 6/3 or 7/2 Obama and the press is going to look real bad.
tcity about 12 years ago
Are those the crows from “Dumbo”?
filmsgraded about 12 years ago
They’re just waiting for Clarence Thomas’ wife to tell them which way to vote.
ninety_nine_percent about 12 years ago
I used to have such respect for the Supreme Court. Now they are just as corrupt as the politicians.