Final Alitorama

[nonnihil]

I promised a slightly more substantive and opionated piece on the Alito hearings. This is not as much fun as mocking the hearings, and in fact is pretty dull throughout. It's just a few things that I found important. Anyway, here it is.

Comments

[nonnihil]

... and along comes a picture that so easily restates a thousand or so of those words.

[capsicumanuum]

That was perhaps the best summary of the hearings i've seen so far.

[tla]

So you posted this today, and I received this week's issue of the Economist today, and the letters section had a couple that mused in similar ways on the difference between the American and French systems of government. If you go read them, you will understand what I mean by the following:

Gosh, but our senators seem to be turning French.

[robbbbbb]

Okay, you've touched on the fundamental weakness of the Republic: Only people who are fundamentally unqualified to exercise power are those that seek it. (As exhibit A, I offer up one Senator Edward Kennedy. Exhibit B might well be Orrin Hatch.)

So what do we do to fix it? The system sucks. The fundamental checks that established a limited government have been evaded or broken. The alternative seems to be: Get big guns and start the revolution now. (That terrifies me more. We were singularly fortunate in this country for our Revolution to be led by men who were interested in peace, stability and human rights. Nowhere else in the world was quite so lucky.)

[dolohov]

And sadly, the House tends to be like the Senate, but even more so.

I have to say, this sort of thing makes me sympathetic to the notion of a strong executive... except, of course, that the executive is populated by chimpanzees.