Tag: SCOTUS

Working Title #004: The Doctor and the Judge

Working Title #004: The Doctor and the Judge

Two big events occurred last weekend: Judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a Supreme Court judge and the first woman to play Doctor Who (Jodie Whitaker) debuted. One event delighted me and the other appalled me. Can you guess which was which?

There is something that connects the two. Bear with me.

I’m a LONG time fan of the British SF show and this weekend the new season debuted on BBC America (and, indeed, around the globe). Lots of new things – new companions, new composer, new showrunner and chief writer (Chris Chibnall) and, most importantly, a new Doctor. Now, for those of you benighted souls who may not be aware, the show has had a very long run because of a very clever concept. The main character, the Doctor, is an alien, and every so often the Doctor’s body regenerates into a wholly new one with a completely different persona and this has kept the show fresh. This time, the Doctor also changed sex and became a woman, played delightfully by Jodie Whittaker.

Capsule review: I was very pleased. The show had mystery, suspense, humor, darkness, death and a sense of freshness. Mr. Chibnall’s script had a different feel than former showrunner Stephen Moffat that was very welcome and Ms. Whitaker makes a wonderful Doctor.

Not everyone will agree. How do I know? Because some fans were opposed from the moment she was announced, some going so far as to say they will never watch it. This is not altogether unusual; every time someone new steps into the TARDIS, a certain percentage of the fans voice their displeasure and/or anger and vow never to watch it again (their loss).

There was an undercurrent, however, to Ms. Whitaker’s selection and sometimes that current was not so under. It came down to her gender. A certain percentage of that certain percentage of fans said that the Doctor couldn’t be a GIRL. Eeeeuuuhhh!  Continue reading “Working Title #004: The Doctor and the Judge”

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #014: Hokey Smokes, Trump! Just Stop It!

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #014: Hokey Smokes, Trump! Just Stop It!

I had something else on my mind this week, and I had put a lot of thought into it. Driving from Maryland to Connecticut Monday on the New Jersey Turnpike gave me a lot of bumper-to-bumper time for thought, and I’d rather think than curse.

I scheduled Tuesday for sleeping late, bumping into walls, chatting with the cats, ignoring emails and vacuuming away the left-over energy from a typically wonderful time at the Baltimore Comic-Con… until I caught the news. Within nanoseconds, my original topic flew out of my brainpan faster than a speeding bullet. Once again, Donald J. Trump was pumping out offensively obnoxious bullshit, clearly bent on outdoing his “grab him by the pussy” headstone moment.

No matter what you think of Doctor Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony last week – at the time Trump commended her for it, and it was quite convincing to many who had not already made their minds up. Clearly, she deserved respect for surviving her experience – although there are those too stupid to understand why victims of sexual assault might not what to volunteer to re-experience that horror. If you need amplification on this, look at the way the Republican senators have responded to her “performance.” They quickly were eclipsed by Trump’s performance a couple days ago in Southaven, Mississippi.  Continue reading “Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #014: Hokey Smokes, Trump! Just Stop It!”

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #012: Wind Sprints To Justice

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #012: Wind Sprints To Justice

As we await next week’s sentencing of Bill Cosby, our media is fraught with stories about sexual manipulation and its aftermath. Right now, the whole Brett Kavanaugh thing is foremost in our minds, and is so for a variety of important reasons.

Much of the focus comes from the unimpeachable fact that, morally and ethically, Judge Kavanaugh is somewhere to the right of Caesar. He believes the President has near absolute powers that go far, far beyond those suggested in our Constitution. In fact, his statements negate the reasons for the first American Revolution, the one where Americans risked death and committed an act of treason by rebelling against the king of England.

George Washington refused to accept levels of power that do not go as far as those advocated by Judge Kavanaugh. The judge thinks the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that forced Richard Nixon to comply with the lawful subpoena that made Nixon surrender the White House secret tapes, thereby bringing his presidency to an end, to have been a big mistake. Even some folks on the far right gulped at that one.

He has a lifetime of utterances that state the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision also was wrong and should be reversed. Once he, himself, was nominated for the Supreme Court he told some concerned people that he regarded that decision as “settled law.” Hardly anybody believes this: he still enjoys the enthusiastic support of those who are committed to ramming their religious views down the throats of all Americans. Besides, if he’ll lie to Congress – which is a felony – then he’ll lie to a bunch of liberal chicks who just happen to be members of Congress.

And now he’s the subject of a complaint from a woman who claims to have been subject to unwanted groping and attempted rape while a teenager from an equally young Brett Kavanaugh. His defenders believe this is bullshit for several reasons: why would he lie about stuff that won’t put him in prison due to the statues of limitations, this whole thing happened several decades ago so WTF, this whole thing happened several decades ago and the complainant waited all that time until Judge Kavanaugh was nominated for the Supreme Court, everybody was drunk at the time so WTF, and, hey, the complainant wasn’t actually raped so WTF.   Continue reading “Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #012: Wind Sprints To Justice”

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #002: Oldies But Baddies

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #002: Oldies But Baddies

Hey, kids! It’s pop quiz time!

Don’t worry, I know you didn’t study for this one. It’s O.K. There’s only one question, it’s multiple choice, and you’ve only got two answers to choose from. An orangutan could do it.

Question: You run the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant, so you assume a privilege that is normally perceived as against the law, against most scripture, and truly disgusting. It’s a twist on the fabled and arguably apocryphal jus primae noctis, a.k.a. the “right of the first night.” Here, I’ll make it easy for you. You walk into the dressing room while a bunch of contestants, all teen-age girls, are naked and you ogle away freely. Just to be clear, these girls are as young as 15. As the song says… they are jail bait. 

Upon discovery, one of the following happens to you:

a) You lose your job, are arrested and possibly convicted and imprisoned, are put on the sex offenders’ registry, are bankrupted by lawsuits, lawyers’ fees, judgments, and loss of income, and are heavily ostracized by your friends, business associates, the media and your family. (source: logic and history)

OR

b) 62,984,825 strategically-placed voters make you President of the United States of America. (source: CNN)

Continue reading “Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind #002: Oldies But Baddies”