recent tracks:

and verizon said...

let there be internet!

and there was.

two days ahead of schedule, too...ah verizon, you've redeemed yourself.

soo it's good to be back. i've turned down the kohl's job and accepted the tutoring one after a fun little interview on monday. this past weekend alex and lauren and taylor were here, and there were movies and scrabble and sheepshead and good food. today i went grocery shopping with timmy (and trashed him at chess, i should add), then went on a minor odyssey, following a UPS truck to the depot to pick up my DSL modem. i have since been enjoying reading about TO and setting up a fantasy football league (email or comment if interested), among other things.

other than that, life remains the same. i will likely set up a network router, purchase a desk so i don't have to lie on the floor anymore to use the computer, and ship a little package to someone important tomorrow. i think i have a couple other things to do, like watching casino, which we rented this weekend but never watched, doing laundry, and briefing a couple of cases to prep for next week, which will be a hectic mix of job training and school orientation.

speaking of briefing cases and school orientation, i figure i'll weigh in officially on judge roberts and say that i think he's a good supreme court nominee. from what i've read, he hasn't let personal politics interfere with his judicial decision-making, and thus comes across as a pretty middle-of-the-road kind of guy. i guess we'll find out once he gets to the bench, though. in-depth analysis, no? well it seems that's about as much as anyone can muster; most news stories mention the same few facts about j. roberts, trying to interpret them as political leanings: he has written a memo about what he perceives to be faulty decision-making in roe v. wade, he has argued cases on behalf of environmental groups, and he has written (i believe) a dissenting opinion in favor of land developers' interests. what it all seems to come down to is simply that logic and established law are more important to him than personal preferences, which seems a pretty reasonable stance to take, provided he recognizes the capacity of the courts as defenders of minority rights as well (which seems likely given his pedigree). i was approached the other day to sign a petition opposing his nomination, and had i been by myself (and lonely enough to want to engage in potentially contentious conversation with a stranger) might have asked the petitioner on what grounds he based his opposition. fervent antagonism to a man with such a scant judicial record but very decorated academic record seems characteristic of knee-jerk leftism, not careful consideration. one of very few places i'll credit ann coulter is the point in her anti-liberal raving where she accuses the left of uninformed posturing, citing primarily hollywood celebrities as examples--while celebrities don't exactly make up a representative sample of the american left, it does seem to me that there's too much knee-jerking and not enough thought going on on either side.
i would contend that this is at least partly a result of dwindling discourse between sides. a recent op-ed piece in the providence journal, which you would unfortunately have to pay to read fully, would agree with me. the gist of the article is that people have replaced actual dialogue (which tends to result in positions informed both by information and an understanding of opposing positions) with inferences of intellectual superiority--this op-ed writer, chip benson, takes coulter's approach in citing a celebrity as a prime example:

TOM CRUISE: No, you see. Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.
...
TOM CRUISE: Matt. Matt, Matt, you don't even-- you're glib. You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, okay. That's what I've done.

note, if you read the whole interview, that cruise fails to provide a single grain of support for his position other than "i know more than you do." one generally has to demonstrate one's knowledge to make a case capable of convincing others.

not dissimilarly, the main fault of coulter's overarching argument (that liberals are mean, stupid people--and no, i'm not exaggerating), which applies throughout her whole book (slander) is a combination of the fallacies of broad generalization and argumentum ad populum--she assumes that all liberals are alike in their ignorance of facts and conservative beliefs, and doesn't bother to support that claim because she assumes her audience will agree with her. such is the state of discourse--plenty of claims, and no actual support--at least among celebrities and political pundits in coulter's vein, but i think the same tendencies seep down into the masses (read: those of us not likely to appear on a talk show any time soon), too. it would pay off for us to approach politics in a more open-minded way...i.e. (to get back to where we started) even pretty staunch liberals (read: me) can approve of the nomination of j. roberts, particularly when many of us (read: me) were expecting a nominee more ideologically aligned with the very ideologically-minded (read: socially conservative) president. i might, however, have to send j. roberts a copy of evan gerstmann's same-sex marriage and the constitution, just as food for thought...and just in case he turns out to be the nominee i was expecting in the first place.

well, that was an unintended little rant. i suppose it's time to lay me down to bed and prepare for the tasks tomorrow holds. i get to mark off another day in my planner, which means it's one closer to the 27th...i wonder how summer will find me upon her return--stressed out and exhausted, or exuberant with ever-increasing knowledge and joy at her return? given my enthusiasm for issues legal these days, and my decline of the kohl's job in favor of tutoring, which i tend to enjoy quite a lot, and, of course, the excitement of the 27th, i'm betting on the latter.

goodnight.