I just watched one of the cats pee on the carpet, right in front of me.

They’re locked away in the garage again.

God, I hate them.

Jeff Toobin’s “The Nine,” at page 301:

[O’Connor] even wrote a fawning, faintly embarrassing story about Roberts for Time Magazine. (“The stars must have been aligned that January morning in 1955 when John G. Roberts Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., because almost everything thereafter led him straight to the Supreme Court of the U.S.”)

(All emphasis in this post is mine.)

O’Connor is suggesting that Roberts was almost . . . destined for the Court! How faintly embarrassing!

Oh, by the way . . . here is Toobin himself from page 262:

John Roberts was not genetically engineered to be a justice of the Supreme Court, but it often seemed that way. His career trajectory was so smooth, his progress so steady, his reputation so exalted, his personality so winning, that he seemed at times preternaturally favored for that ultimate destination.

To sum up:

“The stars must have been aligned” — faintly embarrassing.

“He seemed at times preternaturally favored” — Quality Journalism.

The secret, my friends, lies in the Big Words. They are preternaturally delicious.

[Guest post by DRJ]

The US Supreme Court recently granted cert in a Kentucky death penalty case to consider whether lethal injections that use a sedative, a muscle paralyzing drug, and a drug that induces cardiac arrest are cruel and inhuman.

According to this report, the “Texas execution procedure is virtually the same as the one in Kentucky.” The execution of Carlton Turner, Jr., has been placed on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court, but there’s disagreement on how this will affect pending Texas’ executions.

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[Guest post by DRJ]

I’ll never equal James Lilek’s tales of the Minnesota State Fair, but …

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[Guest post by DRJ]

In a move Senator Harry Reid quipped was “very courageous,” Senator George Voinovich-OH and three GOP Senators who face re-election (Alexander-TN, Dole-NC, and Coleman-MN) have united to support the Wait-Until-Bush-Is-Gone (*the Woe-B-Gone*) Withdrawal Plan from Iraq:

“A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: Call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but wait until President Bush is out of office.
***
The proposal, by Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, would require that Bush change the mission of U.S. troops from combat to primarily support roles, such as training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. infrastructure in Iraq. His legislation would set a goal of completing such a mission transition within 15 months.

If enacted immediately, that timeline would not kick in until Bush’s last couple weeks in office.”

I assume these Senators are also voicing the frustrations their constituents feel with the Iraq war but it’s disappointing when Senators and Americans turn into jellyfish.

— DRJ

Jan Crawford Greenburg says that her upcoming interview with Clarence Thomas “is something you will not, under any circumstances, want to miss.”

I believe her. More when it becomes available.

[Guest post by DRJ]

This is for all libertarians and conservatives who love to see government get tweaked now and then.

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OK, I suppose it’s starting to look like I’m teasing you — and I suppose I am — but I want you to read this. It’s background material for a post I’m working on. Read it all, and you’ll be in a position to understand my upcoming post, which deals with the modern-day equivalent of “L.A. Confidential.”

Tupac Shakur. Biggie Smalls. Suge Knight. David Mack. Rafael Perez. Kevin Hackie. Waymond Anderson. Chuck Philips. Russell Poole.

If these names mean anything to you, you’ll be interested.

Yesterday, I asked you to read this. That was background reading, too — very important background reading.

I’m going to tie it all together, but look, I’m getting to be an old man. I lack energy. If this were 2004, I’d probably already have a post up. But I’m old. Sheesh, I’m almost 40. I’m really busy at work. The kids are taking all the rest of my time.

Maybe next week.

But damn, it’s interesting.

Lauren swinging at the park — with the Eiger mountain in the background (Mürren, Switzerland):

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