Notes From Underprivileged

Greetings Ducks! Many apologies for the lacuna of posts--I had a houseguest for the weekend and one thing pushed out another! Still, while I was away, asshattery was, as ever, on the march, as shown by the following...

Item: Women are unhappy despite liberation, or so argues new NY Times columnist Ross Douthat. Ross, you are to be congratulated! It takes most conservatives years to achieve full-on douchebaggery in the Times--you've taken just a few weeks! I haven't read the study he describes--it's not free--but I wonder: did anyone ask women why they don't feel happy? Or would that be too much bother? Isn't it more fun to speculate on them? Yes, if you write for the Times.

Item: Sonia Sotomayor is mean! This seems to be the first arrow in the coming perfect-storm backlash! On WNYC's Brian Lehrer show, the host asked for comments from people who had appeared in Judge Sotomayor's court. One lawyer (you can listen in at about 35:00 on the link) said that he found that she "made gratuitous comments that were abusive." This apparently was caused by an incident where she told a different--ah, yes, your friend, right--attorney that his brief was the worst she'd read in 20 years and he should rethink his career choice. Because no male Federal judge has ever been that mean! And even if he was, they'd just have a beer after. Which you can't do with Judge Sotomayor--on account of her vagina!

Item: California Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8. No jokes here, just disappointment. My houseguest is a Californian, and we read the story on an iPhone while sitting in a park. Interestingly, all 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before Prop 8 are still legal. This just in: California Supreme Court rules all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.