R.I.P.s

[soulfinger]

Well that all escalated in a way I hadn't anticipated.

Some people can pick a fight in an empty lift. *shakes head*

[red angel dragnet]

Well that all escalated in a way I hadn't anticipated.

RIP Toots. Still listed to play our little local venue here next May, in a rearranged gig postponed from a few months ago.

The last place I want to be wasting time is here, but as you might have figured if you paid attention, I mistook your "Dammit" for embarrassment and not a sigh, so I thought you already knew it was inappropriate, especially on an obituary thread, and I thought it was fine to half-jokingly express my disapproval. Anyway, it really didn't have to be anywhere near the big deal it became and it wouldn't have become anything at all if Frances wasn't so triggered by my feeling that this crazy world is no kind of place for decent people to have to live.

And yes, I'm also extremely sensitive, having been stalked for most of my life, if not all of it. People trespass wherever I live and vandalize, steal, and move things around, I'm even videotaped in the bath for all to see. I've come to the conclusion I'm an unwitting part of one of the multitude of unethical human experiments run by the government: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical ... ted_States

William Blum who worked for the US state dept. said this:
“No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.”

They've probably tested high levels of radiation on me and that's how I got the brain cancer, because I didn't even own a cellphone. No one is allowed to help me so it only ends when I die. I'm sure that's why I think so highly of death.

[DzM]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, of pancreatic cancer.

As if 2020 weren't enough of a shit-show already.

[Low D]

Ugh.

While I'm a big fan of her work, this does raise the point that lifetime appointments - or the decision of one to take the concept of "lifetime appointment" so literallyy - are a bad idea. Democracy cannot have to depend on the health of a group of septuagenarians and octogenarians.

I speak not disrepectfully, but as one of those who was holding their breath every time RBG's health made the news.

[Frances]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, of pancreatic cancer.

R.I.P.





I love visiting the Supreme Court. It’s my favorite place to go in D.C.
Quite majestic. Though if you sneak a pic from the balcony (towards the chamber) it kinda looks like the Muppet Show theater a little bit. A lot of red velvet if I recall correctly.

Ran across Justice Sonia Sotomayor and her entourage once at the Botanic Garden. It was very interesting to me (and some family members) as we have a loved one who practices law and works on state legislation.

Justice Sotomayor was the very personification of female achievement just walking down the damn street.

[DzM]

Ugh.

While I'm a big fan of her work, this does raise the point that lifetime appointments - or the decision of one to take the concept of "lifetime appointment" so literallyy - are a bad idea. Democracy cannot have to depend on the health of a group of septuagenarians and octogenarians.

I speak not disrepectfully, but as one of those who was holding their breath every time RBG's health made the news.

Yep. Yet it's written into the US Constitution, so it would take an amendment to change. And no way you're getting both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the states to approve something like that right now. I'd be a fan of a 21 year term with an age cap of 75 years. That should be enough to keep them from being beholden to the political winds of change, and should avoid (too many) clinging on until their last breath.

On the amendment front, it should be noted that nothing REQUIRES a justice to stay until they die. They can retire any time they want. The chamber could agree to a term and age limit if they wanted, but it's take only one justice to say "screw the rules" before that system went out the window.

And speaking respectfully of Justice RBG - she bet that Clinton was going to win in 2016 and thus didn't retire when her health started failing again. She really should have stepped down in 2014 or 2015 if she wanted to have some level of confidence that her replacement wouldn't actively work to subvert her life's work.

[left]

Democracy cannot have to depend on the health of a group of septuagenarians and octogenarians.

Now that you put it like that it sounds even crazier.

[Low D]

And speaking respectfully of Justice RBG - she bet that Clinton was going to win in 2016 and thus didn't retire when her health started failing again. She really should have stepped down in 2014 or 2015 if she wanted to have some level of confidence that her replacement wouldn't actively work to subvert her life's work.

Which makes her "dying request" that Trump not pick her replacement all the more galling.

[firehazard]

While I'm a big fan of her work, this does raise the point that lifetime appointments - or the decision of one to take the concept of "lifetime appointment" so literallyy - are a bad idea. Democracy cannot have to depend on the health of a group of septuagenarians and octogenarians.

Put that together with an election in which the choice of next leader of a country is between two septuagenarians, and there are even more issues.

And speaking respectfully of Justice RBG - she bet that Clinton was going to win in 2016 and thus didn't retire when her health started failing again. She really should have stepped down in 2014 or 2015 if she wanted to have some level of confidence that her replacement wouldn't actively work to subvert her life's work.

I didn't know about that. It seems like yet another of those seemingly small things that, if they had gone the other way, might just have meant the world wasn't quite in the sort of unspeakably bad place it's in today. For which I still mostly blame Nick Clegg.

RIP.

[Low D]

Yep. Yet it's written into the US Constitution, so it would take an amendment to change. And no way you're getting both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the states to approve something like that right now. I'd be a fan of a 21 year term with an age cap of 75 years. That should be enough to keep them from being beholden to the political winds of change, and should avoid (too many) clinging on until their last breath.

And while there's been 27 amendments, there hasn't been one even PROPOSED since 1971. Do all those "right to arm bears" crowd even understand that the 2nd Amendment is a, well, an amendment? In fact, for what is ostensibly a country founded free of religion and monarchy, the US populace has a considerable amount of weird superstition around change and is strangely comfortable with all sorts of power in very few hands. For example...

On the amendment front, it should be noted that nothing REQUIRES a justice to stay until they die.

For a country born in rebellion to a monarchy, folks are pretty ok with individuals wielding great power.

[Low D]

Eddie Van Halen has gone Running With The Devil. Hope he didn't Jump.

65 years old, the cancer.

[left]

Shocking, was still hoping to see him somewhere, sometime. A real genius.

[firehazard]

Eddie Van Halen has gone Running With The Devil. Hope he didn't Jump.

65 years old, the cancer.

Dammit. RIP

Also Johnny Nash, 80. Hoping he can see clearly now.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/07/johnny-nash-reggae-singer-best-known-for-i-can-see-clearly-now-dies-aged-80

[Fr. McGreer]

Also Johnny Nash, 80. Hoping he can see clearly now.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/07/johnny-nash-reggae-singer-best-known-for-i-can-see-clearly-now-dies-aged-80

'Clearly' was the name of his second girlfriend. He started seeing her after he murdered his first love, Lorraine.............

Sorry, i'll get my coat

[DzM]

Found this in the approval queue too: viewtopic.php?p=236877#p236877

Sorry for the delay, Leadshoes. I should really check the queue more often.