While many conservatives immediately attacked Sonia Sotomayor after she was nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court, another review of her cases shows that the usual conservative lines do not apply to her. A review in The Washington Post showed that her decisions tended to be nonideolgical, relying far more on legal precedent than her personal views. Despite the judicial restraint seen in her decisions, it is probably that conservatives will continue to raise charges of judicial activism, even if the facts contradict such charges.
While conservatives have taken a single statement out of context to claim that she was a racist, other interviews with Sotomayor contract this charge:
In a less-publicized 2001 interview, Sotomayor said she tries to separate her Puerto Rican heritage from her judging. “It is very important when you judge to recognize that you have to stay impartial,” she said in a video for a program on Latinos and the law. “I have to unhook myself from my emotional responses and try to stay within my unemotional objective persona. That process can be very weighty at times.”
Republicans, and more recently many Democrats, have been talking about taxing health insurance benefits. Of course they try to deflect talk away from taxing your insurance benefits–if you are lucky enough to have them–by talking about taxing those with “Cadillac Plans.”
I’ve never been sure what they are talking about. I see lots of patients who are underinsured with their policies leaving them with large out of pocket expenses, but I haven’t seen those Cadillac Plans which the politicians are talking about. Perhaps that is because of my patient population. Business here in Michigan hasn’t been the greatest, after all. It looks like my observations are accurate. Merrill Goozner wrote about The Myth Of the Cadillac Plan at The Health Care Blog.
We really can’t expect too much out of a single speech from Barack Obama, but there are signs it has made a difference in influencing some Muslims:
In his speech in Cairo Thursday, Obama listed confronting “violent extremism” as the top priority in addressing tensions between the U.S. and Muslims. He urged the Islamic world to reject radical ideologies and promised to work aggressively to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also said the U.S. does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement in the West Bank and endorsed a Palestinian state.
There are already some indications his words are having the desired effect of undercutting extremists. A militant leader in Egypt called on the Taliban to respond positively to Obama’s gestures, and Hamas militants in Gaza say they are ready “to build on this speech.”
Obama may have managed to “plant the seed of doubt in some minds,” said Robert Malley, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. “There was enough … that represented openings for those who wanted openings.”
Mitch Albom of The Detroit Free Press fears that the speech will fall on deaf ears:
It is important for America to have good relations with the Arab world and the Muslim world (not the same thing). But I have always believed that, when it comes to the extreme end of things, we are speaking two different languages. We talk of compromise; they don’t know the meaning. We cherish democratic values; they see them as our vices. We talk of peace in this world; they talk about death here, glory later.
It remains far too early to determine the effect of Obama’s speech. The speech also must be seen as an opening of communication after the Bush years. It is hopefully something to build upon, as Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday, not the solution to the problem.
SciFi Wire has information on The Plan–an upcoming Battlestar Galactica movie told from the point of view of the Cylons which will air this September:
Edward James Olmos, who directed the upcoming DVD movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, told an audience of fans that the film will deliver exactly what they expect it to: The Plan shows the Cylons’ perspective on their attempted genocide of humanity.
“I gotta tell you, not to give anything away, it is exactly what you think it is,” Olmos said in a panel discussion Thursday night in Hollywood as part of the Los Angeles Times series The Envelope. “You see the complete opposite of the first 281 days of what we went through, … seen through the eyes of the Cylons, and it is breathtaking. It’s fantastic. It’s not fun, but I will say that you will sit there [gasping].”
Perhaps The Plan will also drive sales of BSG complete-season DVDs. “Basically, you will go back to see the series again,” Olmos said. “I couldn’t have imagined this kind of a situation happening at the end of a show, where you would actually start at the beginning. That’s a masterful piece of understanding, Ron [Moore]. Genius. Because after you see The Plan, you’ll want to go back and view the whole series again.”
The DVD release of The Plan will feature more than 30 minutes of additional Cylon perspective than will air in the version that will air on SCI FI. “The Plan is 2 hours and 6 minutes long the way you’re going to have it on the DVD. When you see it aired, it’s going to be 88 minutes.
I wish they would release the DVD the same day as the television version, if not earlier. Otherwise it becomes necessary to either hold off on watching when it first airs or watch a repeat of much of the show to see the extra material. My bet is that there will be a delay so they can maximize ratings and then make money off the DVD sales. Obviously there’s no reason why they could not air the entire show on television other than the desire to pick up the extra DVD sales.
New Scientist has an interview with Kevin Fong, lecturer in space medicine at University College London, on the science of Battlestar Galactica.
When Steven Moffat takes over Doctor Who next season he is going to restore a tradition for the original series which was dropped in the remakes. Traditionally the opening of Doctor Who included a picture of the current Doctor with the time vertex swirling behind. This was dropped when the series returned, but next season Matt Smith will be seen in the opening.
Ron Moore’s pilot episode of Virtuality was originally planned to air around the Fourth of July holiday but Fox has moved it up to June 26. The show is about a space ship on a ten year mission in which the crew uses virtual reality to keep sane, but a virus gets into the system. It sounds like a cross between the old holodeck episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Life on Mars. The show is currently being aired as a made for television series with the hope that Fox will pick it up as a series. That way fans can get more involved in the show before Fox pulls the plug.
ABC is spending the summer showing the final episodes of shows which didn’t make it during the regular season (as NBC is also doing with Kings.) Variety reports that there will be new episodes of one series which is returning. Six unaired episodes of Better off Ted will be aired on Tuesdays starting on June 23. Thirteen episodes will air next season as the series is paired with Scrubs. Scrubs is returning with Zach Braf to appear in six of the episodes to tie up the old story lines and transition the show to a new format.
I have bad feelings about a long running show which tries to change its format in such a manner. Even spin offs are variable in their success. NBC did well with Frasier as a spin off of Cheers but this was largely successful as it was a totally new show where viewers did not see it as missing the other characters from Cheers. The two characters from Better off Ted in the picture above both show different examples of NBC failing in their attempts to replace Friends. Andrea Anders was previously in Joey, the failed spin off. Jay Harrington was in the US version of Coupling, which was seen as a replacement for Friends but failed to pull off the excellence of the BBC show it was based upon. (Coupling incidentally, was written by Steven Moffat, who is taking over as show runner of Doctor Who, tying into an above item).
Besides the mostly failed shows to air on the networks this summer, there are several cable shows to look forward to. This includes True Blood which returns next week, with a promo above.
AMC will be airing Mad Men starting in mid-August with a promo above. They are saying little about what will occur next season but reportedly it will take place some time after Betty’s child is born. They have confirmed that that Don Draper is the father despite Betty’s brief affair (in retaliation for Don’s many affairs). While the Cuban Missile Crisis provided a backdrop for the second season there is speculation that the new season will occur at the time of John F. Kennedy’s assasination. Series creator creator Matthew Weiner has stated in interviews that this has already been done on many shows and expressed reluctance to deal with the topic again.
