Kavanaugh
My blogsite is named for a great judge, who was never nominated to the Supreme Court, Learned Hand. The reason he was not nominated was that he was completely neutral in his opinions. No president could rely on Judge Hand to taint his judgments with ideology. From this, it follows, that biased judges are routinely nominated to the court, hence not always the fairest or best. I don't know enough about Judge Kavanaugh's opinions from the bench to judge his bias myself, but the fact that Trump nominated him implies he is bent rightward.
When I heard the first reports of a high school party that resulted in a sexual encounter, possibly not consensual, I thought that it was probably just bad judgement by a young, testosterone and alcohol fueled, teenager. But after reading the press reports and hearing the testimony, it feels like something different.
Thinking back to my time in high school and college, 25 years before Judge Kavanaugh, only once did I have a beer and never, unfortunately I thought at the time, a sexual encounter, in spite of playing football, being student body president, and a good student, two of the three that Kavanaugh repeatedly invoked to support his character (can you give yourself a character reference?). In college I drank a little too much but certainly did not force myself on any women.
Fraternities, in my opinion, were for those who weren't at school to learn but to party. I am biased against this college tradition of fraternities and sororities. Many successful people belonged to frats, but I disliked them and still do. They have always felt like gangs to me; a bunch of guys with symbols on their shirts, using a gang of comrades to support them in whatever wild behavior they undertook, sort of like Animal House. I never saw any benefit to gangs.
My older daughters are close to Kavanaugh's age. They all are college graduates and have post graduate degrees. None of them belonged to sororities. In high school there was a little drinking of alcohol and smoking of marijuana but not to the point of serious intoxication, that I know of.
But gangs have a gang culture and sometimes gangs arise spontaneously. It sounded to me from Kavanaugh's testimony that he enjoyed this gang culture. I believe he said alcohol was legal at age 18 which would make part of his senior year a legal time to drink, but not when he was 17 when the event with the young woman occurred. Where were his parents? I also wonder about people who enjoy gang related activities?
When Judge Kavanaugh testified he looked to me like a child who being questioned about something he had done wrong, like a child who had never been held accountable before. He appeared to me like someone who had never been asked hard questions about his behavior. Reading facial expressions is fraught. But my read is that he looked like a kid who was caught after doing something bad and was trying to bluster his way out of it.
Mark Judge, Kavanaugh long time friend, was said to have been an eye witness to the incident that Dr. Ford says happened but he was not questioned by the committee. Clearly all the facts of the case were not known. When Senator Durbin asked Kavanaugh to turn to McGahn, white house counsel, and request an FBI investigation so that all the facts of the case would be available to the Senate committee, he refused to answer, as he refused answer many direct questions. What kind of judge does not want all the available information before making a judgement?
However, Kavanaugh's record as a judge seems like he has treated women fairly as clerks and co-workers, and maybe even selected women preferentially to correct the history of fewer woman clerks on the higher courts. His wife and children seem to like and support him. He seems to have broken his ties with gang culture and done a good, if biased, job as a judge.
Should he be appointed? No. The Supreme Court sets the standards for the country and I don't like Judge Kavanaugh's standards nor his child-like demeanor. His standards include making decisions without all the available information. A bad sign for a judge. His demeanor, as I have said above, to me appeared to be that of a child chastised for doing something wrong and is angry he got caught. And because I am keeping score. The disgraceful use of power by the Republicans by not considering Merritt Garland's appointment by president Obama needs to be evened out. Justice dictates a balance. Denying Kavanaugh a seat is some restitution for not considering Judge Garland.
And mostly because we don't need a frat-boy-child on the court, even a sorry one. Wouldn't it be ironic if Judge Kavanaugh was denied this seat on the Supreme Court by a Judge named Mark?
When I heard the first reports of a high school party that resulted in a sexual encounter, possibly not consensual, I thought that it was probably just bad judgement by a young, testosterone and alcohol fueled, teenager. But after reading the press reports and hearing the testimony, it feels like something different.
Thinking back to my time in high school and college, 25 years before Judge Kavanaugh, only once did I have a beer and never, unfortunately I thought at the time, a sexual encounter, in spite of playing football, being student body president, and a good student, two of the three that Kavanaugh repeatedly invoked to support his character (can you give yourself a character reference?). In college I drank a little too much but certainly did not force myself on any women.
Fraternities, in my opinion, were for those who weren't at school to learn but to party. I am biased against this college tradition of fraternities and sororities. Many successful people belonged to frats, but I disliked them and still do. They have always felt like gangs to me; a bunch of guys with symbols on their shirts, using a gang of comrades to support them in whatever wild behavior they undertook, sort of like Animal House. I never saw any benefit to gangs.
My older daughters are close to Kavanaugh's age. They all are college graduates and have post graduate degrees. None of them belonged to sororities. In high school there was a little drinking of alcohol and smoking of marijuana but not to the point of serious intoxication, that I know of.
But gangs have a gang culture and sometimes gangs arise spontaneously. It sounded to me from Kavanaugh's testimony that he enjoyed this gang culture. I believe he said alcohol was legal at age 18 which would make part of his senior year a legal time to drink, but not when he was 17 when the event with the young woman occurred. Where were his parents? I also wonder about people who enjoy gang related activities?
When Judge Kavanaugh testified he looked to me like a child who being questioned about something he had done wrong, like a child who had never been held accountable before. He appeared to me like someone who had never been asked hard questions about his behavior. Reading facial expressions is fraught. But my read is that he looked like a kid who was caught after doing something bad and was trying to bluster his way out of it.
Mark Judge, Kavanaugh long time friend, was said to have been an eye witness to the incident that Dr. Ford says happened but he was not questioned by the committee. Clearly all the facts of the case were not known. When Senator Durbin asked Kavanaugh to turn to McGahn, white house counsel, and request an FBI investigation so that all the facts of the case would be available to the Senate committee, he refused to answer, as he refused answer many direct questions. What kind of judge does not want all the available information before making a judgement?
However, Kavanaugh's record as a judge seems like he has treated women fairly as clerks and co-workers, and maybe even selected women preferentially to correct the history of fewer woman clerks on the higher courts. His wife and children seem to like and support him. He seems to have broken his ties with gang culture and done a good, if biased, job as a judge.
Should he be appointed? No. The Supreme Court sets the standards for the country and I don't like Judge Kavanaugh's standards nor his child-like demeanor. His standards include making decisions without all the available information. A bad sign for a judge. His demeanor, as I have said above, to me appeared to be that of a child chastised for doing something wrong and is angry he got caught. And because I am keeping score. The disgraceful use of power by the Republicans by not considering Merritt Garland's appointment by president Obama needs to be evened out. Justice dictates a balance. Denying Kavanaugh a seat is some restitution for not considering Judge Garland.
And mostly because we don't need a frat-boy-child on the court, even a sorry one. Wouldn't it be ironic if Judge Kavanaugh was denied this seat on the Supreme Court by a Judge named Mark?
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