Hamlet’s Madness And The Perturbation Of Chief Justice Roberts

Flopping Aces ^ | 07-04-12 | Skookum

[Starman417]

Hamlet's Conflict And Roberts' Moral Breakdown--

It is accepted among those who are honest with themselves, Chief Justice Roberts sold out the American people and the Constitution, while cowering from implied presidential threats to the Supreme Court and an anticipated rage of the Left's propaganda bureaus. Whether he is familiar with the madness of Hamlet or his lack of conviction is but indecision and the wavering of ideas, matters little, for his perturbation will be a matter of conjecture until the untimely end of the Republic; undoubtably, his decision and indecision will hasten that end. Yet sadly, his actions and logic seem to be drawn and written from the tragic Hamlet script, some four hundred years old.

Bear with me for a few minutes and see if these ancient lines don't take on modern meaning and expression.

Hamlet's madness is metaphysical, linked closely with the culture of the era, the madness of Roberts is allowed to become metaphysical when a presumed loyalty and love of the integrity of the Supreme Court and his first love, the Constitution become conflicted with his desire to avoid acrimony and derision from the Left. Hamlet has love for his family; yet, his father has been murdered by his uncle, so that he may marry his sister in law, Hamlet's mother. Hamlet learns of the treachery from the visitation of the ghost of his father. To catch the murderer, Hamlet feigns madness, but falls into a pit of psychosis that leads to the insanity of all the main characters, including Hamlet's beautiful and virtuous fiancé Ophelia. In the end, death claims them all.

It is for us the observers to note the erratic actions of Roberts, actions that portend unseemly and circumspect reasons for doubt. We reasonably suspect the president has a direct line to the deliberations, after a justice who helped form arguments to support the law refuses to recuse herself from the court; thereby compromising the deliberations from the beginning. Soon the president announces veiled threats to the court, directed toward the court but delivered to the public. We learn of a delay, and later we learn Roberts has changed his vote.

Roberts is a news junkie and knows the capability of the president's propaganda bureaus to malign and impugn his enemies, did he compromise his values in lieu of the withering fire that would be directed toward him for being loyal to the Constitution?

Oh, there is drama and madness lurking beneath the surface of this modern day drama and more than enough to draw parallels to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Let the Constitution be the beautiful and virtuous Ophelia, Hamlet's fiancé, and we can see how Roberts like Hamlet destroys his true love while succumbing to the drama and his own madness.

If we analyze Hamlet's most well-known soliloquy, we can see the self-pity and absorption that many say indicates madness and the need for Roberts to retire:

To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, to sleep, —
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; —
To sleep, perchance to dream: — ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, —
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, — puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

The first lines of this soliloquy tell us of the self embroiled in torment: with Hamlet, it involves a dream of murder, with Roberts, it is the conflict with the desire to sell out the Constitution in order to gain respite from the vitriol of the Left's propaganda presses and their exaggerated self-righteous indignation.

[philman_36]

La-de-da-de-da...
Consider this.

Transcript...@Supreme Court: The Health Care Law And The Individual Mandate
It's got this little number in it...

GENERAL VERRILLI: I don't think that that's a fair characterization of the actions of Congress here, Justice Kagan. On the — December 23rd, a point of constitutional order was called to, in fact, with respect to this law. The floor sponsor, Senator Baucus, defended it as an exercise of the taxing power. In his response to the point of order, the Senate voted 60 to 39 on that proposition.

The legislative history is replete with members of Congress explaining that this law is constitutional as an exercise of the taxing power. It was attacked as a tax by its opponents. So I don't think this is a situation where you can say that Congress was avoiding any mention of the tax power.

It would be one thing if Congress explicitly disavowed an exercise of the tax power. But given that it hasn't done so, it seems to me that it's — not only is it fair to read this as an exercise of the tax power, but this Court has got an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power, if it can be upheld on that basis.

Sounds to me like Congress knew it was a tax during debate.

@It Was Always a Tax
In part...Mr. President, the bill before us is clearly an appropriate exercise of the commerce clause. We further believe Congress has power to enact this legislation pursuant to the taxing and spending powers.

Snip...House Democrats likewise argued that Obamacare is constitutionally justified as an exercise of Congress’s power to levy taxes and spend money. Thus, Rep. George Miller of California said:

The bill contains an individual mandate to either obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. This provision is grounded in Congress’s taxing power but is also necessary and proper–indeed, a critical linchpin–to the overall effort to reform the health care market and bring associated costs under control throughout interstate commerce.

A really good article, IMO.
Be sure to read this...

The brief that administration lawyers filed on behalf of President Obama argued at length that the mandate is a tax. At risk of boring our readers, I am going to reproduce that entire section of the brief. You shouldn’t feel obliged to read it all, but it is actually quite interesting:
II. THE MINIMUM COVERAGE PROVISION IS INDEPENDENTLY AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS’S TAXING POWER
A. The Minimum Coverage Provision Operates As A Tax Law

I rather liked this towards the end...

Hey, that’s what you get for reading a web site that is written by lawyers. But even if you didn’t follow all of that, I am sure you got the point: the Obama administration argued vigorously, and at considerable length, that the Obamacare mandate is a tax. For Obama and his surrogates to deny now that Obamacare is a tax, or to express surprise that the Supreme Court has so held, is beyond disingenuous. Of course, such dishonesty is par for the course for the president and his minions.

[Paladin2]

Roberts still caused a large disturbance in The Force.

[jongaltsr]

But!
I object!
How dare you object to my objection!
I am wiser than thee.
nah! but I am the fool.
.. or am I?
Who know-est? Not I!
Cast your dispersions I am prepared.
.. prepared for what I ask?
.. I know-est not for I am no more sure of myself and my very thoughts that I flounder in them.
I am DOOMED.
Nay! We are ALL doomed!
And it is my own device which I created that doomed myself and thee with me........!

[nevermorelenore]

He will forever be known as Benedict Roberts!

[Ron C.]

A pox on Roberts and Hamlet - imbecilic (idiotic) both.

[House Atreides]

Another piece of literature which now captures the essence of the “new”, devoid of integrity and principles John Roberts—courtesy of T.S. Eliot:

The Hollow Men

I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us — if at all — not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer —

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

[x]

That's theft!

You realize you have to pay royalties for poetry, or at least get permission from the copyright holder.

An excerpt would have sufficed.

[philman_36]

Roberts still caused a large disturbance in The Force.
To me he exposed that particular Congress as The Farce it was.

[Flag_This]

[Paladin2]

"He will forever be known as Benedict Roberts!"

June 28, 2012 - Roberts Dependence Day.

[AceMineral]

Fable of a Failed Race.

[AndyJackson]

Source, please?

[AndyJackson]

I have to say that I wish I had thought this up. It is brilliant. Hamlet was Shakespeare’s great forray into and exploration of the consequences of nihilism (a concept to be attributed to the great Harold Bloom - and no, I don’t believe that Shakespeare is a nihilist). But now we know that Roberts is.

[AndyJackson]

You realize that the copyright has long expired and you can find it “everywhere” on the web.

[x]

You realize that the copyright has long expired and you can find it “everywhere” on the web.

Not legally under US law, so far as I know.

[jongaltsr]

Source Smourch>

I just make it up as I go. Just off de top a me head.