[Paul Atreides]

"Just think: my house used to sit where that parking deck is now."

[RichInOC]

...picture Ruth Bader Ginsberg in snug green tights...

...okay, anybody got knitting needles they can spare? I need to poke my eyes out...

[martin_fierro]

OK, someone had to do it.

[agitator]

Govt can just put your property up on eBay, set the reserve at slightly higher than your current serf payments to them, and when the reserve is met, throw you out.

[spetznaz]

Know what! One of my favorite poems is TS Eliot's "The Hollow Men," which has a very potent and interesting ending in its last stanza. It goes like this:

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.

This nation was built on the minds wills and hearts of some of the most amazing men and women to ever grace the face if this earth (to the extent i have the Declaration of Independence on my wall since I just cannot help but marvel at it). And it was always thought that the only way this country can be vanquished is by crushing it with a force so overwhelming that naught could stand before it, and not only that but the force would have to destroy all free-willed people in this country (since no true American, it was believed, would ever let their legacy be extinguished while they did nothing). I thought it would take a huge bang.

However the more I look at things the more I realize that if Ragnarok (from Norse mythology when the heavens are destroyed and the rule of the gods ended ....Ragnarok means 'destruction of powers' even though most popular translations say 'end of the gods') ever befalls the United States it will NOT be with a bang ....nope. It will be accompanied by a barely audible gasp ...a whimper ....as all that this great nation stood for is extinguished while the very people who stand to lose the most sit in situ and do nothing.

True, many will wag their tongues and 'tsk tsk' time away (as I am right now, even when it is way past my bedtime) ....but how many will even do something as simple as writing their congress rep? And the thing is many people think that as long as it doesn't affect them directly then they can afford to offer silent sympathy to those affected and then look away. The fallacy of such an approach is obvious ....it would be akin to a finger saying it doesn't care about an aching tooth because the pain afflicts the tooth and not the digit. The sad thing is that what affects the tooth affects the whole body, and thus affects the finger.

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

[Luigi Vasellini]

who appointed these justices???

[mewzilla]

FWIW, I like the Darth Bader analogy better :)

[hellinahandcart]

mark

[absolootezer0]

i don't quite argee with the robin hood analogy, the scotus is more robbing from the middle class and giving to the really rich. which, from most of the stories, was WHY robin hood was robbing from the rich to give to the poor. he was giving it back after the government had stolen it in the first place.

[cincinnati65]

"Picture this: Ruth Bader Ginsberg wearing a snug, green outfit, complete with tights."

I did.......and I wish I could say I was exaggerating when I tell you the thought made me nauseous.