Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was a Harvard Law professor when some of our near-and-dear shovelled salt there. So it's nice to see him smiling at the President on public occasions:
My favorite moment of the speech was visual. After delivering this line -- "Because courts must always deliver impartial justice, judges have a duty to faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench." -- the President gave a playful wink to someone sitting up front in the chamber. The camera then cut to the likely target of that wink and the only Supreme Court Justice in the room, Stephen Breyer, who had a tiny smile on his face.
And though around here we cringe at most hugs, overrated and overused, in public, the daughter and the mother were the real thing.
Life is not just talk.
Update: Thusly, as the enflamed Lileks notes, the shortcomings of some media.
The moment between the survivors of the fallen soldier and the Iraqi would have impressed me more if I knew what was going on; that’s the problem with the radio.
We are simply helpless to remit quoting further. [Ed: could this plausibly be framed as rhetorical analysis? Naaah.] Lileks admires the SOTU speech's note of that
retro Captain America vibe so at odds with the interminably nuanced rhetoric of a Davosian struggling to find the right words to deplore Chinese infanticide without giving anyone the idea he’s acting from some sense of religious inspiration. That sort can be counted upon to claim we have a moral duty to do any number of things, but will rarely identify anything as immoral. Leave that word for the dopes who pack the buses to Branson.
But I’m off topic.
And so I fear are we, self-indulgent and amused and off topic and maybe someday even off to Branson. Those colourful autumn leaves, don't 'cha know. So sue us. Or withhold those generous contributions.
Comments