It seems that there is always some update for my computer, resulting in an extended download session that eventually does not work properly. Very tedious. While one was going on yesterday, I checked out what was on television. For instance, yet again, D.E.B.S. was on. This is a tissue thin mostly harmless movie concerning a top secret agency inhabited by teen spy girls in training, one of whom falls for an evil mastermind that happens to be a girl as well.
Also, Married ... with Children, which along with The Simpsons, was one of the few original FOX shows with some staying power. I liked the show, especially before it became a parody of itself around the seventh season (lasting that long for any show is quite respectable, especially for a show that appeals to the lowest denominator).
Kelly Bundy was an especially well created character. She was the seminal airhead blond bimbo with the heart of a street fighter ... and after a few years, really matured into the part (from jail bait to barely legal, to be crude about it). Of course, each woman on the show was sex crazed in her own fashion, including the next door neighbor Marcy ... earlier the love interest in Fright Night. As with another (male) sex crazed sort in an ongoing sitcom, it turns out in real life she is homosexual. And, though Al didn't think so, she was not bad on the eyes either -- as shown in an episode shown last night where her first wife Steve came back and tried to get her back. She fills a baby doll one piece fairly well.
Meanwhile, the final episode of the Supreme Court documentary played on one of the PBS stations. Rehnquist was the focus with a nod toward Brennan (and O'Connor) as well. An early segment covered Roe v. Wade, which (almost by mandate) required me to scream at the screen at least once. [I did see Anita Allen, a contributor of a book on what the opinion should have said, one of the better ones at that. Turns out she is black.] That is, when an educated law sort -- the author of an entertaining and well written book on the Warren Court -- promoted the usual meme that the ruling was horribly written with no basis on precedent or constitutional text.*
I'd think at least a nod toward Griswold (what was that partially about again? oh ... not having children ... right) would be in good taste. Of course, many other rulings dealt with privacy rights -- the materials were there, it depended on how it was used. And, we are told that Blackmun gave a detailed history of abortion laws, but that there was little point to this if we wanted to know why abortion laws were constitutionally problematic. Perhaps, it might have been helpful to explain how such history would point to the state justification of the laws as well as the issue of personhood, quite relevant.** A few more people were thus sold a bill of goods about the ruling, one that might be disputed, but given a bit more respect than such comments offer.
There was also John McCain. The "Road to the White House" segment was replayed three times last night, so while flipping thru the channels, I kept on seeing this guy. The guy who felt it unnecessary to vote on Saturday when the closure measure on the surge debate was held. What came to mind when I saw him last night was -- this guy looks tired. And old. Some have cited the poll that suggests various qualities of top Republican hopefuls (age, Mormonism, multiple marriages) might very be more problematic that those of Democrats (sex, race). Who knows ... thus, I won't link the poll. Overall, however, McCain seems out of sorts lately. I saw this too when I saw him make his "oppose stupid military policy, the troops will think you oppose them" remarks. Selling one's soul for the presidency might do that.
Meanwhile, Sen. Dodd also was shown. Given my problems with some frontrunners, he might be worth investigating. Don't think he has much of a shot, of course, but something to consider. Dodd's recent opposition to limiting opposition to "anti-surge" resolutions drafted by Republicans and for securing habeas and other due process rights for alleged "enemy combatants" is promising. He also is an experienced hand, seems to be overall sound, and was loyal to Democrats once his fellow senator lost the Democratic nomination last summer. Has his problems, including yeah in 10/02, but worth a look.
BTW, nothing much exciting in the Sunday NYT, though there was an interesting piece on use of blogs to deal with bankruptcy and debt issues. But, that was available on its website on Saturday.
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* "[I]f the physical curtilage of the home is protected, it is surely as a result of solicitude to protect the privacies of the life within. Certainly the safeguarding of the home does not follow merely from the sanctity of property rights. The home derives its pre-eminence as the seat of family life. And the integrity of that life is something so fundamental that it has been found to draw to its protection the principles of more than one explicitly granted Constitutional right."
-- Poe v. Ullman (Harlan, J., dissenting)
** "Since, as it appears to me, the statute marks an abridgment of important fundamental liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, it will not do to urge in justification of that abridgment simply that the statute is rationally related to the effectuation of a proper state purpose. A closer scrutiny and stronger justification than that are required." [same]