Indulgences

I've let the end of the Supreme Court term and announcement of the first retirement from the Court in over a decade distract me from real work. My blog posting has been prolific recently (for me, that is) but that's just a fraction of the time I've spent reading and speculating on these subjects in person and through email. Things are returning to normal now, so there's no reason to check the page every fifteen minutes or get up at 3 AM breathless with anticipation of another post.

Meanwhile, the Lady Crumpet is out of town this week for a visit to Pemberley (actually, San Francisco) and has just posted the first "Lady Crumpet, On Location" dispatch. She has now met one more Presidents than I have. In her absence, I will be gorging on direct-to-video horror films, which I don't get to watch much when she's around. The hack slasher flicks and filler killer creature features were delayed one evening, though, as I watched a different kind of monster movie, The Corporation, last night. At 2 hours and 25 minutes (not counting the DVD extras,) the filmmakers themselves could be accused of excess, but overall it was a worthwhile doc.

Speaking of hideous creatures, I just read that Fred Thompson, star of Baby's Day Out, has been tapped to "guide (Bush's) nominee through the confirmation process." I think this means that Bush is going to name a far-right conservative. It's tough to read anything out of decisions like this one, but putting a former Senator (and Judiciary committee member) and popular public figure out front suggests to me that Bush is trying to soften what will be a very unpalatable choice.