The Do-Nothing Court

Is it a victory that the same old white guys who would've lead the charge against basic human rights are now scrambling for excuses why they can't even offer an opinion?

That's what really stood out about last week's latest Supreme Court DOMA rodeo. Old reptiles like Scalia and Alito not denouncing them durty queers but trying to find rhetorical escape hatches -

"You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution which is newer than cell phones or the Internet... On a question like that, of such fundamental importance, why should it not be left for the people, either acting through initiatives and referendums or through their elected public officials?"

That's Justice Sam "I Heart Fuhrers" Alito, complaining about how people are expecting the Supreme Court to, like, interpret the law or something. Justice Kennedy was much more direct, asking "Why do you think we should take and decide this case?"

"But I don't wanna!"

So marriage equality is definitely in. It's so in that the conservative wing of the Court is plugging their ears and doing that "La-la-la, I can't hear you!" thing. They're just smart enough to realize they're on the wrong side of history and they don't like it. Especially with last year's big show over broccoli mandates - the Scalito faction has been able to play the principled civil libertarian while really just being as reactionary as they've always been, but now they're in a bit of a pickle.

If they stick to that "small government" stance, they'll side with all the good Justices in repealing DOMA and pissing off their fellow screwheads. If they go with their guts and cast the dissenting votes, then they're unprincipled and worst of all... losers. It's a lose-lose situation, the only positive being that repealing DOMA would win favor with the mouthy libertarian minority. And those jerk-offs matter less than card-carrying Marxists.

But is that really a victory? No one's had a change of heart, they're just scared of being the losers, the worst fate any American can suffer. They're losing anyway but just don't want it rubbed in their faces and would prefer to table the whole thing. And as heartening as it may be to see them squirm like this, I don't really see it as reason to celebrate.

Meanwhile, Egypt has a much more do-something legal system. And that something is chasing down the Egyptian Jon Stewart with torches and pitchfork:

"[T]he arrest warrant seemed to represent a sharp escalation of the campaign against Mr. Youssef, with the public prosecutor appointed by Mr. Morsi lending official credence to the complaints. In the nine months since Mr. Morsi took office, his government and the Muslim Brotherhood have endured withering and frequently strident criticism from Egypt’s private news media outlets. Mr. Morsi has been accused of responding with measures that recall the previous authoritarian leaders, including prosecuting critics, confiscating newspapers and placing sympathetic journalists in state news media organs"

This is the result of the Arab Spring nobody likes to talk about - it's reactionary and repressive but still by popular demand. That can't be spun into a simplistic either/or soundbite so it just doesn't get repeated. Legally recognizing that men can be into the cock, that's a far more pressing concern...