Sotomayor

I don't know how to judge a judge and neither do you. But just because I have no objective standard to help I am not going to get all exercised about who she *is* or where she comes from or what she looks like or the fact that she's a she.

Dennis Miller said something this year that has had a profound effect on me, and it's just common sense, but I'm going to have to name it. I'm calling it ducking down Miller's Alley. Miller's Alley is a one way street home. He basically said don't spend a lot of time worrying about something that is completely beyond your ability to change. I'm the kind of person who needs to be whacked upside the head with this message, because I'm out there on the boulevard like a motherless child. I need to turn down Miller's Alley and head home where I make a difference. So do a lot of people.

What happens in American politics is that we get annoyed with what we think other people believe. And most of us don't really know what we believe because we cannot sustain a productive conversation about things worth knowing. We argue because it solidifies something in us that we don't want mushy, giving us a false sense of security. But solidified arguments are not so very useful as understanding the process of discovery. That's not what we are doing - we are not discovering anything of value, instead we are uncovering a new class of clowns who look like us but are clearly wrong. Every political development in our national life gives us a new class of freaks to avoid like the plague. 'They' are ruining 'our' America.

So today is the day of California's ruling on Proposition 8. Today is also the day that the first handlers out of the block will start Sotomayor on her path through a guantlet of pundits, pollsters and political parasites, in anticipation of the greatest show on earth, the Senate Confirmation Hearing. The screech of tires has already begun and its just a matter of weeks before the ultimate crunch of steel and broken glass. But in the meantime the squeal will get louder and more incessant.

I know it's irresponsible of me as a public citizen to head down Miller's Alley, but it's really not my job. I think I might do a better job if I were employed as a pundit, pollster or partisan, but I'm not. And so I'm going to reserve judgment on the judge. I will watch without worry.