One thing I think Christian's really need to bring to public discourse is a capacity to turn down the dial on the smoke and mirrors that gets played far too much in politics and public discourse. Sometimes we act like there is nothing significant or substantive to discuss, explore, learn about together, debate, etc.—and we sign on to political propoganda or 'search and destroy' missions.

One thing I think Christian's really need to bring to public discourse is a capacity to turn down the dial on the smoke and mirrors that gets played far too much in politics and public discourse. Sometimes we act like there is nothing significant or substantive to discuss, explore, learn about together, debate, etc.—and we sign on to political propoganda or 'search and destroy' missions.

You may or may not agree with the legal decision in the firefighter case–but I think it a pretty hard case to characterize the court decision as racist. Since you identified it as such I think it fair to ask you to explain why.

Would you also explain why you identify a 5-4 decision as a 9-0 deicision?

What do you mean she is “hard left?”

What in scripture talks about partial persons selling their souls??

What is the Alinsky plen and how does it relate to the Sotoamyer?

We should fire all the men on the supreme court and appoint only women for the next 250 years.

In the mean time 50% of the rest of us will try to be broad minded about the entire process and forgive all of you for the past.

95% of minorities in America are culturally very conservative people and they voted in mass for a Cultural Conservative in spite of the fact that he is liberally an intellectual.

Your Honorable Ms. Cynthia

I know, this is a little off topic.

Second, you're wrong about the cloture vote. No Republicans, “conservative” or otherwise, voted against cloture. 43 Democrats and 1 Independent were enough to deny Estrada an up or down vote. 51 Republicans voted to end the filibuster and they were joined by 4 Democrats.

Third, there is a long precedent of not releasing confidential memos from when nominees worked at DOJ and there are good reasons for this. This is why every living former Solicitor General from both parties opposed release of confidential memos by people who worked under them and they signed a letter telling the Democrats this is not wise policy at the time.

Again, I don't remember any calls for respect from those on the left during Estrada's nomination proceeding.

Anyway, what I've consistently said about the history and MO of the modern conservative movement is provable from multiple sources; however, no such proof of corresponding liberal movement exists (if there were the conservatives themselves would tell you about it). You have chafed at my accusations of nefarious motives on the part of the political right; trouble is, there's way, way too much evidence.

This is why when people complain that, say, Miguel Estrada and Clarence Thomas were not given their due as representing their race, so to speak, they're actually talking through their hats because they were nominated, as I said earlier, to look diverse when the conservatives who set them up in the first place want nothing to do with diversity. Several weeks ago a minister complained on Facebook about 95 percent of African-Americans voting for Obama in the last presidential election; I responded that, were he a conservative Republican, he wouldn't get anywhere near that amount of electoral support. (And he blasted me for bringing that up.)