So, Lisa Sotomayor has never thought about the rights, if any, of an unborn baby. I believe her, even though she went to Cardinal Spellman High School. Such a change has occurred in Catholic education, in just a generation! When I was in high school, at a regular old diocesan school in a working class neighborhood, we studied concepts like natural law, proofs of God’s existence, evolution, the soul and human nature, abortion and sexual ethics– moral questions of all kinds. We did it in religion class, training our minds to work within the framework of Aquinas, which is really Aristotlianism. (Nowadays, Aristotle is that benighted old fool in the front of your glossy science textbook.) We actually thought about things, or at least learned how to think, and we did it in high school, and those who went on to college did it on a more nuanced level. Or at least they did up till the sixties and seventies–I caught some wisps of the old-style education, enough to give me a taste of what I had missed. In The Closing of the American Mind, Allen Bloom praised Catholic universities for keeping the classic, Aristotlian methods alive. Of course, when he wrote, in 1987, the tradition had largely passed. I’ve always said I think I learned more in high school than I did in college (thank you, Oblates of St. Francis de Sales!). At least, the foundations had been properly laid.

Then there’s the “wise Latina” remark. If you have no particular philosophy, you have nothing but your self (and the color of your skin). Of course you fall back on your feelings. You haven’t thought anything through, your law school taught you a soulless technical skill, so you go with your instincts. You rely on the sentimental image of a village senora. You stick with the tribe. And my tribe is as good as your tribe, pal– maybe better! That’s judicial philosophy today. In this, she echoes Obama’s “above my pay grade” remark. No use having thought-out, universally accessible principles beforehand– that’s so white male.

Crossposted at http://www.rocscssrs.blogspot.com/

In one of the battleground counties ringing Philadelphia, ACORN gets its due.

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A Chester man entered a negotiated guilty plea Monday on forgery, identity theft and tampering with public records offenses.
The charges were filed against 34-year-old Jemar Barksdale as a result of invalid voter registration applications he submitted, according to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.
Barksdale, who entered the plea before Common Pleas Judge Patricia H. Jenkins, was sentenced to serve six to 23 months on electronic home monitoring, to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, perform eight hours of community service, to pay court costs and restitution in the amount of $574 to the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN).

Restitution–of course! ACORN is the victim here. And we’re all glad to hear this:

Krista Holub, ACORN Political Operations in Philadelphia, said in a prepared release that ACORN is satisfied with the outcome of the case.

Well, I guess she should be! Is there no shame??

I borrowed a copy of Bill Ayers’ Teaching Towards Freedom expecting to find the tactical manual of a battle-hardened revolutionary. It is no such thing. It is a wordy, though literate, ramble espousing the nostrums which have floated through Colleges of Education for four or five decades now, and have already done so much damage: we must encourage an atmosphere of freedom in our schools, students and teachers really teach each other, we mustn’t have arbitrary rules, standardized testing serves the State, etc., etc. Your junior high school teacher has already heard this stuff–she’s not scared of it. People who watch Oprah love and believe it. They won’t be scared of “Uncle” Bill Ayers–who appears on the inside back jacket with a Mr. Rodgers expression on his face.

Bill Ayers is not a revolutionary– he is a sentimental naif. He hasn’t had a new thought since college. Of course, in the history of revolution, sentimental, literate naifs (like Che, Mao) often become the bloodiest of killers.

Ayers was a failure as a revolutionary, but his protege stands on the threshold of power. Don your cardigans, my fellow Americans, and turn down your thermostats. Buy gold, and call the troops home: a dark night is coming.

Then– SARAH 2012!