A month or so back via my connections  in the nefarious literary underground I was offered a pre-publication copy of the first Lady Gaga biography, Behind the Fame by Emily Herbert. Not the kind of thing I usually read I must admit, but that’s why I wanted to read it, because there was no reason to read it. Follow me? No, I’m not sure if I do either.  Let me add that I’m not remotely interested in Lady Gaga, but that only increased my desire to read about her. I’d heard a few of her tracks, and they were better than average electronic dance music, with a few clever/provocative lyrics. Well not really clever, just cleverer than average. So really here was a phenomenon that I just couldn’t understand. Why did anybody care? What was all the fuss about? Perhaps the book would help me find out. Not that I cared, of course. 

Well, the book got off to a good start, sort of. Cunningly written in the style of a high school project, every sentence contained multiple clichés (“In the heyday of the 1980s, before it all came crashing down a few years later, it was a joy to be alive’); nevertheless, thanks to Ms. Herbert I rapidly learned some things I had not hitherto known such as: 

1) Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Germanotta. 

And 

2) She attended the same elite Catholic school as Paris Hilton. (more…)

Alright, let’s see a show of hands, how many of you think that Sonia Sotomayor got nominated for the big job because she is, hands down without a doubt, the best qualified judge in America. Exactly! If our friends on the left are honest we can all agree that there are three reasons she got the nod: she is liberal, she is Hispanic, and she is a woman.

Is there any clear thinking conservative out there who thought that President Obama might actually try to fill this job opening that has the best benefits package in history with someone who might be, in some small way, acceptable to the right? This is the one appointment that cannot have any concession to conservatives. You can dislike Judge Sotomayor for her racial comments, that’s fair. You can look at her troubling record and the number of times she has been overturned on appeal and question her legal acumen. However, no intellectually honest conservative or liberal can deny that judges make policy and law in this country. Starting with the guy who takes your donations to local government for speeding right up to the First Street Nine, judges have the final word. In the game we like to call America, judges have all the marbles. Justice may be blind but she has a big mouth and when she speaks you must listen. (more…)