Another leak

Extraordinary news in The New York Times: “Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach.” The former leader is the Reverend Rob Schenck, who has modified his view of abortion and is now, the Times says, redefining himself as “a progressive evangelical leader”:

In early June 2014, an Ohio couple who were Mr. Schenck’s star donors shared a meal with Justice [Samuel] Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann. A day later, Gayle Wright, one of the pair, contacted Mr. Schenck, according to an email reviewed by The Times. “Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails,” she wrote.

Mr. Schenck said Mrs. Wright told him that the decision would be favorable to Hobby Lobby, and that Justice Alito had written the majority opinion. Three weeks later, that’s exactly what happened. The court ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance covering contraception violated their religious freedoms. The decision would have major implications for birth control access, President Barack Obama’s new health care law and corporations’ ability to claim religious rights.

Matthew Butterick, who made a brilliant analysis of the leaked PDF of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft decision, has commented on Alito’s denial. From the Times:

Justice Alito, in a statement issued through the court’s spokeswoman, denied disclosing the decision. He said that he and his wife shared a “casual and purely social relationship” with the Wrights, and did not dispute that the two couples ate together on June 3, 2014. But the justice said that the “allegation that the Wrights were told the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or the authorship of the opinion of the Court, by me or my wife, is completely false.”

And Butterick:

Unfortunately, this is the kind of denial that raises more questions than it answers due to the deliberately narrow phrase “were told”. The denial would remain true even if, say, Ms. Alito had put a copy of the draft opinion on the table, allowed Ms. Wright to look it over, and then taken it back — no “telling”, just showing.

You can read Butterick’s analysis on the PDF and his comments on the Schenck story here.

I am moved to poetry:

Did Samuel Alito
Think it was neato
To spill SCOTUS beans in advance?

He’s gotta deny it,
And say he kept quiet,
But what’s that I smell? Burning pants.

[Note: I am not saying that Alito is not telling the truth.]

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell. I think it’s on the easy side, with the right half being more immediately doable than the left. I started with — gulp — the fifteen-letter answer for 17-A, “Not before that specific moment.” That feels like a gimme to me. Was it meant to be?

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

4-D, thirteen letters, “Infomercial order.” I have watched many an infomercial for sick fun. (The Magic Bullet is our fambly’s favorite.) But this answer doesn’t ring true to me.

7-D, three letters, “Protective layer.” Short and sweet.

10-D, eleven letters, “Excursions with escorts.” Not that kind of escort. This answer fills me with nostalgia.

12-D, six letters, “Reached out electronically.” I haven’t thought it this verb in years.

20-A, six letters, “Word from Malay for “sheath.’” Lifelong learning!

23-D, eleven letters, “Unimaginative.” I think the humdrum answer is a meta joke.

29-D, four letters, “Start to trust.” Clever.

40-A, six letters, “Start back.” The kind of answer that I second-guess even when I’m sure it must be right.

44-D, six letters, “‘Stupidity is a ____ for misconception’: Poe.” Yep, investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop. That’s what the voters want you to do.

56-A, fifteen letters, “Turnoff before checking in.” I kept thinking about interstate exits.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

FTX fortunes

Many months ago our favorite restaurant (Thai) began handing out fortune cookies with FTX advertising on one side. Tonight’s fortune, or observation: “Sometimes it’s hard to imagine life before this.”

I wonder how long it’ll be before these fortunes disappear.

A letter to Dr. Laura Schlessinger

From Letters of Note, a letter from Kent Ashcraft, a musician, with some hilarious questions for Dr. Laura Schlessinger about biblical do s and don’t s. Here’s one question:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Leviticus 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

Context, from Wikipedia:

Over the years, Schlessinger expressed opposition to homosexuality based on biblical scripture, at one point referring to homosexual behavior as “products of a biological disorder.” Her rhetoric eventually prompted an open letter penned in the year 2000 responding to her position that used text of Bible decrees.

I can think of at least one congressional representative to whom I’d like to send this letter, Illinois’s own Mary Miller. She’s already ranting about the Respect for Marriage Act, which she calls the “Anti-Marriage Act.”

[Whatever became of Laura Schlessinger? She’s on satellite radio. And she really has a doctorate, in physiology, from Columbia University. Holy smokes! No pun on the burning bull.]

Recently updated

Words of the year Now with homer.

Today’s Zippy ’s yesterday

“How much time do we spend remembering the past?” Today’s Zippy is one for the ages.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)

[Here’s why I added 12ft.io to the link.]

Walking blues

At the MIT Press Reader, Telmo Pievani, professor of biology, writes about “Bipedalism and Other Tales of Evolutionary Oddities”:

Archaeologist André Leroi-Gourhan was right in saying that the history of humanity began with good feet, before great brains. But it was an ordeal, particularly in the beginning.

Thank you

“Do thank-you notes still matter?” The New York Times says “Yes.”

Another Mary Miller vote

I should no longer be surprised that “my” representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, IL-15), takes the wrong position on everything. But I’m still sometimes surprised. She just voted against S. 4524, the Speak Out Act,

a bill to limit the judicial enforceability of predispute nondisclosure and nondisparagement contract clauses relating to disputes involving sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Voting yea: 215 Democrats and 100 Republicans. Voting nay: 109 Republicans. Not voting: 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans.

There’s something about Mary.

In better news, the Respect for Marriage Act is is on its way to becoming law.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

MSNBC, sheesh

A few minutes ago the chyron announced “humanity’s return to the moon.” It was smart to avoid man. But consider: other than human beings, who would be in a position to go back?

“A return to the moon” would be better.

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)