Infinite MonkeysToday's OpinionJournal Political Diary (Best of the Web Today is on hiatus this week) really disturbed me. Reading a supposedly "brilliant" Supreme Court justice babble on about Jack Bauer as if he was a real person saving real lives, and then justifying indefinite detention at Gitmo based on this show, made that constant lump at the pit of my libertarian stomach double in size.
Posted by RobbL at June 27, 2007 11:59 AMCome on, Robb, Scalia was clearly joking around. Do you really think he believes the show is real?
Someone is delusional, all right.
Posted by: Monkey David at June 27, 2007 08:52 PMNo, I don't really think he believes the show is real. However, he was making an actual policy point based on the theoretical world of 24. And the final quote, directed specifically toward the possibility that potentially innocent people could be being held indefinitely at Gitmo was particularly disturbing:
"I don't care about holding people. I really don't."
Not good. And John Fund's delight in Scalia's "jokes" was not particularly encouraging either.
Posted by: Monkey RobbL at June 28, 2007 09:33 AMOK, then. You can disagree with his conclusions. But legal thought is based on debating hypotheticals, and while it's hard to imagine something as wildly hypothetical as "24," it's a legitimate topic of discussion (especially for a sitting justice, who shouldn't be discussing actual cases).
Posted by: Monkey David at June 28, 2007 03:23 PM