Talks So Hip...

The lefty blogosphere buzzes with horror, and in some cases a little delight (true colors and all that), over what Sen. John Cornyn said on the Senate floor yesterday. Then there's the video. A supposedly conservative United States Senator offering a lamely emotional excuse for violent behavior? ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME? Where's the personal responsibility? In the conservative view, poverty is no excuse for crime. But in Cornyn's view, perceiving psychic warfare perptrated by the courts offers a perfect excuse. This is a truly slippery slope; Cornyn is offering us a new form of "god of the gaps" argument. Did a man pick up a gun and shoot a judge because he's a nut with no respect for the law? No, it was all that Judicial Activism.

Does Cornyn realize he's just created a whole new category of temporary insanity plea? "Well, you know, the guy cut me off on the Beltway, and I got a little upset, and then I started thinking about all that Judicial Activism, so I pulled out my pistol and started firing at his car." I just hope that when they finally get around to adding the "Temporary Insanity Due to Judicial Activism" plea, they also create the "Temporary Insanity Due to Executive Over-reach" plea. Gotta stay fair and balanced after all.