43-44

It's no mystery around my corner of the internet that our current president wasn't my first choice in election '08. I supported his (just confirmed today!) choice for sec-of-state, but whatever...I'm totally on board. It will be fun watching (seemingly everybody and their brother) people soon realize that 44 is just another politician. I came to this realization once I read one of the New Yorker's bio pieces about Chicago's impact on 44's life. The extent of my inaugurational commentary is this: try to find Jon Stewart's joke about Cheney and the wheelchair -- hilarious!*

My own political impressions have been influenced lately by Jeffrey Toobin's book The Nine. In it, he tells the story of the Rehnquist court, which had the most stable tenure of any collection. Toobin writes of all the big cases: Roe v. Wade and its subsequent cases; Bush v. Gore; Hamdan v. Rumsfield; and many others...and he writes about them with a fluidity and ease that makes reading this book almost like reading a novel. Bush v. Gore is especially heartwrenching, for me, and it definitely takes a toll on the judges as well, or at least some of them.

Did you know that we had a Supreme Court justice named "Learned Hand?" Go figure...

I'm tearing through this book, so the big question is: what to read next? Do I go fiction or non-fiction? Do I read about food or the Middle East or John Adams? I'll open the floor for suggestions, but make sure you pick from my list.

* Other observations: wow, did you see 41 hobbling around the stage? Holy crap! Also, the oath of office was pretty hilarious: what, did neither of these guys look over all of three sentences they had to repeat? I did better at my wedding...