I situations like this, I am always reminded of a scene from R.L.Delderfield's _To Serve Them All My Days_. This British public school drama was adapted for television and became a 13-episode series on PBS' Masterpiece Theater during the 80s. I can't think of another time when I looked forward to a television show so eagerly (Hmmmm, I see it is on DVD, but not sure I'll part with $70...) The guy who played the main character Powlett-Jones did a great job.

A supporting character in the story is Howarth, a curmudgeonly teacher. Aside from the facts that I am not qualified to teach English and that I gave up cigarettes 26 years ago, I might very well consider Howarth my role model in life.

Anyhow, upon the occasion of the sudden -- Deus ex pectus -- death of the new South African Nazi headmaster Cordwailer, Powlett-Jones, Howarth and several junior teachers (who had previously bemoaned their oppression by Cordwailer) gather in the teacher's lounge...

The junior teachers all equivocate as to how it is a shame that Cordwailer died so young and all that -- "Poor man". Howarth offers something like "Well, at least he's gone" and the juniors react with indignant shock.

Now Howarth's retort -- and I won't get it exactly right -- was: "Why, I must say that it is the height of hypocrisy to say good things about someone simply because they are dead."

Words to live by, I say.

Anyhow, now we may unwittingly elevate Robert Bork to the court. But a younger, more handsome Bork.

I have to think how things might have gone if Rehnquist had simply managed to succumb at age 70. Mario Cuomo isn't handsome in a hunky, all-American way, but my sense is that he's a pretty nice guy.

Ah, well, I guess I am ready for life in the United States of Tight Assholes. How old is Orrin Hatch? He could serve on the court until, what, 2020?