Just about the last news I personally needed, as daughter Bun gets ready for her first solo air trip; an Air France jet is feared lost at sea, possibly due to a lightning strike:

An Air France passenger jet traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared after its electrical systems malfunctioned during a storm with heavy turbulence on Sunday evening, and officials said Monday that a search had begun for the wreckage near a small archipelago off the Brazilian coast.

Prayers, hopes and wishes, karmic imprecations, or pleas to the implacable laws of physics as your worldview may dictate for (one hopes) the passengers and (one fears) their families.

Read over the weekend at a local anonymous leftyblog, essentially labelling any criticism of Sonia Sotomayor as one form of “racism” or another:

But you know what? Count me among those who think that she is a bit better than the white men out there calling her unintelligent, lazy, fat, unqualified, racist, an irresponsible spender, ugly, and arrogant.

I’d be the first of those links.  You’ll note that in no way do I call Judge Sotomayor unintelligent – anywhere, at all, much less in the piece linked above – but merely point out some commentary wondering she’s a bit of a professional lightweight for the highest court in the land.

Of course, as we’ve discovered in the past four months, dissent and skepticism about government is not the highest form of patriotism after all, but in fact one form depravity or another, whichever is convenient.

But as we’ve seen, in this anonyblogger’s post as well as some of the comments in my post, Sotomayor is serving the only purposes Obama really has for her nomination; to serve as a sop to female and Hispanic voters, and give the left a shrieking point, an ugly strawman to use to demonize dissent.  Just like with Obama himself.

Oh, yeah:

*Title stolen (and modified) from Anonymous Liberal

Well, that doesn’t narrow things down much, does it?

Let’s go through Sonia Sotomayor’s purported qualifications for being on the Supreme Court:

• She grew up in a Bronx public housing project without a father: Well, that’s interesting, but hardly unique, and not much of a qualification in and of itself for anything, now, is it?  If the point is “she rose above all that” – again, good.  She set a great example.  Cue the applause.  But again, it’s hardly unique, even on the Supreme Court.
• She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton: Which shows that she played the paper chase from an early age.  A perfectly fine thing – but the only thing it really tells us about her, or anyone, is that she had a jones for getting grades early in life.  Which is fine, but again, merely a sign of what she was like in her late teens and early twenties.
• Edited the Yale Law Review: This is one of those things that makes lawyers all tingly.  It means she could write and edit coherently and brown-nose fluently, as near as I can tell. What does it mean to one’s skill as a jurist, as opposed to “law student?”
• First Latina appointed to a Federal court in New York: So are we to believe that being Hispanic is an obstacle when combined with being a Yale Law grad?
• Bipartisan Support!  Appointed by Bush I, promoted by Clinton!: Well, that’s half right.  George HW Bush may have been a Republican, but he was no conservative. He also appointed Justice Souter, for crying out loud; he was obviously pretty clueless about judges.
• First Latina SCOTUS nominee: So we year.  It’s been in all the papers.

So is that, alone, supposed to tell all of us dissenters to just sit down and shut up about the rulings she’s made to which we object?  Do we peasants get to exercise our First Amendment rights, still?

Remember when Robert Bork’s allegedly imperious nature became an issue during his confirmation debacle?  When his “un-judicial temperament” was suddenly an issue on which the Republican would rise or fall?

Say hello to Sonia Sotomayor – imperious harpy in a fancy robe:

Although the same lawyers who chastised her temperament gave her high marks on her legal abilities, Judge Sotomayor was the only member of the 2nd Circuit to receive a universally negative review of her temperament.

“She really lacks judicial temperament. She behaves in an out-of-control manner. She makes inappropriate outbursts,” one lawyer told the almanac. Another said she “abuses lawyers.”

While in most circumstances abusing lawyers is an objectively good thing, it seems an odd trait for a SCOTUS judge…

Have you ever wondered what it felt like getting your skin peeled off you body in one long painful strip – rhetorically speaking?

Just try and pin yesterday morning’s tragic, stupid murder of an abortion doctor on all of conservatism using your usual, predictable, deeply-stupid, slack-jawed, straight-from-Media-Matters talking points.

Again – speaking rhetorically.

Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher.

I join with every credible conservative in condemning this sort of violence. The anti-infanticide movement is winning this fight without the need for violence;  indeed, these stupid, violent atrocities benefit the pro-infanticide crowd; as long as they can keep the people and the media focused on their own victimhood, then the focus is off the real victims, America’s “tissue masses”.

So think carefully, lefties.

Long, thin strips.

Again – speaking purely rhetorically.

…that a wise young Latina would  write a better set of observations about Sotomayor than some yapping liberal cracker would.

In this case, Laura Elizabeth Morales:

As a Hispanic girl, I think it’s awesome that we are finally breaking the barriers whether it is in Congress, in movies, in music or in the judicial system…but, too quickly we rally our support behind ANY fellow Hispanic, merely because they share in our background, our struggle and our story.

I don’t want the debate on Sotomayor to focus on her background, her empathy or her story. Her comments and her record prove that she has poor judgment when it comes to her rulings and she is a judicial activist. That is all.

Silly Ms. Morales.  It’s only not racist if you agree with them!