Obituaries for 2020

[PeteS in CA]

Some snippets from Crouch:

STANLEY CROUCH TOLD IT LIKE IT IS

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/stanley-crouch-told-it-like-it-is.php

Stanley Crouch died yesterday at the age of 74. Crouch is best known as a great jazz critic. His biography of Charlie Parker is a classic.

But Crouch was also a literary critic and a critic of our culture. Here are some gems from his criticism:

On rap: It is “either infantile self-celebration or anarchic glamorization of criminal behavior.”
...
On Spike Lee: He’s “a middle-class would-be street Negro,” whose films reflected “fantasy” versions of Black communities and “the fundamental shallowness that you get from a propagandist.”
...
On the civil rights movement: It aspired to a “complex vision of universal humanism” and cultural understanding before it was “hijacked by radicals.”

On Louis Farrakhan: He’s “our most highly respected racist and all-purpose lunatic.”

[sneakypete]

Some snippets from Crouch:

STANLEY CROUCH TOLD IT LIKE IT IS

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/stanley-crouch-told-it-like-it-is.php

@PeteS in CA

He clearly didn't have any wool pulled over his eyes,and didn't give a damn about being "black politically correct".

[mountaineer]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly has died.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Liberal Voice on Supreme Court, Dies at 87
Second woman to sit on the top U.S. court spent her last years on the bench pushing back against an emboldened conservative majority
Updated Sept. 18, 2020 7:53 pm ET


Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneering figure in the fight for women’s legal equality and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died on Friday at the age of 87.

As the most senior member of the high court’s liberal bloc, the 1993 Clinton appointee spent her last years on the bench pushing back against an emboldened conservative majority, sometimes winning surprise victories or mitigating expected defeats by peeling off a vote from Chief Justice John Roberts or former Justice Anthony Kennedy. ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies-11600472623?mod=e2tw&tesla=y

[mountaineer]

(CNN)Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer, the court announced. She was 87.

Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and in recent years served as the most senior member of the court's liberal wing consistently delivering progressive votes on the most divisive social issues of the day, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage, voting rights, immigration, health care and affirmative action.

Along the way, she developed a rock star type status and was dubbed the "Notorious R.B.G." In speaking events across the country before liberal audiences, she was greeted with standing ovations as she spoke about her view of the law, her famed exercise routine and her often fiery dissents.

"Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her -- a tireless and resolute champion of justice."

Ginsburg died surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C., the court said. A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery. ... CNN

[sneakypete]

Good riddance to bad trash.

Now they are going to bury that evil bitch in Arlington National Ceremony. I guess it is her last chance to pollute America.


 

[mountaineer]

She was a friend of Scalia.
Don't let it be said I never had anything nice to say about her.

Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."
7:36 PM · Sep 18, 2020·

The Constitution notwithstanding? Replace her now.

[skeeter]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly has died.https://www.wsj.com/articles/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies-11600472623?mod=e2tw&tesla=y

She finally gets to meet all of the innocent souls she consigned to death by her obscene allegiance to the leftist sacrament of abortion.

[Applewood]

Rest in peace, Justice Ginsburg.

[SZonian]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly has died.https://www.wsj.com/articles/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies-11600472623?mod=e2tw&tesla=y

"I've never wished a man(person) dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Mark Twain

[Gefn]

Rest in peace, Justice Ginsburg.

I agree. RIP

[jmyrlefuller]

Though I disagree with her, I will not rejoice in her death, knowing how many times "conservatives" have disappointed us when appointed to the high court. It's simply bad karma.

Her passing was expected—unlike Scalia's... ahem.

[EasyAce]

When push came to shove, Justice Ginsburg stood for the integrity of the judiciary above anything including politics---she slapped down 2019 Democrats' thoughts about Supreme Court packing: If anything would make the Court look partisan, it would be that—one side saying, 'When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.'

Wrote Damon Root (in the article from which I just extracted Ginsburg's remark during a radio interview), author of one of the best contemporary analyses of the Supreme Court I've read in the past ten years . . .

Ginsburg also knows her history. Roosevelt's court-packing scheme was defeated in 1937 in large part thanks to the principled opposition of members of Roosevelt's own party. In fact, one of Ginsburg's judicial heroes, the progressive legal icon Justice Louis Brandeis (appointed by a Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson), helped to lead that opposition.

Brandeis was mostly in sync with the goals of Roosevelt's New Deal. But the progressive jurist was deeply offended by Roosevelt's desire to interfere with a co-equal branch of government. So, working mostly behind the scenes, Brandeis went on the counterattack. Perhaps his most important move was to put the court-packing plan's chief congressional critic, Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D–Mont.), in touch with Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who had drafted a memo, signed by several justices, which made it clear that the Court not only opposed the president's power grab but also rejected Roosevelt's stated justifications as a self-serving sham. Wheeler unveiled that memo in the Senate to great political effect, and Roosevelt's scheme died a well-deserved death shortly after that.

Ginsburg is now following in Brandeis' admirable footsteps . . .

She deserves plentiful criticism for several opinions and stances on issues before the Court in her time. But she deserves nothing but credit and praise for a stance like that.

RIP Madame Justice.

[EasyAce]

"I've never wished a man(person) dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Mark Twain

@SZonian
It wasn't Twain who said it---it was, ironically (considering his legend in the legal world), Clarence Darrow. And this turns out to be the actual, full remark:

All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

Somehow, some way, the full quote became a kind of telephone-game-like victim. You know, where one person tells it to the person right next to him (or her), the next passes it on, and by the time it returns to the originator it's either bowdlerised or something completely different---often as not having nothing to do with the original.

[verga]

When push came to shove, Justice Ginsburg stood for the integrity of the judiciary above anything including politics---she slapped down 2019 Democrats' thoughts about Supreme Court packing: If anything would make the Court look partisan, it would be that—one side saying, 'When we're in power, we're going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to.'

Wrote Damon Root (in the article from which I just extracted Ginsburg's remark during a radio interview), author of one of the best contemporary analyses of the Supreme Court I've read in the past ten years . . .

Ginsburg also knows her history. Roosevelt's court-packing scheme was defeated in 1937 in large part thanks to the principled opposition of members of Roosevelt's own party. In fact, one of Ginsburg's judicial heroes, the progressive legal icon Justice Louis Brandeis (appointed by a Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson), helped to lead that opposition.

Brandeis was mostly in sync with the goals of Roosevelt's New Deal. But the progressive jurist was deeply offended by Roosevelt's desire to interfere with a co-equal branch of government. So, working mostly behind the scenes, Brandeis went on the counterattack. Perhaps his most important move was to put the court-packing plan's chief congressional critic, Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D–Mont.), in touch with Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who had drafted a memo, signed by several justices, which made it clear that the Court not only opposed the president's power grab but also rejected Roosevelt's stated justifications as a self-serving sham. Wheeler unveiled that memo in the Senate to great political effect, and Roosevelt's scheme died a well-deserved death shortly after that.

Ginsburg is now following in Brandeis' admirable footsteps . . .

She deserves plentiful criticism for several opinions and stances on issues before the Court in her time. But she deserves nothing but credit and praise for a stance like that.

RIP Madame Justice.

Agree wholeheartedly.

[Elderberry]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, feminist pioneer and progressive icon, dies at 87

SCOTUSblog by Amy Howe

https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/09/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-feminist-pioneer-and-progressive-icon-dies-at-87/#more-296152

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer who fought for gender equality as a lawyer and became a beloved hero of the progressive movement as a justice, died on Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer. When she was confirmed to the court in 1993, Ginsburg was a reserved and relatively unknown court of appeals judge, but during the course of her 27 years on the court she became an improbable pop-culture icon, inspiring everything from an Oscar-nominated documentary film to her own action figure. She was 87.

With the presidential election less than two months away, Ginsburg’s death will undoubtedly kick off a heated battle over how quickly the vacancy should be filled. After Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Senate Republicans immediately announced that they intended to oppose any effort to confirm a successor to Scalia until after the 2016 presidential election. Although President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland in March 2016 to take Scalia’s place, Garland’s nomination went nowhere, and Neil Gorsuch, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit nominated by President Donald Trump, was confirmed in April 2017 to fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death. Even before Ginsburg announced her most recent bouts with cancer this summer, McConnell had already made clear last year that, if a vacancy occurred on the court in 2020, he intended to fill it.

At her Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Ginsburg told the Senate Judiciary Committee that her life story “could happen only in America.” Born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933, she was quickly nicknamed “Kiki” by her older sister Marilyn, who died in 1934 of meningitis at the age of six. The Baders lived in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Neither of her parents attended college: Her father, Nathan, came to the United States from Russia as a teenager and worked as a furrier; her mother, Celia Amster Bader, was born a few months after her parents arrived in the country from Austria and worked in a garment factory to put her brother through college. Ginsburg later said that her mother “made reading a delight and counseled me constantly to ‘be independent,’ able to fend for myself.” The Baders were Jewish, and Ginsburg recalled, as a child, seeing a sign in front of a Pennsylvania resort that said “No dogs or Jews allowed.”

Ginsburg attended public schools in Brooklyn, where she was a top student involved in a wide range of extracurricular activities – everything from playing the cello in the school orchestra to twirling a baton at football games. But she did not attend her high school graduation in June 1950. Her mother, who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer right around the time that Ginsburg began ninth grade, died two days before the ceremony.

Ginsburg received a full scholarship to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where her professors included Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian-born author who would publish the classic novel Lolita in 1955. Nabokov, Ginsburg would say later, “changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him.” Another influential professor, Robert Cushman, a constitutional scholar, encouraged her to go to law school.

Soon after arriving at Cornell, she met Martin (Marty) Ginsburg on a blind date. Marty Ginsburg was, Ginsburg said, “the first boy I knew who cared that I had a brain.” She would describe him as “a partner truly extraordinary for his generation, a man who believed at age 18 when we met, and who believes today, that a woman’s work, whether at home or on the job, is as important as a man’s.” She married Marty in 1954, nine days after graduating from Cornell with the highest grade-point average for female students in her class.

Ginsburg gave birth to her daughter, Jane, in July 1955, 14 months before starting at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine women in a class of approximately 500. The Ginsburgs hired a caregiver to look after Jane on weekdays from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.; Ginsburg would spend the late afternoon and early evening with Jane and then resume studying after her daughter went to bed.

At her confirmation hearing, Ginsburg recounted “many indignities” that she endured because of her gender while in law school but that, she said, “one accepted as just part of the scenery,” such as the time that a male employee told her that women were barred from a particular room in the library, which she needed to enter as part of her work for the law review. On another occasion, a dinner with the dean of the law school, Ginsburg and the other women in her class were famously asked to justify taking the place of a man.

More at link.

[Smokin Joe]

She was a friend of Scalia.
Don't let it be said I never had anything nice to say about her.
The Constitution notwithstanding? Replace her now.

She never let the Constitution bother her before..

[catfish1957]

She was the best friend of the pro-choice faction in the entire U.S.  I'll just leave it at that.

[Free Vulcan]

Wow. This is gonna throw a fuel tanker worth of gas on an already hot election.

I've said it here I have no sympathy for those who cling to power for political purpose long past the time they should have left.

RBG fits square in that category. It's obviously she's been going rapidly downhill for a year at least.

I'll save my sympathies for the family.

[SZonian]

@SZonian
It wasn't Twain who said it---it was, ironically (considering his legend in the legal world), Clarence Darrow. And this turns out to be the actual, full remark:

All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

Somehow, some way, the full quote became a kind of telephone-game-like victim. You know, where one person tells it to the person right next to him (or her), the next passes it on, and by the time it returns to the originator it's either bowdlerised or something completely different---often as not having nothing to do with the original.

Thanks for that @EasyAce, much appreciated.   

[Gefn]

Lee Kerslake: Former Ozzy Osbourne and Uriah Heep drummer dies aged 73

Ozzy Osbourne's former drummer, Lee Kerslake, has died aged 73.

The musician had been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

He is best known for his performances on the Black Sabbath frontman's critically-acclaimed debut album, Blizzard of Ozz, and was also the drummer in heavy metal band Uriah Heep.

Osbourne wrote on Facebook: "It's been 39 years since I've seen Lee but he lives for ever on the records he played on for me."

In a tribute posted on the band's Twitter page, fellow Uriah Heep member Mick Box wrote: "Lee was one of the kindest men on earth, as well as being a brother he was an incredible drummer, singer and song writer!

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54225774

@EasyAce
@Sighlass

[Fishrrman]

Not an obituary from today, but a death from September 20, 1973.
Jim Croce:
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Jim didn't write "I Got A Name" -- it was the theme song from the wonderful film "The Last American Hero" (later renamed to "Hard Driver") -- but it's my favorite from him.

I had seen him play only a month earlier at the 1973 Philly Folk Festival.
Hard to believe it was almost 50 years ago...

[Gefn]

@Fishrrman

Now I think we all feel old. What a talent.

[Smokin Joe]

@Fishrrman

Now I think we all feel old. What a talent.

Aged. Time in a Bottle and Operator were favorites, too.

[Gefn]

Aged. Time in a Bottle and Operator were favorites, too.

And Leroy Brown. Sad he was only 30. Way too young. 

[roamer_1]

His little known and underappreciated 'Rapid Roy the Stock Car Boy'.... There ain't hardly a Croce song out there that I don't know by heart...