General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Scalia refused to read the NY Times or the Washington Post. [View all]JHB
(37,157 posts)Most knowledgable sources credit Scalia with a sharp, brilliant mind, but that -- like a computer -- is a tool. A tool that needs certain things for its calculations to be meaningful: accurate data.
One of the oldest adages in computing is "garbage in, garbage out". No matter how quickly and complexly it crunches numbers, if those numbers aren't in line with reality then the computer is going to spit out the wrong answer. A fiction. A fiction that can be all the worse from haing the imprimatur of authority. "We ran the numbers, and they told us..."
Even putting the best "talk civilly to a conservative relative" face on it, Scalia's getting his news from the MoonieTimes and other sources squarely within the "conservative media" bubble is damnably lazy. Given the attitude he displayed over the years, that sort of cheap, comfy-cozy ensconsement came easily to him. But it was not and can't ever be considered an admirable quality in a Supreme Court Justice. Justice is supposed to be blind, but it's rare when Justices so blatantly wear blinders.
Of course, for those of us outside that festering bubble, it's all the more reason to consider Tony's decisions to be partisan activism, nothing that should be taken as precedent.