There is a famous scene in Annie Hall in which Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are on movie line, and a guy in back of them is pontificating endlessly about Fellini and Beckett. Allen is getting more and more annoyed by the pretentious guy and finally, when the guy starts talking about Marshall McLuhan, Allen steps out of the frame and confronts the guy with the actual Marshall McLuan, who tells the pretentious fop, "You know nothing about my work." Allen then says, "Wouldn't it be great if life were really like this?"
Update: (Embedded YouTube below in comment by Glower)
Today, Sonia Sotomayor had an actual Allen/McLuhan moment. Senator Jeff Sessions (Pompous racist, Ala.) contrasted Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remark with NY Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, whom he said "believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices."
Apparently unbeknownst to Sesssions, Judge Cedarbaum was at the hearing. Judge Sotomayor replied:
My friend Judge Cedarbaum is here," Sotomayor riposted, to Sessions's apparent surprise. "We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts."
And to add the final McLuhanesqe/Allen touch, Cedarbaum herself said to the WSJ:
I don't believe for a minute that there are any differences in our approach to judging, and her personal predilections have no affect on her approach to judging," she told the Wall Street Journal this morning.
I mean Wow! Life imitates art imitates life, or something.
If Sessions had any self-respect, he would slink back to a swamp in Alabama for awhile.
(H/T Washington Monthly, Steve Benen)
(Thanks for the Rec, guys.)
Update II: Holy Crap. Keith Olbermann just quoted me: "As perfectly analogized by blogger Upper West on the Daily Kos site. . . ." I am snarkless and blogfounded!
