"I constantly hear Gregorian chants. That's the noise... I always think I'm in touch with God."

Says Rush Limbaugh.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg takes the nonpartisan election in a strongly partisan direction.

At a forum at the Waukesha County Courthouse last night:

“Justice Prosser has sent a clear message that he will favor the agenda of Gov. (Scott) Walker and the Republican Legislature,” Kloppenburg said. “I will apply the law to the facts of the cases before me and decide them without prejudice.”

What is her basis for attributing a "clear message" like that to Prosser? If she doesn't have a solid basis for that statement — and I can't see what it is — how is that supposed to jibe with her self-image as a dutiful applicant of law to fact?

ADDED: The Isthmus columnist Bill Lueders, who is quite openly liberal, can't see fit to disrespect the venerable Prosser:

David Prosser tells a story of how he intervened to protect the state Capitol's custodial staff. It happened during the week of Feb. 20, when the building was packed with people protesting Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union agenda....

"I think you need earplugs... I went down to the police and said, 'You have got to give custodians at least the opportunity to wear earplugs.' It was done within the hour."

... [That] was one of the only times in a 90-minute interview... that Prosser was willing to stake out a position — it's too loud — on issues almost everyone else is taking sides on...

"Two weeks ago, Prosser looked like he had a commanding lead," reflects Mike McCabe of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. "Now this race has been made into a referendum on Scott Walker."

Well, it's not a referendum on Scott Walker, and anyone who says it is either wants to confuse people or to undermine the role of the judiciary in a democracy.

"I'm running to restore people's confidence," [says Kloppenburg.] "I will preserve the role of the court as a coequal and independent branch of government that serves as a check and balance on overreaching by the executive and legislative branches." She adds, "What's happened in the last three weeks has brought that home."

Does that mean Kloppenburg thinks there has been overreaching by the governor and Legislature? Here she hits the brakes.

"I think, ah...." Ten-second pause. "That can't be determined yet. We don't know if there's overreaching until you have a law, and there has been no law."

Ten-second pause. Thanks to Lueders for revealing that.

I hate music.

I'm in a forced music environment that has pushed me over the limit where that is what I end up thinking. If I were given a choice right now between continuing to hear music normally and being able to switch off my hearing of all music for the rest of my life, I would choose the latter.

Ironically, the music that's playing is easy-listening pop, obviously intended to be utterly inoffensive. I am offended. I am offended by inoffensiveness... 

ADDED: Example of the type of thing I'm talking about: Belinda Carlisle, "I Get Weak." I get psychotic.

"He meets a deaf woman who loves music. Her hearing aid has broken. But she has good eyes and can read to him, but she slurs the words."

"It turns out that he plays the guitar, and she can hear it, a bit. Then in a final shocking twist, we learn that his middle name is 'Adam,' and her name is 'Eve.' Sadly, however, she is a robot."

That's Original George's entry in the "Time Enough At Last" challenge. The idea was to write a sequel to the famous "Twilight Zone" episode in which a man, Henry Bemis, who only wants to be left alone to read, is the sole survivor of a nuclear attack and then, with time enough at last to do all his reading, he breaks his glasses, without which he cannot read. So, what next?

Christy's entry is more "The Remake" than "The Sequel":

He is on the steps to the paperless Library circa 2020, picks up a Kindle and discovers the electromagnetic pulse has wiped all digital media clean.

Actually, the comments thread veered away from the challenge and into the philosophical inquiry: If there were no longer any possibility of interaction with human beings in real life, what books would be worth reading?

Anyway, I wrote the original post saying I'd reveal my sequel idea later, so here goes:

We see Henry agonizing over his broken glasses and suffering. He has to grope about in his near blindness, etc. etc. Eventually, he gropes his way into an eyeglass store. But all the glasses are melted from the nuclear blast. And the frames in an eyeglass store don't have prescription lenses anyway, Henry, you idiot. But there, under the counter there's a safe, blasted half open. Inside, there is a pair of glasses — thick glasses, like his old ones. We see through his eyes as he tries them on: The vision is clear. Henry is jubilant. He runs through the town back to his old stack of books on the library steps. He sits down, and, no sooner does he open up a book to read than the glasses fall off, hit the step, and break.