Top Chef Speculation

Are we being set up for an Ed victory? I only started watching the show last season, and I don’t watch reality shows in general, so I don’t claim to have any particular insight as to how these things are edited. But: They do seem to be flogging his supposed romance/flirtation/whatever with Tiffany; They spent an awful lot of time on the “pea puree” controversy; and Generally speaking he seems to be getting screen time far in excess of his apparent merit or personality. It’s not at all clear to me why they would be doing this except to try to force us to have an opinion — any opinion whatsoever, really (see #3 above) — of Ed as a contestant and potential winner.

Prop 8: Standing, Intervention, and the “Case or Controversy” Clau-ZZZZZZZ

This post responds to some questions sent in by a couple of people following up on my previous Prop 8 post. So here are 1400+ more words about standing, intervention, and the “case or controversy” clau–hey, where’d everyone go?

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

[Updated] So today, the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Walker’s stay ruling, meaning that Prop 8 will remain on the books pending the Ninth Circuit’s decision on the merits appeal.  This seems like a decent excuse to dust the blog off and try to explain (in slightly more than 140 characters) the standing issue in a bit more detail.