Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich was formally sworn in by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts in a ceremony on December 20 at the White House. The event was attended by the Ambassador’s family, government officials and Elizabeth Ward, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Australian Embassy in Washington. Ambassador Bleich and Justice Roberts worked together as clerks for the former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Note that he had his SFRC hearing on November 5, and five days later, the Senate discharged from further consideration and confirmed his nomination by unanimous consent.

Interrobang

While we’re talking about deforming the discourse, could people please stop interpreting “lame” as though it’s a slur on handicapped people? If that’s so, I should have felt offended every time my horse threw a shoe. Also, if you actually are handicapped, and you somehow have a problem with legitimate uses of the word “lame,” you need to stand the fuck down already.

And can we please stop using disabled as a euphemism for “handicapped”? I’m not shut down, I’m slowed down. I also don’t mind being in the same rhetorical class as golfers, Go and chess players, racing sailors, and polo players. God, what a horrible, dehumanising thing! Everyone be sure to be offended on behalf of elite athletes everywhere, now…

Calling me “special needs” would be an insult (since aside from some fairly common peculiarities of diet, I have none), and I fucking hate the term anyway; there’s something overly precious about the term “special” as it’s used today that grates to no end. It reminds me entirely too much of the species of benevolent idiot one runs into far too often if one is handicapped—the “fixer,” who wants to make everything all better but is too stupid and clueless to do anything but make everything much worse...