There you have it

So, to sum up the upshot of the last week's events....

Conventional wisdom will hold that the immigration reform bill failed because it was too lenient, despite the fact that plenty of people (like me) objected that it was too harsh. So because the immigrant-bashers won the media war, the next effort at immigration reform will start with a default presumption that it has to be more bad-assed, not more humane. Sigh. But there WILL be another effort, so it's still worth writing your elected officials to tell them what you think.

And, apparently racial segregation is just fine so long as it doesn't result from policy with an explicit goal of separate but equal. Racial segregation that is an inadvertent side effect, or that results from an intentional but unstated policy designed to keep races apart - that's just fine. And in one of the most cynical and jaw-dropping distortions of all time, we're going to justify that approach by quoting Brown v. Board! Thurgood Marshall must be absolutely spinning in his grave.

Meanwhile, the vice president of the United States would seem to invoke quantum theory in declaring that he is both a member of the executive branch and the legislative branch. But unlike light, which behaves as both a particle and a wave, the vice president does not have to comply with the expected behavior of either branch of government! What can you expect, really, from an administration that is so scientifically illiterate.

Lastly, the president of the United States will attempt to patch up a shaky diplomatic relationship by inviting a foreign head of state for a play date supervised by Dad.