I was going to write an article on the latest Adam Carolla-themed flap. The essay probably would have spiraled into the usual verbose piece, touching on notions of free speech and whether our desire for an equality regime has gone so far as to obscure and suppress uncomfortable truths—even when delivered as humor.
But then J-L Cauvin wrote this, thus preemptively rendering obsolete anything that I would have to say about the topic.
I invite anyone who’s a fan of Carolla (as I am), or anyone who has a newfound (or longstanding) hate for the Aceman to read Cauvin’s article. In it, he brilliantly distills the two major questions related to this kerfuffle. Namely, whether what Carolla said had any merit, and, perhaps more to the point, what the “Carolla isn’t funny / Carolla is irrelevant” line of criticism actually says about those who lobbed it (Spoiler: He is both funny and relevant).
If you care at all about what happened this week, do yourself a favor and read Cauvin’s thoughts on the topic.
In closing, I’m going to post a video that immediately came to mind when I read the first wave of anti-Carolla articles online at outlets such as the Washington Post or Salon. The substance is certainly different, but a general point that the late, great Patrice O’Neal makes here is also relevant in this context. Enjoy.
Why? As with most things on the show, it’s not entirely clear, and it may never be. The most obvious explanation would be depression over Lane and, by extension, Adam. Don feels responsible for both suicides, and he receives no absolution even when he unilaterally decides to reimburse Lane’s widow with the $50,000 buy-in Lane provided to SCDP after Lucky Strike pulled out.
It’s safe to say that I’m a 
Yet, neither lost his appetite for the stage. In fact, they joined forces to play the characters in a two-man Broadway production of “A Steady Rain.” The play follows the complicated lives of two Chicago police officers. It received strong reviews upon its debut, broke the record for highest weekly gross by a non-musical, and drew interest from Steven Spielberg for a movie adaptation.
All of that remains to be seen. On the SitCombat front, the Office put together a strong episode that toppled 30 Rock from the perch upon which it sat for an unprecedented nine consecutive weeks. Will the Office be able to start a streak of its own by continuing with a strong final run of episodes? Or will 30 Rock return to form and reclaim the crown from its fellow NBC series?
Voters in North Carolina elevated the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to its constitution this week. The amendment also added a constitutional ban on civil unions or similar arrangements. The measure passed by a comfortable margin.
The Axis of Ego 
The Gathering Storm (Redux)
With
today’sThursday’s impending announcement of the result in the Affordable Care Act cases, I thought it appropriate to revisit this piece from a few months ago. No matter the outcome in the case (and the tea leaves seem to suggest that the law will be ruled unconstitutional), the reaction and coverage of same is likely to be oversimplified, overstated, and generally insufferable.One final thought: Remember that, if the Court rules against the law, the ACA must be struck down in its entirety due to a lack of a severability clause. In other words, whereas a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act may be ruled unconstitutional without killing the entire bill, the individual mandate being ruled unconstitutional here would serve as a judicial repeal of the entire ACA because of its lack of such a clause.
I’ve often wondered whether the decision to exclude a severability provision were a strategic one. Whether it were or not, just remember that the other provisions of the ACA would still be left standing in the face of a ruling on the individual mandate had the law been drafted with such a provision. I suspect that a ruling against the ACA will be met with subtle (or not-so-subtle) implications that striking down the entire law was an overreach by the Court, when, in fact, there was no discretion available on the point.
No matter what happens, partisans on one side or the other will insist that the sky is falling and the world as we know it has ended. This is not the case. More to the point, a ruling against the ACA will undoubtedly spawn a deluge of anti-judicial-activism retorts from people who adore judicial activism when it’s used in ways that help their ideological causes. That, really, is the point of this piece: Hypocrites and equivocators are already a dime a dozen. This ruling will simply accelerate their mass production.
The only real question is: Which model will come flying off the assembly line in a few
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