ReprintPrint Email Font Resize Federal judge in Prop. 8 case an unpredictable iconoclast
Back in 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated a buttoned-down Republican lawyer named Vaughn Walker to a San Francisco federal judgeship, provoking one of the fiercest confirmation fights over a Bay Area federal judge in history.
San Francisco’s powerful civil rights organizations and Democratic leadership greeted Walker’s nomination with howls of protest. They branded him hostile and “insensitive” to gay and lesbian rights because of his representation of the U.S. Olympic Committee in a lawsuit against the Gay Olympics over the use of the Olympics brand. The protests continued unabated for two years before Walker was finally confirmed during the first Bush administration.
Now, Walker is the toast of the gay community, the author this week of an unprecedented ruling striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage because it violates the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples. And he is a villain to conservative foes of same-sex marriage, who’ve branded him an “activist judge” and peppered the blogosphere with accusations that he is biased because he is gay, which has been known in San Francisco legal circles and among his colleagues for years.
In many respects, it is all vintage Walker. Irony and surprise have been hallmarks of his judicial career, an unpredictable journey chock full of rulings and developments that have defied any stereotype of a conservative Republican judge. From blasting the federal government’s war on drugs during
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the 1990s to invalidating Proposition 8 on Wednesday, the silver-haired judge with the courtroom baritone has taken his iconoclastic streak and colored his often high-profile docket with it for more than two decades.
‘Very unpredictable’ Read more
Primark’s sales boosted by £12 dresses and £10 shoes
Primark today reported no let-up in demand for its “cheap chic” as sales continue to grow at home and abroad.
Its £12 floral dresses and court shoes for a tenner pulled in shoppers, with analysts estimating like-for-like sales increased 7% in the 16 weeks to 19 June. That is just shy of the 8% figure reported for the first six months and better than high street rivals: on Wednesday Marks & Spencer said its like-for-like clothing and homewares sales had risen 6% in the 13 weeks to 3 July.
John Bason, finance director at Primark’s parent group Associated British Foods, said Primark’s success would be a major contributor to “very good progress” in profits for ABF’s financial year, which ends in September. He said margins were expected to be higher than last year as increased sales volumes offset higher freight charges and the effect of adverse currency movements on supply costs. He was more cautious about the next financial year, adding: “Wider consumer sentiment might start to weigh into next year.” Read more
How to dress: Print and pattern
Apparently, the return of print and pattern to our wardrobes is a good sign for the economy: with a bull market comes a peacock aesthetic, or something. Yeah, yeah, whatevs. Ever since we found out that the people who are supposed to know all about the economy didn’t even understand the international banking system, I’ve been a little sceptical as to their ability to have any real insight into a business as nuanced and fast-moving as fashion, frankly. Anyway, the return of print has been a gradual process. It started years ago with one wallpapered wall, then we branched out into a print blouse or a striped dress, and now we’re ready for some print-on-print action.
The beauty of print-on-print is that it sends mixed messages. Both halves of this outfit – gingham and spriggy floral – would simper on their own, but together they take on a feistier attitude. Mix together leopardprint (read: vampy) and a Breton stripe (read: laidback, boyish), and no one can tell whether or not you are trying to be sexy. Well, good, because why give that away?
When you find a print you love, you feel a pull that is emotional, not logical. It may be a naive red and white strawberry print, or a gothic skull silhouette, or a splash of peonies on silk: when you see a print you love, just like when you hear a song you love, you can’t always explain why you love it. Pile on the prints that speak to you, and leave it to others to wonder what it all means. Read more