“Popular Will?” Isn’t That a LIBERAL Term?

Quote: "Not only are unelected jurists with life tenure less attuned to the popular will than regularly elected officials, but judicial policy making is also inevitably inadequate or imperfect policy making." John Roberts, responding to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire

Term: Dirimens copulatio (DIH ri mens cop u LAT ee oh), the but-wait-there's-more figure

John Robert is the Wonder Bread nominee. Boring haircut. Boring record, race, gender and ethnicity. Good thing we have rhetoric to rescue us from the tedium. While the Democrats can't find a single interesting fetish in the man, we can cry dirimens copulatio. That's Latin for "a joining together that interrupts," according to Richard Lanham.

We thought that defined coitus interruptus, a birth-control method practiced by Catholic Supreme Court nominees. But we never quibble with the Strunk & White of rhetoric.

Snappy Answer: "You just did a Dirimens copulatio. It makes me hot."