Your periodic reminder that Laïcite is bullshit.

Likewise, I think 10/7 was so devastating that there was (not unreasonably) a feeling among Israelis that Something Had To Be Done. If Benny Ganz had been running Israel, would he have prosecuted this war the same? Almost certainly not. But I don't think war was avoidable by 10/8.

I'm not sure that was possible. As an analogy, if, in some hypothetical universe the Taliban *did* surrender bin Laden, we try him, convict him and execute him, we *might* have avoided Afghanistan, but he signed his own death warrant the moment the first plane hit the first tower.

Yeah. There are genuine ethical problems in partiality, and some of those come in things like vows. I do, in fact, have special obligations to my spouse and as-yet-hypothetical children that I don't have to others. But… this ain't that. This is just people who want racist eisegesis SO BAD.

This made me stifle a laugh in my cube. I'm sorry, friend, but it's 100% true.

And… eventually this becomes irreducible to what the British call the “good chap” theory of government. Like, if someone is bound-and-determined to subvert the rules, and is immune to shame, then what will stop them? At some level, justices need to believe in the rules in order to be bound by them.

2) One somewhat under-discussed point re: Crow is that he only reached out and became a “friend” of the Thomases post-confirmation. While I don't want to lock justices in a box, it seems likely to me that this was an instrumental friendship from Crow, not something genuine.

I think there are two difficulties: 1) You end up with scrupulous justices like Kagan, who wouldn't accept a gift basket of babka, lox, and bagels upon her confirmation. That seems… silly. Certainly obeying the letter and the spirit, but no one thinks she could be bought for a bagel with a schmear.

…does Ann Arbor not produce such people? I thought that particular species of White Local Weirdo was endemic to college towns. Or is the cold and/or Midwestern Nice too much for that?

😮 I. Am. SHOOK.