On Lawyers, the "Law", etc.
Along with all the other terrible things this decision presages for our collective future, it has reinforced my somewhat-dormant belief that being a lawyer – and certainly being a Supreme Court justice – does not require any level of genius. I once dated a woman (a law student) who - despite being a dyed-in-the-wool liberal - tried to convince me of the peculiar genius of Antonin fucking Scalia. She praised his rhetorical and writing skills and likely some other stuff. (Though, interestingly I have no recollection of praise for his logical rigor.) At the time, I rolled my eyes in part due to a snobbery resident in many STEM types towards anything that isn’t... well, STEM type stuff. My point at the time was that “the law” is basically whatever a bunch of people with power decides it is. There are no first principles as one might need to design an atomic bomb or build a house or any number of things requiring technical know-how that derives from the fu...