"Mysterious Jackson area lawyer's blog about history, literature, and whatever irks him."
—NMC
And therefore, reader, I myself am the subject of my book; it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain.
—Montaigne, Essays, "To the Reader."
"I shall see myself, I shall read myself, I shall go into ecstasies, and I shall ask -- Is it possible that I have so much ésprit?"
—Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols.
... the torturer has become – like the pirate and slave trader before him – hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind.
—Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, 630 F.2d 876, 890 (2d Cir. 1980)
... that makes me elitist? Good! If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room," I'll be an elitist!
—David Rees, Get Your War On # 34 (Apr. 16, 2004)
DISCLAIMER: In case it isn't obvious, this blog's discussions of legal issues are solely the private opinions of its proprietor, are not intended as legal advice, and should not be acted upon by any sane person, no matter how obviously correct they in fact are.
Eisegesis is what lawyer-advocates do with legal texts, and exegesis is what we erroneously pretend judges do with them.
A revelatory moment in law school for me was, first semester, reading proximate cause cases, and realizing that the point of reading so many causation cases was to get an accurate gut-reaction, and the analysis were the words one was supposed to incant after achieving the ability to have an accurate gut-reaction.
BTW, the last comment was by me (NMC) and I’m not sure why WordPress won’t let me log in as myself (I’m not having problems with my own blog?!). In any event, thanks for the new word.