The Road to Nullification

A very, very foggy morning on the lake this morning. We can barely see our dock a hundred yards away.

Tree people are coming today to begin cutting down some old, tall trees that will eventually fall over. They said they’d be here ‘bright and early’, this being the Berkshires, who knows what they mean by that.

We haven’t worked on Spanish in a few days. We can’t decide if we’ve given up or not.

So our sister is producing a Broadway play directed by Jason Alexander, George from Seinfeld. 'Sex, lies, and several half-finished cups of tea are just a hint of what's actually happening behind closed doors in Broadway's new side-splitting screwball comedy The Cottage, which opens at the Helen Hayes Theater on July 24.'

The ZMan has an excellent analysis of what’s happening in Israel, with which we almost entirely agree. ‘There is a bit of the familiar lunacy in these protests. The people setting fires and destroying things claim the other side is committing acts of violence. This is the old “your speech is violence; our violence is speech” business we have come to expect from the regime toadies throughout the empire. They also claim that limiting democracy through the courts is the only way to defend democracy. Democracy means rule by the permanent ruling elite, contrary to the public will.’

These are the secularists. This is Tel Aviv. Twenty-five years ago these were the people who assured us the ‘Peace Process’ would lead to reconciliation with the Gazans and West Bank People. During the Second Intifada, some even suggested that Israel merge with the PLO and be just another secular state on the Mediterranean. This was Israel’s Labour Party, once the nation’s dominant political force, now a rump of 5 or 6 seats in Israel’s 120 Knesset. And deservedly so.

The Zman goes on to talk about Israeli demographics. They look horrible for Tel Aviv, regarded as a very gay friendly. The demographic problem is obvious, no? We know an Israeli/American couple They’re in their early 30s. Smart, good-looking people who post pictures of themselves traveling. He has washboard abs. She wears a bikini. Really nice people. We enjoy their company immensely. Meanwhile there are Haredi couples their age that have five, six kids. In the 20th century the Orthodox/Hasidic/Haredi were a small, curious sect, like the Amish. Now they are the rising force in Israeli politics. In a century they will be the face of Judaism and Reform Judaism will be a small sect of Jewish secularists. Ben Shapiro (Modern Orthodox, think Joe Lieberman) has four kids. We (Conservative) have three.

While Netanyahu and the Israeli right rein in the court, in America the left is laying the groundwork for ignoring the Supreme Court altogether. They call it Popular Constitutionalism, look it up. We’re not surprised at all. Dems ignored Brown vs Board of Education and President Eisenhower sent paratroopers to enforce desegregation. The late Robert Bork proposed a senatorial override of Supreme Court decisions. Not a bad idea, actually. Wouldn’t it be funny if the appointment of three conservative justices lead to the nullification of the court? We’d be okay with that.