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"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
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- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
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- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: A Life Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
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- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
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Category Archives: Human Rights
It’s Hard & Often Pointless To Regulate War
Carl Schmitt argued that law cannot control politics in moments of existential conflict. His famous formulation, “sovereign is he who decides on the exception,” means that real authority belongs to whoever can suspend normal rules when survival is at stake. … Continue reading
Posted in Carl Schmitt, Human Rights, International Law, International Relations
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‘Revolutionary War and the Development of International Humanitarian Law’
That’s the title of an essay by Australian law lecturer Amanda Alexander in the 2023 book, Making Endless War: The Vietnam and Arab-Israeli Conflicts in the History of International Law. She writes: The distinction between civilians and combatants and the … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights, International Law, War
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Decoding The History of International Humanitarian Law
The 2015 article “A Short History of International Humanitarian Law” by Amanda Alexander deconstructs the conventional narrative that humanitarian law is an ancient, evolving code. By applying my four favorite tools, we can see how this “history” is a modern … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding The Genesis of the Civilian
The 2007 article “The Genesis of the Civilian” by Amanda Alexander explores the historical construction of the “civilian” as a distinct legal and cultural category during the First World War. By applying my four favorite tools—Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology, David … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding Lenin at Nuremberg: Anti-Imperialism and the Juridification of Crimes
Amanda Alexander’s chapter, Lenin at Nuremberg, in the 2021 book Revolutions in International Law: The Legacies of 1917 analyzes how the codification of “Crimes Against Humanity” was driven by a specific anti-imperialist narrative influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution. This analysis … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding The “Good War”: Preparations for a War against Civilians
This 2016 paper by Amanda Alexander examines how the cultural narratives and legal absence of the interwar period prepared the way for the aerial bombardment of civilians in World War II. Using my four favorite analytical tools, we can decode … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding Revolutionary War and the Development of International Humanitarian Law
In her chapter from 2023’s book Making Endless War: The Vietnam and Arab-Israeli Conflicts in the History of International Law, Amanda Alexander deconstructs the narrative that the Vietnam War was a unique “legal crisis” that shattered a previously stable consensus … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding The Expansion of International Humanitarian Law and the Juridification of the Free-Fighter
The 2023 article Filling the Gaps: The Expansion of International Humanitarian Law and the Juridification of the Free-Fighter by Amanda Alexander examines the historical expansion of international law to govern “free-fighters” and irregular combatants. By applying my four favorite tools, … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding The Ethics of Violence: Recent Literature on the Creation of the Contemporary Regime of Law and War
The 2021 article The Ethics of Violence by Amanda Alexander deconstructs the contemporary humanitarian paradigm as a contingent “regime of truth” that manages rather than eliminates violence. By applying your four favorite tools, we can decode how this regime maintains … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights
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Decoding Global Human Rights
ChatGPT says: Alliance Theory explains elite devotion to global human rights as a governing technology for a world where direct rule is illegitimate. This isn’t cynicism. It’s structural. Here’s the decoding. First. Human rights provide authority without sovereignty Elites today … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Human Rights
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