In today's batch of junk mail was a notice from our favorite overpriced law school (Fordham) alerting us to an upcoming lecture called, get this: "The Unrooted Presidency: Guantanamo and the Rule of Law."

Care to specualte on how presentation registers on the HATE BUSH scale?

Lawyers are many things. Practical is not one of them. To think that we'd confer full due process rights to irregular fighters (enemy combatants who wear no uniform, no insiginia, and do not bear their arms openly) is really f'ing insane. So you're against indefinite detention? Would summary execution be a cleaner alternative?

I act surprised, but this head-in-ass pose is typical of legal academia. By the end of this decade -- when the Middle East has more semi-functioning democracies than ever before, when standards of living rise, when toleration for terrorism falls, and when participation in global trade interconnects humanity -- let's see if Fordham holds a symposium called "Visionary Presidency: Civilization Is Safer Now."

Don't hold your breath. Later this year Fordham also has scheduled a seminar called "The Jurisprudence of Justice Stevens." It looks like it's being run through the law school, but I gotta believe that's really a study in psychology: that Stevens guy is a total head case.