MATT WELCH ON JOYCE CAROL OATES ON MARY JO KOPECHNE: “The ends are always worth a few strangled means, especially to those wielding or sympathizing with power. If you’re openly musing whether the unwilling, unjust sacrifice of an innocent is worth a broad set of alleged legislative improvements, you’re not asking a morally challenging question, you’re answering it.”

Related: “Benign paternalism and droit du seigneur are two halves of the same coin: The former has excused the latter in monarchical societies through the ages. It’s distressing to see so many alleged ‘democrats’ embrace it here.”