Eugene invokes Godwin’s Law
The inimitable Eugene Volokh calls Godwin on Sen. Rick Santorum’s comments on the Senate fillibuster debate. I haven’t been tracking that conversation too closely, Canada has their own interesting parliamentary politics going on at the moment, but Godwin’s law is useful, and I like seeing it get wider play. It states that any sufficiently long and rancorous discussion will eventually invoke a comparison to Hitler, Nazis, or the Third Reich. It doesn’t mean that the discussion is necessarily over, indeed, the kind of discussions where Godwin’s Law gets applied are the kind which seem to never end. It’s more of a sign that any rational exchange of views is over, or I apply it that way anyway.
I also learned recently that the Senator Santorum is one of a remarkably select group, those whose name is being honored by adoption as a word in the English language. I can’t think of many others offhand: “rolling in the benjamins” (after Franklin), and “euclidean” (with a small “e”). No, I won’t tell you what santorum is, but Google will, if you want to know.