Yay. Winter.

As happens every December 1st, winter has begun. It's the first of 63 days with a 7am sunrise or later. And yet that's not as depressing as some of these stories:

• Jennifer Rubin argues (as do most lawyers with military backgrounds) that any order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill survivors of a boat the US Navy attacked would violate US law, international law, the law of war, and the US Law of War Manual, not to mention being morally abhorrent.
• An appeals court has ruled that Alina Habba's interim appointment as US Attorney for the District of New Jersey violated Federal law, potentially voiding every action of her office back to July 24th. This follows the disqualification of Lindsey Halligan two weeks ago.
• Sarah Lazarus imagines Robert F Kennedy, Jr's, holiday gift guide.
• In a post from October 28th, writer Adam Mastroianni blames "the decline of deviance" for the dearth of creativity in the world.

Finally, vendors at downtown Chicago's Chirstkinlemarket are furious with the city imposing a cap of 1,500 shoppers at a time, since raised to 2,500, as it's well under the 3,500 allowed during the pandemic-era 2021 market. “While we are working to address crowding issues at the Christkindlmarket, this level of restrictions poses an existential threat to the Christkindlmarket and the hundreds of artisans, performers, seasonal workers and businesses who depend on the visitors it brings to Downtown Chicago,” the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, which organizes the event, said in a statement. I'll swing by next week when the temperature is a bit higher than this coming Thursday and see if it has made a difference.

Back to the mines. And sunset in half an hour. At least we should see the sun on Thursday.