On friendships across the divide

Spencer Ackerman, too liberal even for The New Republic, on his friendship with Eli Lake:

Politics is important. But so is friendship, and to take that a step further, you should want to have friends who disagree with you, and sometimes disagree with you deeply. Check each other's excesses, fill each other's blindspots, strengthen your own arguments and then light the peace pipe and make Steely Dan references. It's a better way to live.

Well, maybe not Steely Dan. But although I've never met Jeff in person, I think if we were neighbors, we'd be sucking back the whiskey and smokes, whilst arguing away, while our wives bonded over complaining about our obsessive behavior.