To be fair, most Western religious traditions also treat death as taboo — they just aren’t as explicit about it as they are with sex.

Would that even matter at this point? It feels like it wouldn’t matter.

As long as we’re putting on our tinfoil hats, it’s also possible that this was an intentional action taken against The Atlantic (or against Jeffrey Goldberg in particular). Trump’s admin has plenty of reasons to want to silence that publication, and might’ve hoped that by “accidentally” giving Goldberg access, they could entrap him into committing a crime (mishandling of classified material, espionage, etc).

With a little cooperation from the AG’s office, presto! You’ve got one of your biggest critics in jail, and sent a message to other would-be whistleblowers.

And this journalist had the golden key but he removed himself from the group after he was able to verify it was real. wuss

Doing anything else probably would have exposed them to criminal liability, especially if any classified material was discussed. Then consider how openly hostile this administration has been to journalists, and it’s not a stretch to imagine the AG bringing bogus espionage charges in response to something like this.

Mr. Foreman is survived by his daughter Natalia, his daughter Leola, his daughter Freeda, his daughter Michi, his daughter Isabella, his daughter Courtney, his daughter Georgetta, his son George, his son George, his son George, his son George, and his son George.

This is essentially the kind of universe described by Eternal Inflation, one of the more popular theories of modern cosmology.

Alexa, call 911. OP is having a stroke