I’ve written before on what citizens owe their country, and blind support is not patriotism in my view. I think that a blind support, my country right or wrong, would be analogous to suicidal tendencies in a person. I wrote on this before, amongst others in my posts Patriotism: What Do I Owe My Country?…
Well, the label at least. I think we’d like to ditch the concept as well, but that’s probably harder. I suspect ditching the label won’t work either. But Michael Zimmerman would like to do it and I agree with his reasons, even though I suspect people will continue to use the label that best advances…
One of the things that annoys me in our national discourse is the way those on the left refuse to recognize the inefficiencies of government on their favorite projects while those on the right do the same thing with theirs. The phrase “legitimate function of government” is a license to all sorts of evils, most…
According to the Christian Post: About a dozen delegates did not attend the prayer of Johari Abdul-Malik. “I’m going to be somewhere else saying the Lord’s Prayer,” Delegate John Cox (R-Ashland) told CBN News. “It’s just not something that I feel like I can condone as an individual.” Yet when I get into conversations on…
According to Newsweek, Britain’s Court of Appeals has ordered the release of information on the torture of a British resident while in U. S. custody (HT: Dispatches). Both the Bush and then the Obama administrations have argued against releasing this information and threatened the British with refusing to share intelligence if it was released. I…
I commented on this case earlier, and I still stand by what I said, but via Dispatches from the Culture Wars I found this article by Julian Sanchez, and he asks a very valid question. On the one hand, maybe for all our folly we’re basically engaged enough—or the people who decide to vote are…
I don’t find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Justice Thomas very often, but Allan Bevere calls attention to remarks he made in Florida (NY Times), and I think he makes some very good points. Allan says: Interesting, isn’t it? In the fear over the corrupting influence of lots of money, some folk haven’t even considered the…
I don’t think this is a major issue against the Republicans, in the sense that I don’t think they should be criticized for managing to be united in opposing something that they, well, oppose. That’s good politics, and if they really do oppose the bill (and I’m not certain about some of them) it’s honest…
That title should illustrate the interesting types of headlines that have heralded the Supreme Court decision permitting advocacy ads by corporations and presumably unions in the time leading up to an election. The one from CNN reads Supreme Court eases ban on business, labor political spending, which is fairly calm and tells us approximately what…
… or at least that’s what Democrats in the Oregon state legislature tried to say. This is six months old (HT: The Agitator), but it’s too good not to post. Consider the wording in the bill: “A measure referred to the people by referendum petition may not be adopted unless it receives an affirmative majority…
