Tag: Evil
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Anti-National-Debt Ad is Free Speech, Not “Evil”
I pledge allegiance to America’s debt…and to the Chinese government that lends us money… And to the interest… for which we pay… compoundable… with higher taxes and lower pay… until the day we die.
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Torture, Euthanasia, and Decision-Making Without A Bright Line
Bright-line rules provide the comfort of easy decision-making. But many times there is no bright line, leaving people of good will to agonize about the lesser evil, often under intense pressure. When does a ticking-time-bomb interrogation cross the line from harsh to torturous? When does giving morphine to a dying patient cross the line from providing comfort to homicide?
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Hitler Comparisons are Odious, Whether About Obama or Bush
You may have seen and applauded the YouTube video of Barney Frank’s verbal smackdown of a twit who accused him at a town hall of backing Obama’s “Nazi” healthcare plan. I agree that Frank’s righteous put-down was well-executed, but I have to protest the notion that anti-Obama rhetoric represents a recent coarsening of the public […]
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Senator Reid’s Odd Notion of Evil
“Evil” is a central concept for me. I named my blog about the need to fight evil. Two presidents in my lifetime have issued clarion calls about evil, and I think history may well ratify Bush’s usage as it already has ratified Reagan’s. If “evil” is to mean anything, it must be reserved for the […]
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God Knows: An IED in Iraq Shows Who, How, and Why We Fight
My point here is not to advocate waterboarding, a practice I oppose. To paraphrase a recent American president, my point is that good and evil both exist in the world — and the God of my understanding is not neutral between them.
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The Perilous Implications of Bush’s Third Term
While much of Barack Obama’s national security policy has, thankfully, looked like a continuation of the Bush administration, his rhetorical response to the crisis in Iran thus far contrasts sharply with what we would have expected from his predecessor. Bush turned the heat up under Iran by naming the regime to his “Axis of Evil.” […]
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Bush, Reagan, Moral Clarity, and the Politics of Evil
President Bush has outpaced former President Reagan when it comes to calling evil by its name. What remains to be seen is whether history will vindicate Bush as it has Reagan. From President Bush’s farewell address to the nation last night (hat tip: K-Lo): As we address these challenges — and others we cannot foresee […]
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Revisiting “What’s the Matter With Islam?”
Commenter McDaddyo caught me in a bit of bloggish sloppiness in my recent post titled “What’s the Matter With Islam?” In that post I quoted Phyllis Chesler: Have the Princes of Saudi Arabia, the mullahs of Iran, the imams of Cairo, Baghdad, and London, the various Palestinian factions condemned the carnage? Did I miss it? […]
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What’s the Matter With Islam?
Six days after the 9/11 attacks, the President of the United States went to the Islamic Center in Washington, removed his shoes in accordance with tradition, and urged Americans to treat Muslims with respect. “Islam is peace,” George W. Bush said. “These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.” On numerous other occasions, […]
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Never Forget
Some day soon I need to write more extensively about the name of this blog. It comes from something that English statesman Edmund Burke apparently did not actually say, so I’ve felt free to modernize the language: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Regardless of who […]