A life in words

  • ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ and the Rule of Law in a Republic

    Just watched The Bourne Ultimatum with my sister and my bro-in-law. Cool movie, very well done! Of course, amidst the excellent action, its philosophical point wasn’t wasted on me. I don’t know if the original book was really about this, but it was a timely statement on the tension between security and liberty. A Tale…

  • Faith in America

    I just watched Mitt Romney’s speech on “Faith in America” and was quite impressed. I was impressed how he framed his ideas in terms of the moral foundation of the Declaration of Independence—much as Lincoln framed his arguments against slavery not in any formalism in the Constitution, but on the Declaration. I was impressed by…

  • Some Political Thoughts

    Largely based on discussions of egregious violations of the Constitution by the Bush presidency, and a reading of Wikipedia’s article on Abraham Lincoln: The government cannot operate merely on a legal basis, but must ultimately have a moral foundation. Lincoln found this in the Declaration of Independence; I find it in that document as well…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty