Liberal values, power, and this question of torture

Debate Over 'Torture' Lacks Seriousness

The debate over torture by this last Administration is actually much more involved than Mr. Sowell lets on, here.

But this is still one of the stronger pieces on torture that I have read to date.

Debate and engagement, not strong-arming, is how we will get to truth more often. And that debate needs to get honest. Including about what our own instincts would be given the scenarios that interrogators and the Administration faced.

What we need much more of, in liberal democracies, is much more honesty about our real instincts and how we honestly account for them and not the kind of moral grandstanding that the left and the right have been engaged in, these last 10 years.

If you doubt that repression breaks down, over time, keep watching this debate.

The more I watch, the more confidence I have that liberal values trump power, long term, any day of the week.

Scared and foolish

The heart of what is wrong with humanity, much of the time. And the reason for most of our most serious and foolish mistakes and tragedies.

If there is anything that I've learned from our unit on Hitler, this month, and its parallels to our current challenges, this is it.

And if there is anything I have learned in the last 10 years it is that intelligence is no guarantee of avoiding either. Which is why I trust heart more than smarts.

So scared. So foolish. And too little courage and too much intimidation to acknowledge either.

How tragic that we would learn our lessons so slowly and create so much tragedy until we do.