Wednesday, February 22, 2006

What We Mean

Crazy ForeignersPartisan Politics

This is good:

One of the most useful aspects of the cartoon controversy is the clarity it has given to liberal ideals. It’s become abundantly clear since the beginning of the month that separation of church and state, free expression, and making demands on the government are not disparate concepts randomly yoked together in the first amendment of the United States constitution. They are mutual dependent and essential rights.

Nor are these rights simply offshoots or happy byproducts of a functioning democracy. They are prior to a functioning democracy. That is a hard teaching, and as Secretary of State Rice demonstrated with her idiotic expression of surprise at the results of the recent Palestinian election, even many high-flying Americans don’t fully grasp it.

This from Tim Cavanaugh at Reason. Although the whole thing is a bit of a word salad, there is a lot of insight in there. 

Boy, do I hate it when people put up a post basically saying “me too!” Now I need to go kick my own ass.


Posted by Johno on 02/22/06 at 06:33 PM
Crazy Foreigners • Partisan Politics • Permalink