The Friday Furo Questus

Questus Furore
As mentioned in the Jonah Goldberg piece I link to below, as British police arrested three of the four failed bombers in the past week one of them screamed "I have rights!" The irony of that is, in so refusing to kill him on sight, the police had already shown more respect for his rights than he was prepared to show his fellow Londoners. This is the rub of modern terrorism. Terrorists have the advantages of initiative and camoflage; they can live in and among our societies, protected by our laws even as they seek to destroy them.

This statement is also symptomatic of a "rights-obsessed culture." I'm using the scare quotes here (" ") because I want to make clear this point: it is good to know what your Constitutional rights are. I'm talking about the people who believe they have "a right to" party drunk and naked in their front yard all night long. People who want their rights, but refuse to accept the responsiblities that go with them. People who forget their rights only extend to the point where they infringe on the rights of others.

There are two things I ask all of us to remember:
1. With rights come responsibilities; responsibilities to defend those rights, and the responsibilities to exercise those rights properly, safely, and with respect for your fellow men - or be prepared to bear the consequences if you do not.
2. Just because you have the right to do something does not always mean you should.

Or put more succinctly, just because you can act like an a** doesn't mean you should.

As for the "Local Politics" post below: I'd make a lousy senator. Someone would make a stupid statement, I'd read into the record that that person is a moron, and that Senator Byrd is a thieving [CENSORED] [CENSORED] old [CENSORED] [SO VERY CENSORED] and be expelled from the Senate. On the first day.

Recommended Reading
Victor Davis Hanson looks back at Hiroshima.
"The truth, as we are reminded so often in this present conflict, is that usually in war there are no good alternatives, and leaders must select between a very bad and even worse choice. Hiroshima was the most awful option imaginable, but the other scenarios would have probably turned out even worse."

Jonah Goldberg: "I have rights!"

Thought of the Week
"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God... Let it
be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments."
-- John Adams (Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765)

Reference: The Most Nearly Perfect Solution, Guinness, 3-26; and John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, Thompson, 54. My source: The Heritage Foundation's quote library.

Churchill Quote of the Week
"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."
-- Sir Winston Churchill