THE CHOICE

“Yes, the “precogs” in Minority Report could see murders before they happened, but the bigger “theme” that Spielberg and the writers seemed to be aiming for was that the murderers-to-be also had a choice. Just like the Palestinians have a choice. And the Islamists. They can choose to sit at at a table and talk, negotiate and bargain (clearly anathema to Arafat), or they can choose to strap explosives to their bodies and violently kill innocent civilians (or fly planes into tall buildings for the same effect). Both may — or may not — produce the desired results, but it is that willingness to choose the more humane method that separates the civilized from the barbaric, the moral from the corrupt.” This, and more dissent on the Pledge of Allegiance and Palestine, an evisceration of Mary Eberstadt’s argument on pedophilia, a comparison between Arafat and Huge Chavez, and Bush’s Middle East speech seen in the Winthrop tradition. All on the smartest letters page on the web.