Jonah Attacks!

Mr Goldberg’s review of my book – judging by one quote – is in part a personal attack on me. Since it’s firewalled, I canot access it (NRO has a policy of restricting their readers’ access to a writer of whom Tcscover_20 they disapprove.) But Julian Sanchez has read the review in full, and has comments. One small point I would like to make. My blog is often impassioned, and throws elbows. Most blogs do. This one is actually quite civil in comparison with most. That’s part of a free-wheeling debate. At its best, I think the blogosphere can sound like the British House of Commons – loud, passionate, funny and often brutal in its arguments. But we are all "honorable gentlemen and women" in parliamentary parlance.

Nonetheless, I took great pains to write the book in a much different tone. It is painstakingly civil throughout and takes the arguments of my opponents seriously, and respects them. Jonah’s attempt to say otherwise is simply a bid to prevent conservative readers seeing what I have to say. If Jonah cannot recognize a good faith effort to inject more reason into conservatism, to subject the disaster of the last few years to some scrutiny, then I’m sorry for his blinders.

As for "shrill", I wrote a book called "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How To Get It Back." The title of Jonah Goldberg’s forthcoming book is "Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton."

Britain in Danger

No greater evidence that we are still at war with a very dangerous enemy:

"We are aware of numerous plots to kill people and to damage our economy," Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, said. "What do I mean by numerous? Five? Ten? No, Nearer 30 — that we know of. These plots often have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan and through those links, Al Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale."

Boring but essential human intelligence, surveillance with court oversight, greater attention to the borders, and keeping the pressure on al Qaeda in Iraq and elswhere: all these are part of the solution. But any complacency seems to me misplaced.

Against All Torture

"Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved ‚Äî policy makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation’s most cherished values. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable. Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed?

Let America abolish torture now — without exceptions," Рan editorial in Theology Today.

It will indeed be a test of the Democrats. They have a chance to revisit the military detainee bill, and amend it to show the world that there can no longer be any doubt that the U.S. does not torture anyone anywhere; and to declare that torture means what is has always meant, legally and morally: "the infliction of severe mental or physical pain or suffering" to get information. If the religious right wants to rehabilitate its tattered reputation, this would be a good place to start.