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I'd Be Called Liberal By Some, And That's Just Fine

I don't think it's OK to kill people. That means abortion is wrong, but so is the death penalty, right down to the ritualistic way it's done. I know a Liturgy of Death when I see one. The United States lacks even a reasonably coherent foreign policy with respect to military intervention. Frankly, I can't remember the last time our military 'defended our freedom,' or whatever we're supposed to say now. That isn't to say that I don't respect a great many of them; quite the opposite. In fact, I'm saying they've been fighting and dying for no defensible reason for generations. And we sow the seeds of the next crisis while we invent a reason for our morally questionable involvement. Some well-meaning do-gooders like the humanitarian missions; well, I do too. But that's for UNICEF and church groups and Doctors Without Borders, not scary dudes with guns.

That court system of ours, by the way? It's awful. A few things here: I hope you're not poor or black, because you're doomed. Don't think we don't remember how you dragged your feet in MA clearing an innocent man on that murder in '83, Martha Coakley. Here's an idea: How about you leave public life for good? Thanks. A prosecuting attorney should never be elected. Ever. Find the most honest person in the whole community, and appoint him or her. The Governor can review them, but if that gets arbitrary, we'll vote him out.

I'm not for the legalization of drugs, per se, but I think I know what a non-violent drug offense is. No way you rot in jail forever, unless you killed someone, or you sell to kids. And don't even try to tell me that the disparate sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine makes sense. If Washington is going to spend our money fighting this, at least they could shift toward rehabilitation. It is a moral scourge, but not the way we think.

Did you know that government is good in itself? But not when it strips the people of their rights and duties. We cannot even assist the poor properly until we collectively have a better moral sense, and frankly, when the entire system is unresponsive to the people, whether as pawns of an immoral and arbitrary statist imperative, or a corporate one.

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