fragments

Metafilter's been particularly good lately. These are all from yesterday's thread on the announcement of the evidence against Mike Hawash:

that whole bit I heard this evening while watching The Trials of Henry Kissinger about liberal democracy and the rule of law's being "inevitable" is suddenly sounding like so much quasi-religious dogma. It's not inevitable. It's hard work, and speaking out about trials involving secret evidence and such is an essential part of that work.

"If the defendant, Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash, did go to China..."
Thank you. Now that I see that his real name is foreign and sinister-sounding, I can view him as the dehumanized caricature of evil he truly is.

Beholder's addendum to Godwin's Law [rejoinder that aborts all discussion]: "Tell that to the victims of September 11th."

Machiavellian ends-justify-the-means practitioners are a bigger threat to freedom than terrorists.

I am perplexed by this new logic that the only arena in which we really have a right to privacy is gun ownership.