the news of the random tidbit

"You reap what you sow"

At least I think that's how that line goes. Of course, Iraq's Christian population isn't responsible for our foolish American policies so their suffering, and the egregious targeting of religious minorities of any kind in Iraq, is not to be taken as lightly. But we might assume, given the disposition of Bush and Rumsfeld in particular to see our soldiers as a sort of missionary, that expanding Christianity was yet another mission statement that is flailing around now in misery and disappointment for all involved.

Meanwhile, in other corners of the world, things are going swimmingly. Without our help and influence. I assume that developments like these are viewed as "problems" when putative allies act with notional independence and autonomy that may or may not serve American interests. Oh well.

Random detour through the mind of JS Mill.

"When we find places where conformity of opinion is regarded with more deference than reasons for the opinion, there we find a symptom of market failure." (not Mill himself, but Mill-like).
"if opponents of all-important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest arguments which the most skillful devil’s advocate can conjure up"
"If there are any persons who contest a received opinion, or who will do so if law or opinion will let them, let us thank them for it, open our minds to listen to them, and rejoice that there is someone to do for us what we otherwise ought, if we have any regard for either the certainty or the vitality of our convictions, to do with much greater labor for ourselves."

If ever there is a wonder for why I get feisty about forum comment rules and freedom of speech in general where arguments may be raised and defended or attacked, that's where it came from. You may safely blame liberalism from the late 18th and early 19th century and its influence on the later 19th century. It has not come back around much.

Also: Beat on Paul Krugman week has continued.