Even for the Fray, the disagreements were strong this week. The "Ballot Box" on John Ashcroft produced some angry moments, as did "War Stories" on the Geneva Convention, and the article on anti-war protests brought this reply from Temaj to another poster: "Where I come from 'liberal' is not an insult. Well, actually, it is, but only because it means you're not left-wing enough."

Subject: Treason To Believe
Re: "Foreigners: None Dare Call It Treason"
From: Eagle Legal
Date: Tue Dec 4 4:29 p.m. PT

Isn't treason something more like espionage? Something more like working within a state, under false pretenses, to bring it down? In that sense, [John] Walker was not a subversive. Hell, the man got up and left. That is the very opposite of false pretense. To try him for treason is to judge him for disliking America. I don't think that would be fair; it is easy to condemn his stupidity but perhaps wrong to try him for it. Let him live out his bad choice in an Afghan prison.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: Judging Ashcroft
Re: "Ballot Box: Ashcroft Deconstructed"
From: Joseph Britt
Date: Fri Dec 7  11:45 a.m. PT

Defensiveness and ferocity toward administration critics serve no useful purpose now and later will make the administration look foolish when, inevitably, its policy [on security] will change in ways that recall some of the criticism it is getting today. Does this mean Ashcroft should just absorb criticism and not hit back at his critics? Well, yes … This is not an election campaign; getting off cheer lines for the benefit of the general public will not help Ashcroft later when some of the people he not very subtly accused of giving comfort to terrorists will sit in judgment of administration legislation and judicial nominations.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: To Write or Not To Write

Re: "Chatterbox: The Mullah of Dupont Circle"

From: Ex-Fed

Date: Tue Dec 4  9:05 a.m. PT

Extraordinary evil, like beauty, calls upon each human to feel something that transcends the ordinary—by extension, it calls upon the writer to transcend genre. If Wieseltier is saying, Wittgenstein-like, that we must be silent in the face of such things, I don't agree. As humans, we think out loud and profit by the thoughts of others, however inadequate to the occasion. Wieseltier's piece itself is an example of what I mean; I'm glad I read it.

[Find this post here.]