FUTURE BUREAUCRAT

Recipe - 15 British soldiers. 2 boats. 1 disputed border. 1 small military confrontation. Add 2 parts media circus. Knead. Mix.

Yields: $10 spike in oil prices and millions in the public coiffers.

YUMMY!!

Go read Sudarsan Raghavan’s tragic account of the scene of a Baghdad bombing in the Washington Post today…

When asked how he knew his son was buried there, he replied: “My heart tells me so.”

He wouldn’t give his name. When asked his son’s name, he answered: “His name is Iraq.”

A few minutes later, he broke into tears again.

I once listened to a lecture by a renowned Muslim constitutional scholar, during which he presented his argument that constitutions should protect group rights in addition to individual rights.  Where these rights clash, his argument goes, socieites should have the choice to elevate certain rights of the group over personal liberties. As applied to Muslim countries, his theory would allow constitutions to elevate certain Islamic traditions, like those enshrined in Sharia Law, over rights like free speech and freedom from discrimination.

I accept the fact that this is an exercise in semantics (what is liberty?) that depends largely on how one’s experience informs their understanding of the individual’s relationship with the larger community.  The argument for group rights is controversial in that it clashes with the constitutional history of the United States, which one can argue shows steady development and expansion of individual liberties. Continue Reading »