Pithy sounds so much better to the author when the author is on pain
killers.  At the risk that longer is no more clear and sounds even better,
I will try this second bite at an apple.  On the 16th I had ankle surgery
and now am coasting along on pain killers.  When I saw the Subject line
"Not all US soldiers are torturers" I replied with a question born of
curiosity:  Who said -that-?

      I prefer my political debate both bare fisted and honest.  That
subject line reeks of debate training wherein the practitioners are taught
that deliberate courting of half-truths and left handed complements,
especially if it also can reframe the debate from the question at hand that
is more uncomfortable and offers far less probability of victory into a
question that supports a subsequent feigned look of surprise and the
pantomimed "What? Me?".  Believable deniability, yes, that metric of honor
foisted upon us by a wayward Marine, Col. North.  (As an aside, I will give
Mr. North this much credit, when I have asked in class, all who absorb his
pearls of wisdom via radio say he steadfastly rejects the notion of
"technicalities", although his listenership clearly favors that view of the
criminal law.)

      Let me take a second bite at the apple.

      In a debate among law educators, how does an honest person leap from
reading the unassailably true statement "Some US soldiers are torturers."
to a reply captioned with the unassailably true statement "Not all US
soldiers are torturers."?

      Guidance on this point, I hope, will allow me to better understand
the ethical continuum and the correct placement of
NYT-crossword-puzzle-in-ink President who sought, with the turn of the
phrase "sexual relations", to avoid facing his 18 daughter and admitting
infidelity to her mother.  I will leave it to the parents among us to tell
me if there is a greater sense of failure than to be correctly seen by
one's child as a failure on an item totally within the parent's control,
but, I suspect not.

Michael

Professor Michael J. O'Hara, J.D., Ph.D.
Finance, Banking, & Law Department        Editor, Journal of Legal
Economics
College of Business Administration        (402) 554 - 2014 voice fax (402)
554 - 3825
Roskens Hall 502                    www.AAEFE.org
University of Nebraska at Omaha           www.JournalOfLegalEconomics.com
Omaha  NE  68182
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