Buzzword

Random Acts of Patriotsim had an interesting post up talking about whether or not what was done to Osama Bin Laden was “justice” or not. I thought I’d look at what Noah Webster thought it meant, way back in the early 1800’s.

From Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary:

Justice: The virtue which consists in giving to every one what is his due; practical conformity to the laws and to principles of rectitude in the dealings of men with each other; honesty; integrity in commerce or mutual intercourse.

That fits right in with what I thought justice meant.

I think I am with ASM826 on this one. The scale of the things Bin Laden was in charge of precludes any notion of justice I can understand.  But he has reaped what he sowed, and is judged by a just God.

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False Hope

Thanks to Breda and this post, I have found what I believe to be the most horrifying website on the internet, where false hopes and fake brain cells go to die, where people who believe in lies go to talk themselves happy.  It is a place of horrid horribleness, of sad patheticness, and of tales such as this:

“I was so excited I choked on a pretzel. True story.”

Paul L., Boston, MA

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…

Remember Hope

Go and leave your own tales of woe, won’t you? I left the following, though I have no hope (heh) of it ever seeing the light of day on that particular website:

I was so disappointed that I went and bought a 20-round magazine for my semi-automatic rifle because I thought it would be illegal in a few months.
–Blue S, MT

Do you have a tale of false hope, real or remembered?

Buzzwords: Liberty

I have often thought that people often throw around powerful words without thinking about what they are saying.  So today I am going to briefly define a big one, or rather, I am going to let Noah Webster define it for me, straight from his 1828 dictionary.

Liberty:  “Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty, when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty, when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty, when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.”

More though is this: Civil Liberty, which is “an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.”

Another distinction is Political Liberty, which is “sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty. But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation.”

So I hope that when you next hear or use Liberty, you remember exactly what is being said.