I could blog on politics if I wanted to. I have plenty of political opinions. The problem is that I couldn't do it better than Berubé, Leiter, or numerous other mostly political blogs that I read on occasion. Even if I wanted to do it, I don't have the time to keep track of every public depravity that occurs, and to moderate the number of comments that even a modestly popular political blog would be likely to get. [I noticed the Kirby Olson has become a right-wing troll on Michael Berubé's blog, not content with being a troll on Silliman's blog.] A lot more people have an opinion about Cheney or Rumsfeld than people who have an opinion about Clark Coolidge's prosody.

That being said, I think torture is wrong. It is one thing to have an opinion about whether one economic system is more just or efficient than another. I don't think the Soviet Union was condemnable primarily because it had vastly inefficient economic system, but because it tortured and imprisoned people unjustly. The first is mostly STUPID, but the second is EVIL. Conversely, the West was morally superior to the extent that it promoted human freedom, not merely ECONOMIC freedom. All economic systems seem to have their inherent problems, but respect for human rights transcends economic concerns for the most part, except where economic forces are so devastating that they become human rights issues in their own right. Which, unfortunately, happens all the time.

So I talk myself into circles whenever I try to talk politics.