"Kennedy's second-most memorable speech, a remarkably meretricious denunciation of Robert Bork, demonstrated the merely contingent connection between truth and rhetorical potency." Fancy way of calling a guy a liar! :)

"But the capital, gripped once again by the audacious hope of mastering everything, would be wise to entertain a shadow of a doubt about that."

You mean like when we invaded Iraq in 2003?

I don't think there is a record of Jesus expressing an opinion on government, except that you should pay your taxes.

Ann almost always goes a bridge too far. e.g. "Barry Lynn ... whose stock in trade is to denounce any mention of religion anyplace, anytime." To quote her teacher "please show your work".

You seem to know I lot more about "horny homosexuals" than I do. I stand corrected

Thanks for the response, it is refreshing to read an opposing view in here that doesn't resort to invective, but if you read the Philadelphia District Attorney's exhaustive report on the decades of cover-up and denial by the archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the flat-out lies told by Cardinal Bevilaqua under oath, I find it hard to believe that the problem was "recognized and dealt with". If these people are "men of God", why should I want anything to do with them?

putting one's life on the line was my refence to the "risk-taking" that our country's founders took, referenced in the article. I am somewhat agnostic on the issue of gambling, on one hand, it has been correctly (IMO) pointed out that it is no more harmful than drinking or smoking, which are legal, but again, it isn't much less harmful either, let's not glorify it.

Would you agree that it is transcendently true that enabling and defending pedophiles is evil, and if so, why should anyone give the Catholic church the time of day?

Thank you for the article,Engineer, you are a good writer, but I find equating putting one's life on the line for a noble cause with wasting one's money on gambling to be fatuous

gambling harms "no one else"?