Memorial Day May 26, 2006March 4, 2017 MEMORY DAY SPECIAL David Andrews: ‘Is there still some sort of discount on ordering the Posit Science software? I can’t remember, so I must need it!’ ☞ Full disclosure to newcomers: I don’t remember much either, but I seem to recall I own a tiny sliver of Posit Science. That said, the program comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee, and you’ll get 20% off if you enter this code when you check out: at0608. Just one more perk of your subscription to this site. To take the Brain Speed Test, click here. (Mine goes from zero to 60 in 4.2 seconds. Pretty impressive – except that’s IQ points, not miles per hour.) MEMORIAL DAY LETTER TO THE EDITOR THE WAY TO HONOR OUR WAR DEAD Ross Cooper Scottsdale, Arizona Memorial Day is intended to be a day when all Americans honor the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the liberties and freedoms we all cherish. Against this backdrop there is an ongoing debate about the NSA secret domestic wiretapping program, which has been framed by supporters of the program as a necessary trade-off between security on the one hand and privacy and individual liberties on the other. By most accounts the men who were part of the first wave to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day suffered 80% to 90% casualties. The courage shown by these men in the face of almost certain death is sobering and admirable. We are often reminded that freedom is not free. Even if every year the terrorists perpetrated a 9/11 type attack against America, the odds each year of any given American being killed by a terrorist attack on American soil would be about .00001%. I wonder what the brave men who died on Omaha Beach would think of trading some of the precious liberties for which they gave their young lives for a chance (and by no means a guarantee) of reducing those already extremely low odds. The preservation of liberty and freedom requires from all Americans a certain measure of courage and commitment to principle in the face of fear. This Memorial Day Americans should say no to the politics of fear and honor our war dead by taking a strong stand in defense of the principles for which they gave their lives. WHERE TO DEPLOY OUR SOLDIERS NEXT? Are we going to be an empire or a republic? The concluding paragraph in a long, thoughtful article – ‘A Republic Divided’ – by David Bromwich in the Spring volume of Daedalus: After the fall of Communism, there was an opening that passed. The United States never fully entered the world of nations. The burden of a constitutional opposition today must include education in the significance of this fact. For the sound part of the balance-of-power doctrine always lay in the idea that no one nation can control the world. We may still be the world’s best hope; it should be a comfort that we are no longer its last hope. But we cannot endure half empire and half republic. We will become all one thing or all the other: an empire that expands by the permanent threat of war, and invents power after power to enlarge the authority and reach of the state; or the oldest of modern republics, vigilant against the reappearance of tyranny and firm in repelling any leader who sets himself above the law. HAVE YOU LISTENED TO THIS SPEECH LATELY? James Spader on ‘Boston Legal’ . . . if you have broadband, click the play button under his photo. Have a great weekend.