More on Bush 

More on Bush

Not much point in adding updates to that last, long post:

Ann Althouse:

[blockquote]Following the theory of the Declaration, [Bush] sees God as creating liberty, but his vision for the future, presented idealistically in the speech, is that the human love of freedom is what will prevail, as he promises to come to the aid of people all around the world. I'm sure Bush skeptics will see that promise as disastrously ambitious, but it is a beautiful promise, and those who hate Bush so much were once the people who themselves spoke of beautiful ideals. [/blockquote]

Especially since it comes so close to one of her reminders of her love of 60s (rock) music, this is close to saying: the only people who will give you real hippie talk any more are the Republicans. Literally, it used to be the left who said: the future is coming soon; everyone will be free; there may be a last few wars, but we will engage in them grudgingly, and only to achieve universal freedom; freedom can't possibly be a bad thing. Archie Bunker would watch on TV and say, more or less inarticulately: that's pie in the sky--and not very tasty pie. Now the Republicans are living a Billy Jack movie, and throwing a party.

By some segue, this in turn reminds me of Sandra O'Connor's famous defence of the abortion liberty (Planned Parenthood of SE Pennsylvania v. Casey; quoted in Lawrence v. Texas by Anthony Kennedy):

At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State.