Ashcroft parses words at Knox College

To Pour or to Force?  Can there be a meaningful difference, when we’re talking about a liquid? (imagine it…how does one pour liquid against someone’s will without also forcing that liquid?  physically…how does one?)  Lastly, I don’t know what ‘the law’ is, but I’m equally upset with a country that cheaply parses words to create moral license.

WriteChic has the relevant transcript 

I would have liked to hear more of what he was saying about his views on how to balance security and liberty—how security is not an ideal like liberty but something that preserves or allows liberty (this vaguely reminds me of a central theme to Robert Kaplan’s Imperial Grunts: that security is the most fundamental human right, and without that we cannot advance to intellectual or behavioral freedoms of choice).  Although, generally speaking, I think Ashcroft is a chump (or a thug).

Tags: abuse of power, Ashcroft, Bush Admin, Imperial Grunts, Knox College, Robert Kaplan, torture, waterboarding