I Wrote This Over At Althouse

...as part of this string, but hey, it's not too bad.

(Like Robert Benchley said, it is possible for a man to accomplish almost anythng as long it is not the thing he is supposed to be doing at any given moment. That's how I've been using comments at other blogs, like my self-proclaimed triumph over Jazon Zenglere at the TNR blog, referred to here.) (This technique of actually getting something done will last only so long as my stubborn inner self doesn't realize what's going on, so: shhh.)

Ann's topic is William Blum, the author of "Rogue State," the book about the U.S.A. that Osama recommended late last week, and how he's reacted to that endorsement:"I'm not repulsed and I am not going to pretend I am."

Me:

I think it's a step toward clarity in our politics.

He firmly believes eveything he writes in the book. He firmly believes a man like Osama bin Laden embodies an understandable reaction to our depravities. (I'm slightly speculating with that second one.) For him to repudiate bin Laden utterly would be to say: "Whatever our past depravities, they do not come close to having us deserve what bin Laden says we deserve."

And he doesn't believe that to be so goddamn obviously the case.

I've thought for some time the left's problem is an inability to really own up to and openly talk about the implications of their own beliefs. Yet openly investigating and talking abour depravities is probably something we should do.

For one thing, it would tell us some things about ourselves that we should know, and tell people who don't really know the details of the mistakes we've made and the patterns we sometimes fall into.

And confronting these issues direcly will slowly tug interpretation of these events away from the monopoly domain of the intellectual left, and will gradually build the number of people who understand it is more than possible to be aware of these depravities and still suspect that OBL's recommended treatment is, well, too harsh. And should be repudiated. More than repudiated: actually, wow, resisted with enthusiasm.

I know the author is a morally unbound fool; most commenters here know that; too much of the country suspects it but doesn't have a strong answer for the banshees who agree with him.

Bring it on.

(I added 'with him' at the end and corrected a couple spelling errors.)