It's well known that Ben Franklin was not the straightest moral shooter among the Founding Fathers, but there's a sort of cult of personality around some of the others who are respected not just for the founding philosophies and love of freedom, but also for virtue. So a cockamamie history professor, named Thaddeus Russell, gets almost 10 minutes of prime John Stossel show coverage on Fox this week, talking about his new book a Renegade’s History of the United States . His basic idea is to go through the facts and show examples of debauchery, even among the Founders who most put on a morality pedestal. While I don’t dispute many of his facts, his interpretations are almost all undergirded by the fallacious logic that the existence of immorality among influential people proves that immorality causes liberty. The following is my comments debate with a number of passionate believers in freedom over responsibility. Me: Talk about a professor who knows how to double-
Candid evaluation of assumptions as well as musings on consequences of political, religious, moral, scientific, linguistic and literary truths and pretensions thereto. Dissecting representations, critiquing arguments, discussing liberty, equality, justice, faith, values, facts, and the principles and institutions that make them all possible.