Terrified

I've been reading The Terror Presidency, about how the Bush administration approached the legal underpinnings for their actions in the series of actions formerly known as the War on Terror, and I must admit: I'm surprised.

Goldsmith makes a decent case for the process by which they both justified their actions and laid a legal framework to protect themselves. I had thought that the words used by Gonzales et al were just so much bushwah, translating into 'you can't touch us, we'll do whatever we want'. Goldsmith shows where the concepts and actions are similar to those taken by Roosevelt and Attorney General Biddle when faced with saboteurs and spies during World War II. He does not approve of their actions, but he shows how a reasonable person, acting in a reasonable manner, given certain basic assumptions and attitudes, and in a given environment, could take those very same actions. I must say, it's unsettling.

I'm only about a quarter of the way into the book -- amazing, how slowly I have to read this -- but I find that I'm glad to be seeing the world from this perspective.

I'm also glad to be eating the peanut butter cookies I made this morning.