But, but, . . . but Lew, don’t you understand that philosophic principles don’t mean anything anymore because of, . . of, . . 9/11? If people want the government to steal land for a memorial – or do anything else that would otherwise be prohibited by principled standards – the government must do so, as long as it is advanced in the name of “9/11.” Isn’t this the point our would-be philosopher-king, Rudy Giuliani, tried to get across in his answers to questions posed in the so-called presidential debates? Forget about John Locke, the Declaration of Independence, and the “Bill of Rights”: “9/11″ is the new standard for governmental propriety!

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