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	<title>NetCogito &#187; Rights and Liberties</title>
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	<description>Towards a new Liberalism: rational, compassionate and progressive</description>
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		<title>Liberty: The Best Idea in History</title>
		<link>http://netcogito.com/blog/2010/07/11/liberty-the-best-idea-in-history/</link>
		<comments>http://netcogito.com/blog/2010/07/11/liberty-the-best-idea-in-history/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:19:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tscottt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rights and Liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The American Experiment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Towards a New Liberalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liberty]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Today, with your permission, I'd like to pay homage to the speechifying tradition. To keep things <strong>polite</strong>, I'm not going to talk about a particular candidate or party, nor praise a specific policy or polity.  In fact, I promise not to talk about anything controversial at <strong>all</strong>; and will, for the sake of friendliness and universality, limit my discourse to the following non-controversial topics:  science, economic policy, politics and religion. I will tie them with the common thread of liberty.  We'll leave more fractious debates and incendiary topics to others, and stick with these <strong>comfortable</strong> issues.  Now, I suspect you might consider this a full, perhaps <strong>too-full</strong>, agenda for such a beautiful day.  Likewise, I am obliged to be mindful of the plans you may have made-- for this evening, and will keep my comments brief.  But before you decide I've set myself an impossible task, I hasten to remind you that last year the same allotment of time proved sufficient to make good headway regarding The Meaning of Life.   Today's few topics should, <em>by comparison</em>, be much easier to manage.  So please, give me the liberty to speak for a few minutes more.]]></description>
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		<title>Quaran Target Practice</title>
		<link>http://netcogito.com/blog/2008/05/18/quaran-target-practice/</link>
		<comments>http://netcogito.com/blog/2008/05/18/quaran-target-practice/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2008 18:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tscottt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[International Relatiions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rights and Liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Topical Politics]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ have an opinion on the use of the Quran as a target for weapons practice by US personnel in Baghdad.

 

I was wondering what you other skeptics and/or atheists think.

 

I've found blogs that pretty much agree with the following, which is my opinion.

 

I view the Quaran as â€œjust another influential bookâ€. Why should I feel any differently about somebody shooting at it as opposed to, say, a Betty Crocker Cookbook? The difference as I see it, is that I highly doubt somebody just picked a random book - which happened to be the Quran - to shoot.

 

I suspect, that just like burning a flag is very often a political and philosophical statement, rather than a matter of practical expediency (i.e. keeping warm) or random happenstance, so is any non-random shooting or burning the Quran. I firmly support the right of free speech, even to the point where a citizen is entitled to burn a flag, fly a flag of choice, burn or shoot any book he may choose. On the other hand, I propose that when an official representative (e.g. a soldier, or other government agent) makes a political statement, it is sometimes difficult to separate the person from the role and thus may be easily misconstrued as an official statement. I cannot help but think it was intentionally inflamatory.]]></description>
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		<title>Three Assaults on Liberty</title>
		<link>http://netcogito.com/blog/2006/07/23/three-assults-on-liberty/</link>
		<comments>http://netcogito.com/blog/2006/07/23/three-assults-on-liberty/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:25:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tscottt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rights and Liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Topical Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Towards a New Liberalism]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Improvements in scientific analysis and improvements in humanityâ€™s knowledge-base of cause-and-effect relationships regarding the natural world translate neither obviously nor easily to the political and social world. As any teenager clearly demonstrates, knowing about or simply being told about dangers doesnâ€™t necessarily lead to personal belief alteration or behavior changes. It takes a certain level [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The Tree of Liberty</title>
		<link>http://netcogito.com/blog/2006/07/18/the-tree-of-liberty/</link>
		<comments>http://netcogito.com/blog/2006/07/18/the-tree-of-liberty/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:23:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tscottt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rights and Liberties]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[What could Jefferson have meant when he said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots?"]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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