Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

My longtime friend Kevin, who lives in California, sent a link to this Facebook video, which floods me with memories.

To the Editor:

Re “Cruz and Rubio Clash Harshly, Filling a Void” (front page, Jan. 29):

They’re all dangerous, every last one of them. They keep making outrageous statements. The press keeps giving them a free pass. Pull out of the Iran nuke deal? They must have missed the coverage of the extraordinary monitoring measures available and must disbelieve those who witnessed concrete being poured into reactor cores. They seek even more turmoil, unrest, disadvantage in the Middle East.

Domestically, all they want to do is repeal the Affordable Care Act, casting millions back to uninsured status, and slash domestic spending, which will gut social services, creating an even wider gap between the haves, have at least a little, and have nothing at all. Most Americans will be in the latter two categories. They want to set fire to the social compact of this nation at home while marauding in search of more conflicts to exacerbate abroad. Oh, and Rand Paul wants to declare every fetus a citizen.

By his very absence Donald Trump proved that without him, the choice is “none of the above.”

Does anybody recognize our country anymore?

WALTER BENNETT

Shenandoah, Pa.

Note from KBJ: Would somebody who cares about Walter Bennett (that may be a null set) get him the professional help he needs? The man lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

This is funny. Eight years ago, the editorial board of the New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton rather than Barack Obama in the Democrat primary. You know how that worked out. Today, the editorial board of the New York Times endorses Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders in the Democrat primary. Good luck with that!

On our agenda for the day.

In case you missed it, here is a profile of federal judge (and prolific author) Richard A. Posner, by Lincoln Caplan. I find Posner immensely interesting, but his style of judging is appalling. He legislates from the bench. For this reason, and because he never served on our nation's highest court, he will have no lasting effect on American law.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe (1976). Forty years gone.

It is beyond the power of reason to prescribe ends. Give unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's. Reason can determine means to ends, and the mutual consistency of different ends. Of ends as such it is altogether beyond its scope and capacity to say, "choose this, reject that".

(R. F. Harrod, "Utilitarianism Revised," Mind, n.s., 45 [April 1936]: 137-56, at 144)

Here.

Here.