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

The “Memo to Dems” editorial suggests the following concerning President Donald Trump: How about we let him do his job? The problem is we can no longer believe him, Democrats or anyone else in our nation.

Have we not established beyond a reasonable doubt that the man lies a lot? I can’t speak for everyone but I hate to be lied to. Do we really want a leader that we can’t readily believe?

Finally, I am tired of my hometown paper throwing bones to Democrats to disguise their own pro-Trump rhetoric.

TOM SMITH

Penn Hills

This evening, at an Exxon station in Lewisville, Texas, I paid $1.879 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. What're y'all payin' in your neck o' the woods?

When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries – but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2018

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The POP [People in the Original Position] game is in effect played by imagining ourselves in the original position and then choosing principles of justice. Rawls's POPs come to the decisions that they come to simply because they are replicas of Rawls himself with what altruism he has removed and a veil of ignorance clapped over his head. It is not surprising, therefore, that they reach conclusions which he can accept. If I myself play this game, I import into the original position my prejudices and inclinations, which in some respects are different from Rawls's. I have some inclination to insure against the worst calamities, in so far as this is possible. But I have no inclination to maximin, once the acceptable minimum is assured; after that point I feel inclined to take chances in the hope of maximizing my expectation of welfare, as I do in actual life (for example, I do not entirely refrain from investing my spare cash because I might lose it).

(R. M. Hare, "Rawls's Theory of Justice," chap. 10 in Essays in Ethical Theory [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989], 145-74, at 171 [essay first published in 1973] [italics in original; footnote omitted])

Here.

Here.

Chinese Wall (1984).

Yesterday evening, Katherine and I completed our viewing of the 10-part television series A History of Scotland (2008-2009), which I own on Blu-Ray. The series is narrated by Neil Oliver, whose accompanying book I am still reading (at the rate of six pages per day, so as to make it last). We visited Scotland in 2016 and again in 2018, and loved everything about the place. The landscapes are wild and gorgeous, with lochs, glens, forests, great rivers, ragged coastlines, and placid tributaries. The people are friendly and helpful, with delightful accents. Transportation (especially on ScotRail) is easy and cheap. But most of all there is the history. Castles, palaces, ancient cemeteries, magnificent old cities, kings and queens, philosophers, battlefields, monuments, rustic towns. I think about Scotland all the time and hope to go back to Caledonia several more times before I depart this vale of tears. I must have Scots blood in my veins.

Here is the trailer.

Here is Ann Coulter’s latest column.