I genuinely do not know how I come down on the substance of the case of John Yoo. On the one hand, the examples of Bruce Bartlett at the and of David Frum at the American Enterprise Institute have convinced me that academic freedom in America today is under more pressure and is more precious than I had thought.Yoo is not being condemned because he thought bad thoughts or said bad things. He's condemned because he committed specific criminal acts as a official member of the United States Government, and because he's a terrible lawyer who does not adhere to the most basic and limited ethical and professional standards of the profession of law.
If liberals cannot get a good head of steam going against a actual war criminal, a man who has actually perpetrated crimes against humanity, then their claims they even can "reform" even the worst excesses of capitalism ring ludicrously hollow.
It was people like DeLong and other spineless, appeasing jackasses who turned me from a good middle-class liberal into a revolutionary communist. It was not the excesses of worst Randian capitalists, but the stupidity, ineffectuality, indecision and tepid complaints of their opposition that convinced me that only a real revolution has even a chance of success.
