SIEGFRIED, THE TIGER, AND THE MURDERS IN AFGHANISTAN:

To those in the media who are suggesting, apparently in all seriousness, that Terry Jones caused the deaths of seven UN employees in Afghanistan by burning a copy of the Koran, I’ll just note that the only way that argument works is by means of a suppressed premise. The premise is that the killers had no moral agency–in other words, that they were, literally, animals.

Me, I’ll stick with “savages” and “barbarians.”

If there’s no moral agency, then I guess the folks who argued for a return to colonialism after 9/11 were right. If Muslims aren’t capable of self-control or moral responsibility, then they must be ruled with a firm hand by those who are. Is that “liberal?” No, but interestingly the consequences of taking the ideas of liberals seriously seldom are. Alternatively, some people are just using this as an excuse to blame people they like less than savages and barbarians.