Nicholas Rizzuto

Whenever gun control advocates have gone on the offensive, gun owners find themselves in the position of having to explain why they need their firearms. They find themselves in this position especially frequently in the debate over so-called assault weapons. In the minds of gun-control proponents, �??acceptable�?� uses of firearms (hunting, self-defense, target shooting) rarely justify 100 round drum magazines and collapsible stocks; ergo there�??s no good reason to have them.

Our nation’s first president had some direct things to say about torture, but its use in his time was different than its use today. The Senate “torture report” has reopened the debate over the treatment of prisoners under American care. President George Washington, as commander of Colonial forces during the American Revolution, had a fairly straightforward policy when it came to torture.

The final act of any successful drama tends to follow a formula: A climactic confrontation resolves the tension built in the first two acts, the action falls as we learn how the players grew from the experience, and finally, the curtain drops. With the advent of TV and film, the viewer lost the dropping curtain, but today’s culture also seems to have a noticeable loss of appreciation for the finality that curtain once symbolized.