Pondering...

one of the deep ageless mysteries of philosophy: Is a man what he is, or is a man what he does?

Ben Domenech and George W. Bush believe the former: "Trust me, because I'm the kind of person you can trust; believe me, because I'm the kind of person you can believe," they say. Actually, they don't have to say it -- their defenders and acolytes say it for them, mistaking blind obedience for principled loyalty. Deeds don't matter. So you can lie, steal, cheat, plagiarize, whatever, and it doesn't matter, because if you are a (self-defined) decent, honorable person, what you are matters to the exclusion of what you do. And from there, it's a short step to saying who you are matters more than what you are. Or maybe it's who you know that matters. Or maybe they're all the same thing. Put another way, "Some people just don't belong." Wake me when the class war begins.