Back from Paris

Hey folks, I've been in Paris for almost a week, and so have not had much opportunity to get online. I might post some pictures later. In the meantime, I've been trying to catch up on all the news I missed, and found this interesting post by Keith Burgess-Jackson. He writes,

the consensus among philosophers -- based on my examination of the literature -- is that torture is never morally permissible, but terrorism sometimes is. In other words, it’s always wrong, all things considered, to inflict great pain or suffering on a person, even a very bad one, even if it’s necessary to save many innocent lives; but it’s not always wrong, all things considered, to kill large numbers of innocent people.

He has several commenters try to sort it out, but I think the first one nails it: "You, the little people, should have the right to inflict suffering on “the man” but “the man” should not be able to do the same to you."