Explanatory Note

The headline title of this blog is Liberum Arbitrium, a fine example of that most potent of dead languages, Latin. It means, as the subtitle roughly says, free judgement or, more commonly, free will. Free thinking as a political philosophy is considered a liberal viewpoint, although nothing could be more traditionally American. Just an example of how the poisoning of words and labels in political discourse leads to a gross exaggeration of pinpoint disagreements in philosophy between people into issues they are ready to scream at each other across a table over, making common ground into scorched earth.

Now, the culpatory bit: the idea of applying the name to a weblog was inspired by a brief fictional Liberum Arbitrium, in Joe Dante's savage and campy zombie film/political satire Homecoming, which ran last fall on Showtime's Masters of Horror series. In one scene, 'Larry King*' is at a roundtable with 'Ann Coulter' and, oh, 'Ken Mehlman' and quotes from the 'online weblog Liberum Arbitrium' about the newly-risen corpses of the fallen soldiers from an unspecified but misbegotten miliary quaqmire, to which 'Ann' snorts, 'Treason!'

Another note: in the course of making this post, I found another Liberum Arbitrium so I guess someone else liked this quote as well. Hmm...still keeping it, and that is my free judgement.

*Not their actual names

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