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CK is a brilliant man and ordinarily Graymatter does not criticize gold matter, but here I must. It appears there is much he doesn't know about Judge Greer and the Schiavo case, if he thinks there was no impropriety. And to criticize DeLay for being unspecific ("judges will be accountable"), and then to employ indirection himself, is out of bounds. I refer to words like "delirious," "derangement," "sanity," and "sane," as if DeLay and those who agree with him are outside the category of sane. If he cannot state outright, "I think Tom DeLay is deranged," he shouldn't imply it half a dozen ways.

Worst of all, if he truly thinks that judicial power has been "grossly abused," why does he claim that DeLay's outrage is excessive? Why offer no better remedy than this very laborious (and far from foolproof) course: "appoint a new generation of judges committed to judicial modesty?"

Given the rate at which judges are destroying the republic, I consider it deranged to believe we have a generation of time to waste. But there are better choices of words---at least, when you're right there are.

Worst of all, if he truly thinks that judicial power has been "grossly abused," why does he claim that DeLay's outrage is excessive? Why offer no better remedy than this very laborious (and far from foolproof) course: "appoint a new generation of judges committed to judicial modesty?"

I like Charles Krauthammer. He is a brilliant man. I always read and consider his thoughful analyses. I do not, however, accept them uncritically and automatically.

Unfortunately, brilliant though he may be, he is also a committed, knee-jerk statist; this article merely continues that pattern. Those who pay unquestioning obeisance to Krauthamer's "brilliance" would do well to consider the following:

"Ultimately, a civilized society must disarm its citizenry if it is to have a modicum of domestic tranquility of the kind enjoyed by sister democracies such as Canada and Britain. Given the frontier history and individualist ideology of the United States, however, this will not come easily. It certainly cannot be done radically. It will probably take one, maybe two generations. It might be 50 years before the United States gets to where Britain is today. Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation."

- Charles Krauthammer, "Disarm the Citizenry", The Washington Post, Friday, April 5, 1996, page A1

I think yours is a fair criticism of the column.