[OWK]

Principles are fine shortcuts to avoid having to stop and analyze every situation, but some people use them as crutches to avoid having to weigh competing values.

I see.... so principles shouldn't really be principles at all. They should just be some kind of loose guidelines, to be abandoned for whatever pragmatic "competing values" come down the pike.

No wonder the country's abandoning the notions of rights and constitutional restraint.

[bayourod]

" I see.... so principles shouldn't really be principles at all. They should just be some kind of loose guidelines, to be abandoned for whatever pragmatic "competing values" come down the pike. "

Not every principle is absolute. The principle against loaning a relative money may have to yield to the principle of helping a family member in distress.

A slave to a principle is still a slave.