Prof. Dow, that was a very thoughtful piece. As someone who does a fair amount of death penalty work inside an appellate court (which more than once has left me sobbing), I've come to the conclusion that the power to take life is an inherent attribute of sovereignty. The American people want this power; whether it’s deliberately exercised at the end of a judicial process; on the battlefield; as a foreseeable but regrettable consequence of a costs/benefits analysis, or the best of bad options. Some civilizations chose not to exercise that power. Not exercising power is not our thing. We set safety standards, speed limits, national policy, knowing that some number of innocent people will die. Less would die if we did something else, at the cost of some utility or benefit or another. As you say, I fly anyway.

Just bought Memories. Your podcasts got me to buy the audio versions of Just a Geek and Happiest Days of Our Lives, and man, it's eery how many of my own emotional experiences are right there, even though the shape of our lives (the geekdom aside) are so very different. I gotta get my husband to listen to them; his are even closer. Thank you for being so emotionally raw. That takes guts and insight.