Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, has an op-ed piece in the LA Times about the imprisonment of David Irving that is well worth reading. He cites a famous passage from the Robert Bolt play, A Man for All Seasons:
Roper: So now you'd give the devil benefit of law.
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that.
More: Oh? And when the law was down - and the devil turned round on you - where would you hide? Yes, I'd give the devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Quite right.
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I am surprised always, on how much is thought of T More, after I found out that he had a private jail in the basement of his house which he used to torture non-catholics.
Ah, but presumably he thought the Devil was a Catholic, too.
The last line by More is actually a bit longer in the play, and is more powerful than the abbreviated version quoted above:
Either way, the point is well-made.