I have no quarrel with faith. There are some things all of us take on faith. I have a problem when people try to substitute in areas where it doesn’t belong. I’d like my doctor to be reasonably sure the medicine he gives me will do more good than harm, for example.

Here Hari echoes the liberal backlash that is just now starting in the U.S. health care debate. Democrats so want to remove the “kick me” sign we’ve worn for too long.

It seems to me that herein lies the essence of leadership. You have to be willing to anger special interests in order to forward the greater good for the greatest number.

And I love it when they say, “Well it was okay when you said things like this about George Bush.” While I often wanted to banish Dick Cheney to Siberia, I would never have considered bringing a loaded weapon to a personal appearance. Nor did I ever hear any of my far left-wing friends suggest painting signs, carrying tombstones, calling names, or bringing guns to anybody’s appearance. We argued they were wrong, we worked to defeat them, and we sometimes held noisy protests to try to attract the media to our issues. We asked for impeachment. But I don’t remember any personal threats—even after we believed they stole two elections.