The answer to the question is both. Children's health care is a parental responsibility and a moral imperative for society. Why should adults bother to have children if they do not take care of them? Why should a nation bother to imagine a future if it does not make basic investments in its coming generation? Taken together, that means a collaboration between parents and government to make sure children are healthy, well-fed, educated and not burdened by onerous financial debts that they will inherit as adults.

That's the ideal. Now, what's the real? Reality is that we live in a country ever torn torn between the cult of individuality and the ideal of a generous communitarianism. In that division, we typically lean toward individualism, which at its best does wonderful things for our creativity in all fields.

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Can the use of torture ever be justified? Nope.

Three reasons: a.) It's against international law, to which the United States is (we thought) party; b.) it's morally wrong, as it utterly degrades and devalues human dignity; and c.) it's impractical as a law enforcement tool, as often enough the tortured will say absolutely anything and give up anybody to stop the pain.

One might add that a lot of Americans don't want their government to do it--69 percent, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

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