I caught Dick Cheney talking to the World Economic Forum buffs at Davos, which btw can't be colder than it is here. Anyway, the other night, Bill Clinton gave quite a meaningful and impassioned speech to the group, egging them on with a closed fist (not a yeaaagh!) so I sat to see what Dick was talking about.

Apparently, he had to cast some light on the message on his Christmas card, sent apparently to folks like those in Davos. It quoted Benjamin Franklin's views on God: "And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probably that an empire can arise without his aid?"

Emphasis on empire. So it goes, and Newsweek has this:

The U.S. vice president took the question with his trademark equanimity. America was probably unique in history for not having taken opportunities for territorial aggrandizement, he said, and the Franklin quote shouldn’t be taken as some kind of indication that the United States saw itself as an empire. “If we were a true empire we would currently preside over a much greater piece of the earth’s surface than we do. That is not the way we operate.”

Emphasis on "not the way we operate" and "true empire". So, exactly what kind of "empire" are you, Mr. Cheney, and exactly how do you operate, presumably without the aid of and outside of a god's omniscience?

And exactly how does this not come across as "arrogance"? Dick comes up with an excuse:

Asked on Saturday whether he considered the United States to be an empire, Vice President Dick Cheney had the perfect dodge: Ask my wife.

Still:

The quote reflects Franklin's musing over the importance of God in the affairs of men, the vice president said. "It did not refer, or should not be taken as some kind of indication, that the United States today sees itself as an empire."

The United States has deployed its military might to depose dictators and empires, Cheney said. But then America withdraws its forces to U.S. shores "without any aggrandizement, in terms of territory, or any of the other trappings of empire," he said.