Larkin said the apology had not absolved the government.
That is, at best, a false argument: a crime is not absolved just because it works.
But you are not absolved for the mess of the last week.
Though not absolved of criticism, it is a circumstance that must be taken into account when laying out judgments.
This month, the women, who had been serving terms of 25 to 30 years, were freed but not absolved.
While the government stopped short of bringing criminal charges against Mr. Cohen, it has not absolved him of responsibility for his firm's suspected wrongdoing.
Neither Mr. DiCarmine nor Mr. Sanders is required to make any payment under the deal, but they are not absolved from possible claims other than mismanagement.
When we march our children ahead of us to do our killing?" For this small Jewish community is not absolved from war crimes; its elders allowed their own sons to be led away into an unjust war against Angola.
Elissa Massimino, director of the Washington office of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said, "If the C.I.A. is saying, 'We're not really involved in the interrogation, we're just standing outside the room and passing questions,' they are not absolved".
Not included in Harold Bloom's reflections on limbo's fall from grace in Roman Catholic doctrine (Op-Ed, Jan . 1 was an appreciation of how limbo solved an important problem for church theologians: the fate of souls not absolved of original sin through baptism.
Bush has rally done nothing to deserve this nostalgia, and history has certainly not absolved him, let alone vindicated him of, his colossal policy failures.
