A beginning is a very delicate time
Douthat’s first column for the Times is up. Pretty darn good for my money.
Monthly Archive: April 2009
Not Reading What You Defend
I had fully intended to take a lengthy hiatus from torture-blogging, but this story just magnifies why I’ve become so frustrated over claims that the program authorized by the Bybee memo is clearly not...
Our Sins
Christ’s crucifixion was a sort of torture, and His death on the cross a symbol of the greater spiritual death and torment He suffered on our behalf…
Why They Fight
Jim Manzi has written a provocative post on the moral distinction between battlefield killing and torturing unarmed POWs: So apparently it’s OK to inflict (the most extreme imaginable) violence when the guy is totally...
now that i have a kid…
…everything is scarier, more urgent. Like this swine flu epidemic. I’m really nervous about this, especially living in Arizona. Roque – keep healthy down in Mexico, man…. (you are in Mexico, right?)
autism is a disorder
Those who have read a lot of my stuff know that I am someone who has very little patience for the seemingly endless (brave, bold, contrarian) stances bloggers and pundits make against political correctness....
The American Trajectory: Chapter 3 Great Powers
Having successfully replicated the economic construct of our American System among the vast majority of the world’s population, we are now faced with the long-term challenge of replicating it’s political constructs–its laws, its institutions,...
Tradition in the modern United States.
The briefest description I can give of the point of view for my work as a blogger is this: I’m a Presbyterian wandering around in the gap between Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue and Jeffrey...
Sunday Poem Series
Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy WE stood by a pond that winter day, And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, And a few leaves lay on the starving sod, -They had...
all the president’s spies
John Judis would like to have more discussion about the possibility of ditching the CIA, or at the very least completely restructuring it: The question that Congress might ponder, but won’t, is whether the...
a quote for saturday
“What you see in the relationship between torturer and tortured is the absolute darkness of totalitarianism. You see one individual granted the most complete power he can ever hold over another. Not just confinement...
Saturday Juke Joint
Not sure if I’m breaking (bending?) League protocols, but I thought I bring a little of them blues into the mix. Featured artist is Buddy Guy (his wiki here), one the last of the...
Just to echo
Andrew, someone should give Julian Sanchez a job as a paid blogger. Because he is very good at what he does.
Community
I want to follow up on this with an examination of Community vs. Rights in light of our transportation policy, but for now, read David Schaengold of Plumb Lines:
stating the obvious
“And then, where is the use of torture? It is a slippery trial and uncertain (says Ulpian) to convince by torture. For many says (says St Augustine again) he that is yet but questioned,...
Pakistan Update: Whither the State?
A bevy of links on the subject. John Robb: Open-Source Counterinsurgency in Pakistan and P. + Open Source Warfare Asia Times Interview with Owais Ghani, Gov. of Pakistan’s NorthWest Frontier Province Will Pakistan Become...
The Tudors, Tradition and Tyranny
The Tudors is a bad show. I’m a sucker for historical drama, but after slogging through the first three episodes, of this much I can be sure. I don’t need the show’s writers to...
