Tag Archives: torture

Bush III: Obama’s deteriorating legacy

Way back in March of 2008, as the campaign was running in high gear, I made clear that while I wasn’t in love with the Democratic frontrunners, the emerging alternative was worse: John McCain represented the third Bush presidency. I was undoubtedly right. But… You knew there was a “but” coming, didn’t you? Obama prepares for possible action against Syria

Read more

Are liberals smarter than conservatives? Our nitwit media strike again…

CNN reported last week on a new study showing that liberalism, atheism and sexual exclusivity in males are linked to higher IQ scores. The findings are intriguing, for all the obvious reasons. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and

Read more

Finally, a reasonable argument in favor of torture

It’s been maddening over the last few years listening to the “debate” over torture. On the one side you have your basic horde of patchouli-soaked dirty fucking hippie liberals wringing their hands and screeching over anything that damages a terrorist’s self-esteem, while on the other side you have a well-dressed cadre of chicken-hawks who think that Jack Bauer is a

Read more

Ten years on: was Columbine the rule or the exception?

Part two in a series How did it happen? Why did it happen? There’s simply no way to measure how many hours have devoted to these questions in the ten years and four days since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire at Columbine High School, and while we don’t (and never will) have all the answers, we do have

Read more

TunesDay: Can music violate the Geneva Conventions (or the 8th Amendment)?

Yow. If you missed the story, US PsyOps personnel are using music as a torture tactic on captives in Iraq. How silly, you say? Torture someone with music? Well, check out the playlist. “Fuck Your God” – Deicide “Die MF Die” – Dope “Take Your Best Shot” – Dope “White America” – Eminem “Kim” – Eminem “Barney Theme Song” –

Read more

George Will can’t stop lying!

I now know why Elvis shot that TV set. If you missed it, Stephen Colbert’s special guest last night was conservative pundit George Will. I almost typed “addle-headed pathological liar George Will,” but didn’t because I think a cursory look at what he actually said will make that clear enough. Show, don’t tell, as I always instruct my writing students.

Read more

The Daily Brushback: a question about waterboarding…

Today’s question is for three of our nation’s prominent leaders: President George W. Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. John McCain. Q: Mr. President, Sen. McCain, Sen. Lieberman, you’ve all recently made clear your support for waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Since, in your estimation, waterboarding is a legal, effective and harmless tool, is it therefore your belief that it

Read more