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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Just Keep Winning 'SC

Doesn't matter by how many points.

It's Probably Like Time Travel

Ok, I passed the California Bar Exam, generally regarded as the toughest in the country, on my first try. So I'd really like to know if there's any way I can transform my law degree from a non-ABA school into a law degree from an ABA school.

Friday, September 29, 2006

In a Word...

Absolutely. And it isn't torture. (See especially Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8).

Update: The Case For Waterboarding

Although waterboarding is normally employed as the last resort and the frequency of its use kept secret, it has been made known that so far it has worked every time it has been tried. Thanks to its extraordinary efficacy, we have been able to obtain a great amount of critical intelligence that would have otherwise remained inaccessible. With the help of this information we have captured al-Qaeda operatives, stopped deadly plots, and saved many innocent lives. One of the fruits of Mohammed’s confession, to give one example, was the thwarting of a conspiracy to fly an airliner into the Library Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles.

Given these facts, it is almost incomprehensible that there are some people in this country who insist that we relinquish this life-saving tool. Resting their objections on ethical grounds, they try to convince us that the procedure is morally unacceptable. But theirs is a misguided stance, since careful consideration shows that waterboarding is in fact one of the least injurious among interrogation techniques.

To see why this is so, it is enough to contrast it with the most common approach which involves a combination of sleep deprivation and cold exposure. Frequently requiring days and even weeks to break the captive’s spirit, it carries a real possibility of long-term physical and psychological damage. Worse still, it often fails to achieve the desired effect with the result that the captive is subjected to prolonged hardships, but we still end up without the information we so urgently need.

Waterboarding, on the other hand, is fleeting in duration with the actual discomfort lasting seldom more than a couple of minutes. And since a man can be safely deprived of oxygen for at least twice as long, there is almost no risk of long-term harm. The possibility of injury is further reduced by the fact that the procedure calls for no direct physical contact between the subject and his interrogators. Not even as much as pushing or chest slapping is required at any time, making waterboarding one of the safest and least confrontational among interrogation methods. Involving the lowest risk of long-term harm and the least amount of cumulative discomfort, it is also the most humane. Most importantly, it is the most effective.


Update 2 (9/30/06): So, in Mark Shea's anti-"torture" world, would these guys be regarded as pro-torture torture victims?

Thursday, September 28, 2006

ATM for Jay-sus!

Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Evangelical Mega-Church, although it appears that at least one Catholic diocese in the U.S. had seriously thought about using an "Automatic Tithing Machine".

Those kinds of reservations emerged in Baton Rouge, La., before Baker went into business. About three years ago, the Roman Catholic diocese there worked with a Canadian company to produce a machine that would accept bank card donations from churchgoers. Church officials hoped to place it in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, an imposing Gothic Revival building near the banks of the Mississippi River that dates to the 1850s.

It's not an Aerosmith kind of place. Church officials eventually changed their minds.

"I think that when it actually came time to put a kiosk in the back of a cathedral, it just wasn't quite, well — I'd like to say 'kosher,' but we're Catholic," said Mark Blanchard, the stewardship director for the diocese.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

7-11Eleven Drops Citgo

That would be the Citgo owned by the country of Venezuela, which is currently being ruled by the sulphur sniffing Hugo Chavez.

As a long time Big Gulp and Big Bite Hot Dog consumer, I salute your decision 7-11Eleven! Now, about those semi-pornographic "mens' magazines" you keep displaying in front of the cash registers...

Monday, September 25, 2006

A Place for Mark Shea

Never let it be said that the "Party of Torture" doesn't have a big tent.

Update: Shea gets taken down by Victor Morton (not sure if it's the same Victor Morton who occasionaly writes for National Review).
Yeah, Mel's an Idiot

He follows up drunken stupid remarks about Jews with (apparently) sober stupid remarks about the U.S. military in Iraq.

It's one thing to be against the war; it's quite another to basically suggest that military personnel are a bunch of lemmings. Borrowing from Laura Ingraham, shut up and act or direct movies, Mel.

Sunday, September 24, 2006