Thursday, November 17, 2005

Panda Cam

Animal Planet has a Panda Cam for Mei Xiang, a giant panda, and her cub, Tai Shan, at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Oh so very cute!

Product of Torture

Not only is torture an unreliable way of getting good intelligence, it's a reliable way of getting bad intelligence.

One source the White House relied on, handed over by Ahmad Chalabi, I think, was an individual whose name can be mispronounced "I'm a Shaky Alibi". Under torture he provided false information regarding weapons of mass destruction, which the White House then cited as evidence supporting the rush to war.

So in one sense torture is both foundation and product of the dire predicament we are in - pouring our treasure and blood into the desert.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Spong Dismantles Robertson

A thoughtful essay about Pat Robertson is to be found at Daily Kos. I'm not sure who Bishop John Shelby Spong is, maybe you have heard of him, but he is obviously a very smart fellow:

I want to make only two points about this issue. First, I wonder who, other than Pat himself, designated Pat Robertson to be God's spokesperson? How dare Pat assume that the God revealed in the Jesus I serve is filled with all of Pat's peculiar prejudices. Why does he not understand that God is God and Pat Robertson is not? Why does he not see that when he tells the world with an unashamed certainty what God thinks and what God will do, he is only revealing what he thinks and what he would do if he had God's power? Pat needs to understand that he is acting out the very meaning of idolatry. He has confused God with himself.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

My Dinner With Ahmad

Arianna Huffington has an account of her dinner with Ahmad Chalabi. I like the way she puts this:
There is no way he is going to get Rumsfeld and Cheney, steeped in the neocon "you're either at the table or on the menu" ethos, to agree to limit the powers of the U.S. army.

Monday, November 14, 2005

I won't sully my archive list by putting his name in the title

But Bill O'Reilly is apparently a terrorist sympathizer.