The shameful treatment of Khaled el-Masri by the US

The Guardian reported last week that in a historic unanimous verdict, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, Europe’s highest court, said that, “CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on.” The person who suffered such horrendous abuse was the wholly innocent Khaled el-Masri, shown below with his family, who had the misfortune to have a name similar to that of an al Qaeda suspect wanted by the CIA. [Read more…]

Religious reactions to the shootings

When violence strikes innocent people close to home, you can expect religious leaders to immediately scramble to explain how their god can allow such things to happen. Some, like Bryan Fischer and Mike Huckabee, have suggested that god is punishing people for excluding religion from schools. Others are more aware that such a message it not particularly good public relations for their god and try to square the events with a god who is good and not easily irked into fits of violence. [Read more…]

How things change

Phil Burress is president of the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values. Any group that has the words ‘traditional’, ‘family’, ‘values’, and the like in its title is likely to be narrow-minded and this one is no exception. CCV is one of those groups that fights for ‘Judeo-Christian moral values’ and ‘has been ‘protecting the family since 1983’ mainly, it seems, by fighting against pornography and homosexuality. [Read more…]

How mass killings should be covered

Although I own a TV, it is used almost exclusively to watch DVDs and I have not watched TV news or any programs in ages, preferring to get both via the radio or the internet. But I can imagine that there must have been wall-to-wall coverage of the shootings at the elementary school last week. My local newspaper the Plain Dealer had massive front-page, above the fold coverage of the news on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday even though the events took place in a distant state and had no local connection. [Read more…]

Support the Freedom of the Press Foundation

I am a big supporter of WikiLeaks and similar organizations that seek to increase government transparency. I contributed money until credit card agencies refused to allow payments to it, because of fear of offending the US government. I now hear of an excellent new organization called the Freedom of the Press Foundation that works towards increasing government transparency by encouraging whistleblowers and investigative journalism. [Read more…]