Much attention has been paid to the national Republican party and whether it can pull itself back from the edge of the cliff that its anti-science and extreme social conservatism and nativism have brought it to. This can be done. Political parties can show remarkable flexibility when their survival is threatened and many of the leaders in the national party have been warning that it has to shift course. [Read more…]
Most people have no idea that almost everything in the Old Testament (the stories of Abraham, the captivity in Egypt, Moses, the exodus, David, Solomon, etc.) have almost no evidence to back them up and are best regarded as myths. [Read more…]
The Republican party has managed to paint itself into a corner with its adamant stand against an increase in the marginal rates for the top 2% of income earners, even though that was the signature issue that Barack Obama campaigned on and won, and polls show consistent and considerable support for it. The party is now faced with finding ways to get around what is clearly a weak position and various proposals are circulating that would supposedly raise the same amount of revenue as a marginal tax rate increase and provide them with a face-saving compromise. [Read more…]
The ongoing debate as to whether Jesus was a historical figure or a unified character created later by cobbling together various legends circulating at that time is pretty interesting. But suppose that we grant that such a figure actually lived, and that his life corresponded broadly to the narratives found in the Bible, but do not accept his divinity and the resurrection. It is fairly easy to discount the miraculous elements of his life but the difficult remaining question is what happened to him in the end? [Read more…]
The Boy Scouts of America, long considered a wholesome activity for young boys that taught them useful skills and bred good citizenship, is now under siege. I was never a boy scout myself but if I recall correctly, it had a policy of requiring them do at least one good deed every day and the William stories by Richmal Crompton would have as a recurring comic plot line the mayhem that would ensure when her title character would fall behind in his good deeds and try to get back of schedule by cramming many good deeds into one day. [Read more…]
Conservative Erick Erickson, searching for a culprit for Republican losses in the last election other than the conservative message itself, finds it in the greedy and incestuous world of political consultants within the Romney campaign, where a small, tight band of people enriched themselves by charging huge fees to give ‘advice’ to the candidate that resulted in campaign money flowing to companies that they themselves were associated with. [Read more…]
The creator of such iconic muppet characters as Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ms. Piggy, and Animal (before handing them off to other people to devote more time to film directing) appeared to discuss the release of the director’s cut of his hit film Little Shop of Horrors. [Read more…]
At his hearing, the alleged Wikileaks leaker describes his harsh treatment while being detained and how he tried to keep himself sane.
The more he protested the harsh conditions under which he was being held, the more that was taken as evidence that he was a suicide risk, leading to yet more tightening of the restrictions imposed upon him.
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He was under constant observation, made to go to the toilet in full view of the guards, had all possessions removed from his cell, spent at times only 20 minutes outside his cell and even then was always chained in hand and leg irons.
He told a sergeant that he thought was sympathetic to him that these precautions were useless since if he wanted to commit suicide, he could do it with his flip-flops and his underwear.
That night guards arrived at his cell and ordered him to strip naked. He was left without any clothes overnight, and the following morning made to stand outside his cell and stand to attention at the brig count, still nude, as officers inspected him.
The humiliating ritual continued for several days, and right until the day he was transferred from Quantico on 20 April 2011 he had his underwear removed every night. The brig authorities later stated that in their view the exceptional depriving of an inmate’s underpants was a necessary precaution, in the light of his ominous comments about using his underwear and flip-flops to harm himself.
They piled one petty humiliation upon another.
The cell contained a toilet that was in the line of vision of the observation booth, and he was not allowed toilet paper. When he needed it, he told the court, he would stand to attention by the front bars of the cell and shout out to the observation guards: “Lance Corporal Detainee Manning requests toilet paper!”
It seems clear that they were trying to break him mentally.
He was put on a schedule whereby he would be woken up at 10 o’clock at night and given lights out at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. “My nights blended into my days and my days into nights,” he told the court.
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At night the light situation was even worse. Because he was considered a possible risk of self-harm throughout his time at Quantico, he was under observation throughout the night, with a fluorescent light located right outside the cell blazing into his eyes. While asleep he would frequently cover his eyes with his suicide blanket, or turn on to his side away from the light, and on those occasions, sometimes three times a night, the guards would bang on his cell bars to wake him up so they could see his face.
It is a chilling account. It would drive anyone crazy.
Yesterday saw a significant step forward for the Palestinians. The United Nations General Assembly voted to admit Palestine to ‘non-member observer State’ status, a step up from its previous status as an observer ‘entity’. The vote breakdown was overwhelmingly in favor with 138 voting yes, just 9 against, 41 abstentions and 5 countries not taking part in the voting. The text of the resolution can be seen here and how each country voted can be seen here. [Read more…]