The Obama administration recently released four controversial OLC memos (in largely unredacted form; available here ) that discuss in detail specific harsh interrogation techniques that, in the opinion of the memo authors, are permissible under certain circumstances. The Obama administration has withdrawn the memos but has also promised that those who carried out procedures authorized as legal will not face prosecution. Partially for my own convenience in organizing my thoughts and partially in response to some discussion I've seen elsewhere, I wanted to make a few simple points.

 

Acid attack victim invokes Islamic retribution

Iranian woman blinded by man persuades court to punish him in similar way

 

Not that more pervasive external audits would not increase the number of frauds discovered, but past history shows that external auditors have not been the most productive in discovering fraud and auditors neither work under the assumption that the dishonest nor assumes unquestioned honesty.

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen at MR .

Harvard economist (and Republican-leaning citizen) Greg Mankiw gives Obama some good advice moving forward.

It's a short but good read.

After congratulating Obama on his historic win, Mankiw turns to economic policy and takes a cursory look at some broad issues on the forth-coming policy agenda with some advice.

In short these tips are:

A law suit filed by former shareholders of former Russian oil giant Yukos is making its way through the European Union's court system.

Shareholders argue that the Russian Federation violated a major international energy pact - the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by buying bankrupt forcefully bankrupting and acquiring Yukos and failing to compensate shareholders.

Quite obviously, everyone wants their party/candidate/issue to win or otherwise gain power. I wish to discover at what cost people are willing to ensure their candidate wins. The trend I'm beginning to see in our increasingly hyper-partisan and polarized politics is that this line is shifting, but in the wrong direction.

Well everyone here seemed to think that those poor demonstrators were being unfairly targeted, and had their civil liberties violated - well now it appears your comrades have now begun destroying property in town - and doing their thing - whatever terrorists do!

The Supreme Court recently heard a challenge to the DC handgun ban in a case that has the potential to definitively clarify the Second Amendment , which states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There has been a long-standing debate between gun rights activists and gun control advocates as to whether this describes an individual right or whether it applies only in the context of a regulated militia. The ruling is not expected until June, but based on questioning before the Court, it appears likely that a majority of Justices will rule that the DC ban is unconstitutional.

Apparently more than a few northeast Ohio Republicans decided to cross over in the March 4th primary and presumably vote for Hillary Clinton by choosing a Democratic partisan ballot.

We're used to hearing about partisans trying to game the system by voting insincerely for a candidate that they don't support. Democrats attempted exactly the same thing in Michigan by voting for Mitt Romney since they knew their votes for President would not be counted due to DNC rules. But Ohio law is very different from Michigan law regarding the procedure in primary elections.

Specter asked me, when I posted a pic of my new son, what his name was. I meant to answer, but by the time I got back to that thread I figured it was a little late to reply. As it happens, his name is Elliot. When we picked his name we googled it (and common variants), looking for any infamous namesakes, and almost everything that came up was good -- the kid from ET, the corruption-fighting Governor of New York. A few short weeks later, Spitzer has resigned in disgrace after it came out that he paid large sums of money for sex. Thanks a lot, Eliot Spitzer!

It's worth looking back briefly to how this happened.

Some resources that might be useful for a debate on the drug war, and a place for commentary on the debate or general discussion of this topic.

In 1993, in West Memphis Arkansas, three children were murdered and three teenagers were convicted of these murders. The plight of these convicts was documented in the 1996 film Paradise Lost , which made the case that these teenagers had been wrongly convicted due to local prejudice against their counter-cultural attitudes. Additional evidence has been revealed that casts further doubt upon their guilt.

Promoted by John. Good topic.

Just like drug use in this country, the drug war is constantly evolving. The history of drug use and the drug war has been documented by VH1 in "The Drug Years ", but what does the future hold? Here are two developments that I suspect will have a substantial impact on the future of the drug war:

News item: Sex with robots 'not far away'

Not coincidentally...

Republicans count on 'sex robots' to limit `08 convention sex scandals

Important topic. - Promoted by Specter

Although I don't normally watch the TV program, "Dr. Phil", today's program about the school shootings, especially the more recent ones in Cleveland and in Crandon, WI, sounded interesting, so I decided to tune in today's "Dr. Phil" program for the heck of it.

Among the guests on today's program were a criminal profiler/author and the authors of a couple of books about the supposed psychology of the shooters and so on. Now for the points of my essay:

First, let us not talk around this subject. Although I think all of our borders should be secure, the whole issue with securing the border is focused on our southern border with Mexico as a result of the Mexican citizens (and other non-U.S. citizens) crossing that border. This issue has been distorted by all political parties in an attempt to win favor and votes. Before I provide a solution to this problem, let me try and persuade you to consider how to look at what we have come to know as illegal immigration.

(Alright, my second favorite thing)

the Boring Coalition Against Drug Crime

Boring, Oregon, is a small community outside of Portland. I have a friend who puts on community theater at the lcal grange hall (yes, Boring actually has a grange hall). While seeing one of his plays I found this pamphlet and fell deeply in love.

There's a part of me that wants to assume that the good simple folks of Boring are in on the joke, but having stood in that grange I suspect the opposite.

Great idea, promoted by Brendan

With the election "just around the corner" according to our Beloved Media, there has been no restraint on the media to declare next year's Election outcomes for 2008 President. This is the earliest start of the Presidential Race. (In contrast, Clinton entered the race for President in October 1991, not February of that year. Bush started his journey in June 1999.) Granted, there are still a few people who are waiting for the right time to jump into this election--yet, the media has done a terrific job this year crowning the candidates down to the one's they like. It's an old practice. Take for instance, the Media Oracles' predictions before the 2004 Iowa Caucus:

Welcome to my coming-out party. No, sorry pico; it’s not that kind of ‘coming-out.’ :-)

For my inaugural front page diary, I wish to start by stating that I will try to present the type of material I find most interesting: those issues that have no clear-cut or established partisan answers. Let’s go beyond the important but often trite partisan debates we have around here and examine what it means to be an American citizen in the 21st century. What are our obligations? What are our values? What are our goals? Most significantly in regards to our mission here of inter-ideological dialogue, what are our rights in the current political climate?

I have suspected for sometime that Dr Bob's RWA's were more than a statistical anomaly, and perhaps also a pathology not a lot different from depression or schizophrenia, containing a wide range of severity and a somewhat nebulous array of symptoms that, taken together, still have clinical meaning.

Missing from this Idea was specific causes and what mechanics might be involved. I suspected trauma as a place to start, as I had seen Religious cults, and groups that behave as cults zero in on PTSD like sharks smelling blood. What I had missed was the possibility that the biggest pool of recruits was abused, and neglected children.