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My morning
There are lots of places to go on the web where you can see wonderful pictures of culinary works of art.
Or you can come here and see what I had for breakfast.
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An open letter to Karen Hughes on torture – Salon.com
An open letter to Karen Hughes on torture – Salon.com :
Torture is state-sanctioned deviant behavior. It is degrading, arbitrary, cruel and illegal. As all responsible intelligence officers know, torture is the least productive technique of all, and torture yields inherently tainted information. Torture destroys the humanity of more than those tortured. It destroys the souls of those performing the torture. When Americans torture, Americans are shattered. Torture feeds secrecy. It undermines democracy. And it is shameful. Even the Gestapo and the KGB tried to hide their torture. Torture is considered uncivilized by most of the world’s nations. At the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals, the U.S. tried, convicted and executed Nazi leaders for engaging in torture. Those that do not adhere to international treaties against torture are rightly branded rogue nations. Torture is the mark of tyrannies.
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Not a week goes by without President Bush citing Saddam Hussein’s cruelty and butchery as a justification. The tragic irony of pursuing his torture policy while denouncing Saddam’s appears to be lost on him and on you. But it is not lost on the rest of the world.
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Soon you will be reminiscing about the Bush presidency. Will you be agitated and depressed like your former colleagues described in the recent Washington Post report? Will you persist in fantasies of denial? Or you will be, as Comey* suggested you should be, “ashamed”?
* Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey
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Writing what you know
I could write about travel. I could tell amusing anecdotes. I could tell you where this entry is going, if only I knew.
At the moment I know about colds. Adam’s nose looks more like a Superfund site than a piece of harmless human anatomy. Beth thinks it’s really cool that she’s loosing her voice. I’m on the brink of a critical shortage of Motrin.
I’m wondering how much better my photography would be with a fancy new DSLR. The painstakingly programed consumer in me is convinced that the road to bliss begins with a new Nikon D40. It’s hard to remember that a month ago that road was supposed to begin with a new iMac, but somehow I got lost.
(Not that the new iMac isn’t a wonderful piece of hardware – it’s been great; but the answer to all mankind’s ills it ain’t.)
My idle mind has been working overtime to scheme up ways to scrape up a little dough for this latest obsession. Maybe a small withdrawal from our home equity line of credit is in order? Maybe if I put a Google ad on my blog, and convinced all of my readers to log into 100 different computers with different IP addresses and click on each add from each one, every day? Maybe there’s still someplace that buys plasma? (It was really big when I was in college.) Maybe someone would pay big money for an old computer collection? Bondi Blue iMac anyone? I’ll throw in a mint MacPlus for free on winning bids over $300. Maybe I could stand on the highway with a cardboard sign that read, “will sing for camera money.” (Would I get a few bucks for gall points?)