I don’t have a whole lot to add to the discussion of the torture memos that doesn’t echo what has already been said. Of the two debates currently taking place about the implications of the memos—one about whether preventing another terrorist attack justifies torture and another about whether or not to bring those responsible to justice—I am only really interested in the latter. To borrow a quote from On Torture, a compilation of essays about torture that I’m currently...

Here’s why I can’t take these “tea party” protests seriously: In an op-ed in the WSJ, Glenn Reynolds’ first sentence declares that thousands of taxpayers are taking to the streets “to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending.” If government spending is your pet peeve, then fine, protest the Obama administration’s spending projects, but please try to offer an alternative, reasonable way to stimulate the economy. But to protest taxes...

A Republican legislator in Texas, Betty Brown, is refusing to back down after suggesting Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with” during House testimony on voter identification legislation. Specifically, she said: “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily...

Is it just me, or are those lines getting awfully close to each other?

I don’t think his approval ratings ever dropped low enough to call this a second honeymoon, but Obama’s non-State of the Union on Tuesday boosted his job approval ratings back near all-time highs. Overall, his approval went from 59% before to 67% after—a respectable jump. But the most interesting result from the Gallup survey was the change in Republican support: Before the speech, 27% of Republicans approved of Obama, and that had held steady for a couple of polling cycles; after...

Joe warned that Bobby Jindal was headed for trouble if comedians latched on to his poor performance following Obama’s Tuesday address, and it looks like the comparisons to the “Kenneth the Page” character from NBC’s 30 Rock aren’t going away. Here’s “Kenneth” responding to the comparisons:

So far, the reactions to Obama’s speech last night have been very, very positive. Unlike the post-debate snap polls, where pundits saw a weak performance but the public rated Obama highly, everyone seems to agree that Obama was at the top of his game. Some numbers: 63% approved of President Obama’s plans for dealing with the economic crisis before the speech; 80% approved after, according to a CBS poll. A CNN poll found that 68% of speech-watchers had a “very positive” reaction,...

Wil Robinson has an interesting report on a new effort to convince Afghan farmers to switch from growing opium poppies to pomegranates to export to world markets. The man spearheading the effort thinks that, not only does Afghanistan produce “best pomegranates in the world,” but sales of pomegranates on the global market could outstrip the value to Afghanistan of the opium industry. Robinson sees problems, however: First we must put aside the obvious economics behind supply and demand,...

“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to...

How many times do sentient killer robots have to turn against and enslave the human race in science fiction books and films before we realize that building killer sentient robots is generally not a good idea? The guy quoted in this article thinks half the U.S. military will be “half machine, half human” by 2015. Haven’t the people working on this technology watched The Matrix? Terminator? I, Robot? This will not end well: “We are at a point of revolution in war, like the...

Cities in Italy have begun banning kebabs and other foreign foods, in what they say is an attempt to “promote local specialties from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines.” To be more specific, new ethnic food outlets are not allowed, and existing establishments are pressured to use only Italian ingredients. The recipe for this ridiculousness is simple: Mix a little anti-immigration hysteria with a helping of excessive economic protectionism, add a dash of stupidity and just a smidgen...

“We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer. They don’t get it. These people are idiots. You can’t use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses.” - U.S. Senator Claire McKaskill, after introducing legislation that would cap salaries in companies that receive federal bailout money at $400,000. “If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment. It means less spending...

Al Qaeda is coming after Obama hard, not with missiles or rockets, but with a PR campaign designed to turn moderate Muslims against the new President. I predicted this when al-Zawahri released a tape calling Obama a house negro. Before he even took office Al Qaeda was blaming him for the violence in Gaza and calling him a “hypocrite,” a “killer” of innocents, an “enemy of Muslims.” The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a...

Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings points to a very important phrase in the comments President Obama made as he signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo detention facility within a year: “The message we are sending around the world is that the US intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals … We...

It’s a question worth pondering the day before the first African American is sworn in as President of the United States. Two-thirds of African Americans believe the answer is yes, according to a new CNN poll. That’s double the numbers in a similar poll last March. White Americans aren’t quite as optimistic: Only 46% say the country has fulfilled King’s vision. It is tough to answer. Obama’s election doesn’t mean matters of race are suddenly “solved.”...

TA Frank in The Guardian contemplates what a delightfully boring eight years it might have been: No one thought Al Gore would be a loveable president, but, after eight years in the White House, he has gotten truly tiresome. The droning voice, the purchase of an eco-friendly robot dog, the campaign for carbon-free diamonds – all these things were hard to take, and he has been way too smug about reversing global warming. I think we’ve gone too far in the opposite direction, especially...

I guess I’m not all that surprised by a surge in SUV sales now that gas prices have dropped. Supply and demand, that’s how it works—or how it’s supposed to work—right? Still, I didn’t think we’d put a hand back on the stove so soon after getting burned. The details: Trucks and sport utility vehicles will outsell cars for the first time since February, according to a December report by Edmunds.com, which tracks industry statistics. “Despite all the...

It was first defined at Legal Insurrection as a “a condition in which one’s mood swings up and down in sync with the level of blog traffic.” The Other McCain expands on two closely-related syndromes: SiteMeter Fever – A neurosis typified by obsessively refreshing your SiteMeter to see if your traffic has increased since the last time you checked it, seven minutes ago. Bloggernoia — This psychotic disorder involves the suspicion that other bloggers have malevolent motives...

Everything, it seems, has a price: Want to be a provincial police chief? It will cost you $100,000. Want to drive a convoy of trucks loaded with fuel across the country? Be prepared to pay $6,000 per truck, so the police will not tip off the Taliban. Need to settle a lawsuit over the ownership of your house? About $25,000, depending on the judge. “It is very shameful, but probably I will pay the bribe,” Mohammed Naim, a young English teacher, said as he stood in front of the Secondary Courthouse...

I’m sometimes at a loss for words when writing about Afghanistan because I have family there, because I know many ordinary Afghans see the United States as an unwelcome occupying force at this point, because I believe that we’ve seriously dropped the ball and have an obligation to ensure the Taliban never regains power, and because I don’t have a clue what the right strategy is. That’s why reading articles like this one pisses me off to no end. A snippet: Taleban militants...

I’m skeptical, but there’s data. Taller people average about 1.5% higher wages, and that holds up for both men and women. Researchers attribute about half of that to higher educational attainment and half due to taller people selecting higher status occupations. But does that mean they’re smarter? I wonder if there isn’t some sort of difficult-to-measure confidence variable that gives taller individuals an advantage. That is, biologically we’re inclined to perceive...

Remember a few years ago when social conservatives flocked to see March of the Penguins because, in part, penguins are one of only six monogamous animals on the planet and their story was supposed to reinforce the innate beauty of monogamy… or something? Well, it looks like penguins can once again serve as a metaphor for culture war social issues. A couple of gay penguins in a zoo in China have been thrown out of their colony for trying to steal the eggs of other parent couples (”I told...

Looks like the NATO forces in Afghanistan are indirectly funding the Taliban insurgency they’re fighting against. The Times has the story of why contractors supplying military bases are forced to pay protection money to the Taliban in order to avoid attacks: The business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. These must run the gauntlet of the increasingly dangerous...

Via Secular Right comes this interesting graph suggesting people who pray more tend to be more partisan (or perhaps people who are more partisan tend to pray more). One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers offers up the best explanation I’ve seen: “The more willing you are to “believe” in anything, the more likely you are to “believe” in something else.” But it isn’t necessarily a lack of belief that makes one a moderate or independent. I don’t...

Obama plans to give what he called “a major address” in an “Islamic capital” soon after taking office. Would he do it in Baghdad maybe? Somewhere in Saudi Arabia? Either way, it will do a lot of good. The whole clash-of-civilizations theory was in many ways a self-fulfilling prophecy. It didn’t have to be that way, even after September 11. But Bush’s with-us-or-against us approach drove a wedge between moderates in both cultures. Not that Obama will capitulate...