Chuck for ...

Devil's Dictionary: patriotism A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. That's a little rough, but in light of...

This really stings. The NYT reports on the origins of a training chart used in Guantanamo which is: The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War“ and written by Albert D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners...

Now there's a silly question, right? It would be silly if it weren't for the McCain campaign's activities. All the McCain campaigns. Gen Wes Clark makes a point that being shot down isn't a qualification for CiC and the stuff hits the fan. According to the McCain campaign he's being attacked on his service, which isn't an issue. If it is not an issue, then why does it feature so prominently...

John McCain is a big booster of the Columbia trade agreement, John McCain travels to Columbia, Columbia rescues hostages after over 6 years. Coincidence? John Kerry V George W Bush, Terror Alerts Coincidence? I don't like governmental coincidences and elections, much....

“I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.“ - Lewis Clark and Court of Appeals DC Circuit may make you wonder what the heck. With some derision for the Bush administration“s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret...

Today Joe Horn was cleared by a grand jury in the shooting deaths of two people burgling his neighbor's home. The Houston Chronicle has more details but the essence is pretty simple, Mr Horn was in his home when he heard breaking glass, saw two men entering his neighbor's home and called 911. While conversing with the operator about going to see what he could do carrying a shotgun and being...

Generally speaking humankind seems to have a desire to have a Supreme Being, a Creator of the Universe. This would seem to bear some implications for His attributes, the size and scope of the creation. All the stars we can and cannot see down to the subatomic particles making up all of that creation infer a huge act of creation, something well beyond the scope of human concrete conception. We can...