2005-12-01T04:03:00-04:00

The contents of the [torture] room, its furnishings, are converted into weapons: the most common instance of this is the bathtub that figures prominently in the reports from numerous countries, but it is only one among many. Men and women being tortured… describe being handcuffed in a constricted position for hours, days, and in some cases months to a chair, to a cot, to a filing cabinet, to a bed; they describe being beaten with “family-sized soft drink bottles” or... Read more

2005-11-29T02:51:00-04:00

LIKE A DEMON EEL THRASHING IN HIS LOINS: Yes, it’s time for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award again. Link probably via Ratty. Read more

2014-12-24T01:23:09-04:00

READ THIS: …”We don’t torture” means that we don’t use worse tactics than [cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment] — except when we do. Waterboarding (in which a prisoner is made to believe he is drowning) and withholding pain medication for bullet wounds cross the line into torture — and both have allegedly been used. So does “Palestinian hanging,” where a prisoner’s arms are twisted behind his back and his wrists are chained five feet above the floor. A Nov. 18... Read more

2005-11-28T17:14:00-04:00

I don’t want another drink or fight, I want a blogwatch… (…Yeah, no.) Dappled Things: “Many of us bloggers and comment box denizens have already written more about sex in the last two months than Ratzinger has in his entire career. “Because the human body matters in Catholicism, the Church does talk about the body and what we do with it. And because sexuality — in all its glorious, irksome, life-giving, broken, purposeful, and unpredictable jumble — is a fundamental... Read more

2005-11-28T15:19:00-04:00

A LITTLE BIT OF TORTURE. A little bit of rape. A little bit of Hell. (And yes, there are gestures at the usual valid points about what really constitutes torture, and can you hit them in the face, but it’s all just apologies for horror in the end, as Krauthammer himself admits. Because nothing is more important than physical safety. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few legs.) [edited slightly for clarity] Read more

2005-11-28T15:16:00-04:00

I DID NOT KNOW THAT: “If you are looking for a really eclectic gift for that Cash fan in your life, perhaps will you want to get Man In White, the recently re-issued novel about St. Paul written by Johnny Cash. Few people are aware that Cash loved biblical-era history and used to sit around with his father in law Ezra ‘Eck’ Carter and read the prolific Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, as well as texts by Roman historian Pliny the... Read more

2005-11-28T13:03:00-04:00

In World War II, one-third of all casualties were psychiatric. … In Vietnam the official psychiatric casualty rate was less than 5 percent. …The official diagnostic manual of the time did not even have a category for what prior generations had called “shell shock” or “combat neurosis” and the next generation would call “post-traumatic stress disorder.” Men broken by combat did not exist–they had been theoretically and administratively ruled out.–Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam–real commentary on this coming soon Read more

2005-11-23T20:26:00-04:00

THANK U VERY MUCH: Am a bit too private (…no, really) to do the blog thing of listing what one is grateful for on this Thanksgiving. Suffice it to say that I thank God for my family and friends; and much else. But Quoth the Maven‘s “thank-you notebook” idea is neat, and likely a good spiritual discipline in hard times. Read more

2005-11-23T20:22:00-04:00

FREE MARKET, FREE WILL, FREE BEER! Chad Wilcox of the Institute for Humane Studies writes: In honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Felix Morley, the Institute for Humane Studies awards $5,000 in cash prizes to outstanding writers whose work reflects the principles of individual and economic freedoms including the First Amendment, voluntarism, the rule of law, and inalienable individual rights. The competition is open to young writers (25 years of age or younger as of December 1, 2005) and all full-time... Read more

2005-11-23T20:17:00-04:00

BEATS WORKIN’. So you guys know that I sold a short story to Doublethink, the magazine of the America’s Future Foundation. (And if you asked me to mail you a copy, know that your copy is not in the mail yet, but will be next week, as I return from hibernation.) I already knew that AFF puts on great “roundtable” events for young libertarians and conservatives in the DC area. I’ve enjoyed scores of their events. I did not know... Read more

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