Are all our troops torturers? No.

Patrick: My brother sent me photos of American soldiers playing with Iraqi children, with some captions about how they were torturing the children. I took this as a sarcastic attack on the articles against torture that I've recently posted. Here's my response to my brother:

I would never accuse all, or even most, of our troops of being guilty of torture, or other crimes. There's a lot of decent kids that get sent to war who don't want to torture (or even kill in self defense, if they could avoid it). I'm sure that many of the troops do care about the Iraqi people. However...

I'll never be convinced that we had good reasons to go to war against Iraq.

And I'll never be convinced that torture or "enhanced interrogation techniques" are OK. I'm dead set against torture, for various reasons. If some smart guy, like Cheney, asks me what would I do if I KNEW that some terrorist had information that could help me save lots of lives, I suppose I'd say,

1. "A lot of times, you may have been advising the torture of people that you didn't even KNOW were terrorists, much less KNOW that they had important information that would save lives. Don't try to fool me with your clever question, Mr. Vice President."

2. Then I might admit, "Maybe, in a moment of unprincipled weakness and cowardice, I'd give in to the temptation to torture some guy I (thought I) KNEW had important information. But I still believe it ought to be against the law."

When our laws are shaped by a mere survival instinct, we are on a road that leads to a destination that won't have much to do with the Bill of Rights, etc.

Sorry that my sense of humor is nil when it comes to torture and Bush and Cheney. I still love you, bro.

Patrick

More about Torture under Bush Administration

Greg Mitchell U.S. Soldier Killed Herself -- After Refusing to Take Part in Torture

Greg Mitchell Part II: Soldier Who Killed Herself -- After Refusing to Take Part in Torture

Paul Begala Yes, National Review, We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding

Shepard Smith Uncensored: "We Are America, We Do Not Torture!" (VIDEO)

Patrick: I'm pleasantly surprised that a Fox journalist was allowed to speak out against enhanced interrogation techniques (Orewellian for "torture").

CIA Official: No Proof Harsh Techniques Stopped Terror Attacks

"Daily Show" Takes On Torture Supporters (VIDEO)

Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)

Patrick: Please, somebody, give Sean what he asks for!

Howard Schweber:
Torture and the Problem of Constitutional Evil: The Way Forward

AP

Howard Schweber: Based on the evidence that is publicly available, I have no hesitation in asserting that Judge Bybee should be subjected to impeachment proceedings, and that Bybee, Yoo, Addington et al. should face disbarment proceedings to determine whether they have violated their fundamental professional responsibilities. Not because the actions they justified were evil, and not even because the actions they justified were unconstitutional, but because they used their art to creatively discover hitherto unknown ways to find justifications for evil and unconstitutional actions. Click here to read more.

Cenk Uygur: What if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Had Died?

I know what conservatives are screaming into their computers: "But he didn't die! None of them died. So, your question is an absurd hypothetical." In fact, many of them did die.

Bob Cesca: The Tortured Logic of the Torture Superfans

If we can't protect ourselves with our morals intact, we don't deserve to be protected in the first place.

What's the message? Pure hatred?

The Constitution Party sent me an email asking me to send a letter to CNN protesting the bias of one of their reporters. Here's the beginning of it, with the video link:

Tell CNN Bosses Bias Is Bad for Business

By now you've probably seen the Youtube video of CNN's Susan Roesgen, a reporter who harrassed and goaded attendees at Thursday's Chicago Tea Party.

CNN Reporter Slams "Tea-Bagger" For Obama/Nazi ...

Here's my response: It seems obvious that the reporter was very upset by the Hitler poster of Obama. After that, she lost her objectivity. The poor girl was in shock and unable to act in a professional manner after seeing that display of pure hatred. She shouldn't have gotten so emotionally involved; but I can understand her reaction.

If tax-protesters and other conservatives want their message heard, they'd better remember Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message." If you present the message in a mean, ugly manner, it will just be heard as meanness and ugliness. Tax protesters should have taken a lesson from Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in how to protest and smile at the same time.

Conservatives will never win the hearts and minds of others by using Hitler analogies. Why not write something about THAT!

Patrick Mulhaney

Here are some examples of the ugly, mean-spirited message in posters (see below). Such displays of hatred will eventually, I'm afraid, go way beyond poster-making. And they won't win any debate about important issues.

Head Joins the Body: Ex-Korn Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch Tells His Story
by Troy Anderson for Christianity Today (8.13.07)

With Easter fresh on our minds, read how heavy metal rocker Brian “Head” Welch experienced new life by an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Welch, 37, now lives in Arizona, where he spends time with his 9-year-old daughter while writing enough Christian songs to fill three albums. The first album is expected to release in late 2007 under Welch's name. A number of other famous musicians contributed to the album, including Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle), and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel). The songs are about his spiritual transformation, and one called "Save Me from Myself" is specifically about how God set him free from drugs and alcohol.

Welch today with 9-year-old Jennea

Happy Easter!

THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD

by N. T. Wright

N. T. Wright takes us on a fascinating journey through ancient beliefs about life after death from the shadowy figures who inhabit Homer's Hades, through Plato's hope for a blessed immortality, to the first century, where the Greek and Roman world (apart from the Jews) consistently denied any possibility of resurrection. We then examine ancient Jewish bekiefs on the same subject, from the Bible to the Dead Sea Scrolls and beyond.

This was the scene for a full-scale examination of early Christian beliefs about the resurrection in general and that of Jesus in particular, beginning with Paul and working through to the start of the third century. Wright looks at all the evidence, and into it — aross the board — significant modifications?

To answer this question we come to the strange and evocative Easter stories in the gospels and ask whether they can have been late inventions. Wright seeks the best historical conclusions about the empty tomb and the belief that Jesus really did rise bodily from the dead, recognizing that it was this belief that caused early Christians to call Jesus 'Son of God'. In doing so, they posed a political challenge as well as a theological one. These challenges retain their power in the twenty-first century.

Book Contents

Antony Flew, N. T. Wright, and the Resurrection of Jesus ...

Antony Flew, N. T. Wright, and the Resurrection of Jesus. Craig Blomberg's picture. By Craig Blomberg - Posted on March 12th, 2008 ...
blog.bible.org/primetimejesus/content/antony-flew,-n.-t.-wright,-and-resurrection-jesus - 24k - Cached - Similar pages -

Quick overview of N.T. Wright’s case for the resurrection ...

I thought I would just go over a paper from N.T. Wright, whose multi-volume case for the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus seems to be getting ...
winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/quick-overview-of-nt-wrights-case-for-the-resurrection/ - 51k - Cached - Similar pages -

A New Creation: Reflections from Isaiah 65
from Mennonite Central Committee

In Isaiah 65 there is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth that is promised to all God's redeemed people. Watch a slideshow that brings those promises to life.

Loving the Despised

Your ePistle for April 8, 2009

Despised and rejected, sick and suffering, brokenhearted and alone: Today, within your reach, a person fitting this description struggles to face another day. At this very moment—in your neighborhood, in your place of work, in your congregation—someone suffers alone. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Jesus, who experienced virtually every hardship during his earthly life, understands their struggle. Jesus’ own people, troubled by his unconventional teaching, avoided him and accused him of insanity: “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” (John 10:20) And Jesus, who reached out time and again to those society rejected—the demon-possessed, the diseased, the corrupt, the compromised—expects us to reach out to these same people, on his behalf, today.

(If you’d like to read more, click here.)

Kristyn Komarnicki
Editor, Christ & Culture, PRISM Magazine

Jacob Heilbrunn: Obama's Bold Iran Move

AP

Jacob Heilbrunn: The Obama administration's announcement today that it will directly participate in meetings with Iran about its nuclear program is not appeasement or capitulation or kowtowing or any other unflattering term that holdouts on the right will deploy. Instead, it is an overdue move. It isn't America that's put on the spot by Obama's policy shift. It's Iran. As the New Yorker reports this week, Iran is in ferment. With elections coming up, the religious hardliners are in a tough position. They can't simply reject Obama's overtures out of hand. In essence, Obama is calling the regime's bluff. Click here to read more.

April 07, 2009 March Madness, 1939 By Patrick J. Buchanan

On Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler's panzers smashed into Poland. Two days later, an anguished Neville Chamberlain declared war, the most awful war in all of history.

Was the war inevitable? No. No war is inevitable until it has begun. Was it a necessary war? Hearken to Churchill: "One day, President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once, 'The Unnecessary War.' There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world ... ."

But if the war need not have happened, what caused it? Let us go back to Munich.

Click here to continue reading Pat Buchanan's column

Was Easter Borrowed from a Pagan Holiday?
The historical evidence contradicts this popular notion.
By Anthony McRoy

Anyone encountering anti-Christian polemics will quickly come up against the accusation that a major festival practiced by Christians across the globe—namely, Easter—was actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration. I often encounter this idea among Muslims who claim that later Christians compromised with paganism to dilute the original faith of Jesus. Click to continue.

Peter Pinkley's startling vision of the future:

Peter Pinkley's startling vision of the future:

"Mark my words! I predict that in the very near future, 61% of American males will regularly dress in an Elvis-style jumpsuit." http://peterpinkley.blogspot.com/

Famed Gitmo Lawyer Facing Six Months in Prison For Writing Letter to Obama Detailing Torture of Client

Rights and Liberties: Clive Stafford Smith is accused of 'unprofessional conduct' by Pentagon officials who monitor communication between Gitmo prisoners and their lawyers.

Peter Pinkley has another startling vision of the future:

Peter Pinkley has another startling vision of the future:

"Mark my words! I predict that in the very near future 74% of American males will grow a mustache exactly like that worn by Vincent Price."

David Sirota on the Drug War
"This Is the Truth on Drugs ... Any Questions?" -- Finally, after America has frittered away billions of taxpayer dollars arming Latin American death squads and incarcerating more of its own citizens on nonviolent drug charges than any other industrialized nation, the government is starting to re-evaluate federal narcotics policy.

Patrick: Sirota claims the power of Mexican drug cartels is built mainly on the high demand for marijuana in the U.S. If so, he says, then legalizing pot (and taxing it and controlling the sale of it like we do alcohol) would undercut their power. I don't smoke pot or view it as psychologically harmless. However, I do think this article makes a respectable argument for legalizing it.

Before we do, we'd want to examine whether the positive effects (such as undercutting the Mexican drug lords, etc.) would outweigh the possible negative social and health consequences... but, if you start down that road, maybe you should be prepared to argue for banning booze. Along the way, ask yourself whether government ought to be in the business of protecting adults against their own poor choices.

As it stands now, if we want to keep our kids and grandkids away from pot, convincing arguments and our own example are going to work better than relying on the laws against it. The latter don't seem to be working too well.

The World's Cheapest Car Debuts in India

By JYOTI THOTTAM / PUNE

Defying doubters, Tata Motors launched the Nano subcompact with a sticker price of less than $2,000. Is this the future of auto manufacturing?

Breaking News!

From the Skewed News Syndicate

Peter Pinkley's startling vision of the future:

"Mark my words! I predict that in the very near future, 82% of American males will have their hair styled exactly like Bobby Goldsboro."

Whoever tutored President and Mrs. Obama about proper etiquette in the presence of the Queen of England did not mention her sensitivity about her height (or lack thereof). Just after this photo was taken, Mr. Obama playfully patted the top of the Queen's head and said, "Hello down there, little lady!"

Michelle Obama began to giggle quietly, and then uncontrollably, and the Queen became visibly upset. She swung at Mr. Obama's head (which was out of reach for her), and then pummeled his stomach repeatedly with short jabs. The president retained his smile throughout, but the first lady seemed quite chagrined.

Foreign policy experts fear that the unfortunate encounter may set back U.S./British relations to what they were during the Revolutionary War.

(Thomas P. Warneski reporting, Skewed News Syndicate)