Category: The Dish

Norm Geras sees some hopeful signs.

A reader writes:

So torturing prisoners makes us evil. Fair enough. How much do you want to bet this guy also believes it was wrong to call Iran, Saddam’s Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil"?

The people I know who are so eager to accuse us of being evil will castigate anyone who uses the word to describe Saddam, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Ahmedinejad, Assad, Sadr or any of the other thugs and fascists we are in conflict with.

Somehow, among the left, calling us evil is a mark of moral sensitivity while calling Hezbollah evil is a mark of insensitivity and simplemindedness. Self-criticism is fine, but I have seen far too much sanctimonious posturing and moral blindness to take it very seriously.

On this blog, the word evil does apply to al Qaeda, Saddam, Hezbollah and North Korea. It also applies to torture. Whoever does it.

The pro-life forces are gunning for the Massachusetts governor. Check out the material being distributed at the March for life in Washington today.

A YouTube on the man Alberto Gonzales won’t discuss: Maher Arar, deported by the US for torture in Syria.

Art Buchwald talks about his own death.

Some sleazily sourced stories are trying to convey the impression that Barack Obama attended a Muslim madrassa as a boy. It seems to be without factual foundation and the motives of those spreading the rumor are suspect, to put it mildly. Fox News’ resident bigot, John Gibson, does not disappoint. But Obama’s staff really need to do a better job of responding. Here’s a not-for-prime-time soundbite:

"The allegations are completely false," says Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. "To publish this sort of trash without any documentation is surprising, but for Fox to repeat something so false, not once, but many times is appallingly irresponsible. This is exactly the type of slash-and-burn politics the American people are sick and tired of."

It’s "trash" to say that someone was raised a Muslim? Gibbs didn’t mean that, did he?

My continuing online dialogue with Sam Harris on faith and reason has a new entry from me: "Taking Scripture Seriously". The full dialogue so far can be read here.

A theocon activist is about to release the second part of his "Mitt Romney Deception" file. Romney can run, but he can’t hide.

Litvinenko was poisoned in a tea-cup:

Mr Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how "Vladislav was described as someone who could help Mr Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company. Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea. His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink," he added.

The British police now have a clear suspect. Sources say he is very close to Putin and the FSB. If that pans out, the consequences for Europe-Russia relations are profound.