Cole, Crittenden, Blog Wars

John Cole gets the usual treatment from the partisan right for thinking out loud. All’s fair in love and blogging but publishing someone’s work details so they can be harassed by every troll out there seems to me to be beyond the pale. There’s also a bizarre notion that opposing torture or criticizing the Iraq war is somehow "tacking leftward." Opposing the current Bush-Cheney ideology can definitely come from what we once called the left, but it can also spring from conservative sources. I grew up taking Soviet torture seriously when some on the left looked the other way. The notion that opposing "torture" is therefore now a leftist position just befuddles me. Ditto: massive spending and borrowing, undermining the rule of law, and unleashing anarchy in occupied countries. These are now bedrock principles of the right?

Quote For The Day

Rembrandt_harmensz_van_rijn_125

"Often I have asked friends to give me their first impression of Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son. Inevitably, they point to the wise old man who forgives his son: the benevolent patriarch.

The longer I look at ‘the patriarch’, the clearer it becomes to me that Rembrandt has done something quite different from letting God pose as the wise old head of a family. It all began with the hands. The two are quite different. The father’s left hand touching the son’s shoulder is strong and muscular. The fingers are spread out and cover a large part of the prodigal son’s shoulder and back. I can see a certain pressure, especially in the thumb. That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father’s left hand touches his son, it is not without a firm grip.

How different is the father’s right hand! This hand does not hold or grasp. It is refined, soft, and very tender. The fingers are close to each other and they have an elegant quality. It lies gently upon the son’s shoulder. It wants to caress, to stroke, and to offer consolation and comfort. It is a mother’s hand….

As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is , indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present. That gentle and caressing right hand echoes for me the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the chile she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands," – Henri Nouwen, "The Return Of The Prodigal Son."

The Evil In Tehran

They persecute non-Muslims with the intensity they persecute all dissidents. Here’s an excellent piece by Paul Marshall in the Weekly Standard:

[The 1991 document] …outlined a plan gradually to choke the Baha’i community. They were not usually to be subject to further arrests or deportations from the country: Henceforth the government was to ensure that "their progress and development are blocked." They could be enrolled in schools but only if they "have not identified themselves as Baha’is." They were to be expelled from universities altogether. They could have jobs only on condition that they not "identify themselves as Baha’is," and, if employed, must have only "a modest livelihood" and be denied "any position of influence." Khamenei added a handwritten note to the directive expressing his approval, thus conferring on it the status of an official decree. (These and other documents have been made available by the Baha’i community–see news.bahai.org.)

The regime continued to persecute the Baha’is, as well as other religious minorities, and parts of this plan were carried out–including their exclusion from universities and many jobs. But now the government’s program has entered a more intensive and systematic phase. An October 29, 2005, confidential letter sent on Khamenei’s instructions by Major General Hossein Firuzabadi, chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces, ordered the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Police Force to "acquire a comprehensive and complete report" to identify all Baha’is.

(Hat tip: Norm.)

How YouTube Captures Gang Members

The cops are thrilled with online exhibitionism:

"I think it’s fantastic," said Police Superintendent Daniel Linskey. "If we can play a video for a judge that shows they’re involved with criminal activity, that helps us, and bodes well when we go for dangerousness hearings. We like to use these videos to use their own words against them."

(Hat tip: Zach Patton.)

Horton On Mukasey

Scott takes a stand against a man he has worked with and greatly admires, Michael Mukasey. I’m not surprised. Scott Horton has as much integrity as anyone I know:

The New York Times says the issue is one of legal culpability of those who have administered the program. In a speech I delivered in Ohio last October, “When Lawyers Are War Criminals,” I went over this analysis in some detail and concluded it was incorrect. The CIA personnel, military personnel and contractors all have immunity. But there is a class of persons who are probably not immunized in any effective way by the current statutes, namely the administration officials who authored this scheme: Dick Cheney, David Addington, Donald Rumsfeld, Jim Haynes and a handful of others. They are the figures “on the line” who are most adamant that Mukasey (or any substitute for Mukasey) provide them with the protection they feel they need.

Hence, the debate around Michael Mukasey has really ceased to be about Michael Mukasey and his qualifications to serve as attorney general. It has become a debate about the torture issue. And protecting the authors of a criminal scheme from their certain ultimate fate: prosecution.

Greg Djerejian comments here.