Unqualified Offerings

Surfing around for information on honor killings and female genital mutilation, I light on the American Society for Muslim Advancement’s 2004 statement on the then-current case of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman convicted of adultery in a Sharia court and sentenced to death. ASMA’s statement walks readers through the history of Muslim law on female [...]

Bush plans to tap James K. Glassman, now chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . . .
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press

Over on The Yglantic’s Streakwatch thread, commenter howard writes
my rejoinder is that belichick’s job is to win the super bowl. if he thinks the best way to do that is to keep up the momentum, great.
But surely Belichick’s real job is whatever Robert Kraft says it is. Perhaps, and again I’m hoping and praying like [...]

By Thoreau
River dolphins in Brazil are using an age old trick to attract mates: Offer them weed.

By Thoreau
Last night we went shopping for Christmas lights, and got the new LED lights from Philips. (Strangely, I can’t find a link.) They were only a little bit more expensive than regular Christmas tree lights, and they look fine.
I don’t know the status of LEDs for home and office lighting applications (where [...]

By Mona
So, a featured item at memorandum is a Gallup poll that headlines the percentage of voters in both major parties who would not vote for a Mormon. While I deplore the relatively small amount of religious bigotry the poll demonstrates to exist against Mormons, please note what one finds if [...]

Sully gets a letter:
“No one ever mentions the fact that we have literally built walls around each neighborhood and along every highway as the reason the violence is down here.  The place looks like an Orwell novel gone wrong. The people cannot shoot each other through walls and the insurgents cannot move around to plant [...]

Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick on how the destroyed torture videos sit are the missing heart of every significant GWOT-era legal case.
The ABC interview with John Kiriakou. Kiriakou’s account of the practical outcome of torturing Zubaydah is at variance with Ron Suskind’s account. I’ve only read the story and not the transcripts so far. In [...]