Unqualified Offerings

Yesterday the Drug Enforcement Administration turned 35, which is old enough to realize things are not working out quite the way you expected.

Jacob Sullum.

Speaking of 300, when you get beyond its absurd politics, one of its many failings is the way it gives the visual lie to its star.
Leonidas tells wannabe Warrior of Laconia, Ephialtes, that while he may be strong and brave, he’s a hunch-backed freak, and while Leonidas has nothing, you understand, against hunchbacks, the [...]

By Thoreau
The Onion offers perhaps the most accurate assessment ever concerning the Bush administration.

By Thoreau
Christopher Hitchens has gone through a waterboarding session, and he assures us all that it is most definitely torture.  Also, near the end of the article, he makes this point about torture and the moral high ground:
One used to be told—and surely with truth—that the lethal fanatics of al-Qaeda were schooled to lie, and [...]

By Thoreau
Dennis Haysbert believes that he may have had some small role in making an Obama Presidency thinkable. At the risk of under-valuing the role of arts and entertainment in civic discourse, I suspect that Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell had more to do with that. Yes, entertainer Oprah Winfrey played a significant role [...]

"Private US security company" employees training Mexican police in torture techniques. Not to worry, say Mexican officials. It’s really training in how to resist torture, not employ it. Golly, where have I heard that one?
You would think Mexican police already knew everything there is to know about torture. Some fiscally conservative Mexican legislator ought to [...]