Quick fire
Quick fire comments on NRT posts
(1) Vetoing for torture
NRT notes bush is threatening to veto a ban on water boarding.
Fair enough - Bush is just running out the end of his lame duck term.
(2) One state at a time...
NRT notes that New Jersey has scrapped the death penalty.
It is probably best not to have the death penalty. I’m much more in favour of electro-shock therapy. No it is not torture - it is rehabilitation.
(3) Climate change: time to stop indulging the US
the US really are setting themselves up to look like arseholes in the eyes of history. Having said that the media seems to constantly miss the point that one needs to have binding targets on China otherwise you are just wasting your time and making a huge subsidy for China.
Having said that I expect the media are being fairly honest in that the US negotiation position is less "china must join" and more "we would like to waste your time"
(4) New Fisk - Syria denies killing General in car-bomb attack
interesting that Fisk looses all his indignation when he talks about non Americans.
(5) Americans love torture
NRT notes the below survey
Are there circumstances in which water boarding of prisoners is acceptable?
Yes: 55% 52,690
No: 44% 42,219
It's not just the Bush Administration - it's the American people. So much for the US's claim to be part of the civilized world.
Now hte question doesn't ask "should it be legal" it asks 'are there circumstances in which it is acceptable' so this includes 24 type scenarios where waterboarding a guy will save the planet. To me it looks like either 44% are very comitted deontologists or didnt really think about hte question.
For the record I would probably answer the 'should it be legal" with a "no" and the "could it be acceptable" with a "yes". Interesting that I/S would consider that so distressing as if the truth is a mark of a lack of civilization.
(6) The hardest word
"the new Australian government opening talks with Aboriginal leaders on the wording of an apology for Australia’s crimes against its indigenous people."
Sounds like a waste of time to me - but if I was an Australian and if it will make the aboriginal people feel better I would not really care.
(7) A New Zealand innocence project
this group gets people who were previously convinced out of jail based on DNA evidence. Interesting that NRT would support it when I pick him for being the same sort of person who would oppose collecting DNA from people in order to ensure they did not get convicted in the first place.
I suppose his idea is to get more people out of prison which sounds rather like some sort of tribalism motivated policy .
(8) The nightmare is real
"Suppose an innocent person ends up in Gitmo?"
yes indeed innocent people do get caught in the net. if we were to say 'no innocent people should ever get sent to prison' the only solution would be no prisons.
(9) Climate change: avoiding deforestation
"Last month, the government of the South American nation of Guyana made a dramatic offer: they would place their entire rainforest under international control as a carbon reservoir, in exchange for development assistance."
Now that’s how we should be solving the worlds problems - buy the rights to protect the rainforests and buy the rights to the oil and coal in the ground and keep it there. We should however also force a good deal upon those that would try to extort the global community.
(10) Another nail in Rickards' coffin
poor Rickards - so much unpaid leave and now he has to put up with not getting revenge.. poor poor man
(1) Vetoing for torture
NRT notes bush is threatening to veto a ban on water boarding.
Fair enough - Bush is just running out the end of his lame duck term.
(2) One state at a time...
NRT notes that New Jersey has scrapped the death penalty.
It is probably best not to have the death penalty. I’m much more in favour of electro-shock therapy. No it is not torture - it is rehabilitation.
(3) Climate change: time to stop indulging the US
the US really are setting themselves up to look like arseholes in the eyes of history. Having said that the media seems to constantly miss the point that one needs to have binding targets on China otherwise you are just wasting your time and making a huge subsidy for China.
Having said that I expect the media are being fairly honest in that the US negotiation position is less "china must join" and more "we would like to waste your time"
(4) New Fisk - Syria denies killing General in car-bomb attack
interesting that Fisk looses all his indignation when he talks about non Americans.
(5) Americans love torture
NRT notes the below survey
Are there circumstances in which water boarding of prisoners is acceptable?
Yes: 55% 52,690
No: 44% 42,219
It's not just the Bush Administration - it's the American people. So much for the US's claim to be part of the civilized world.
Now hte question doesn't ask "should it be legal" it asks 'are there circumstances in which it is acceptable' so this includes 24 type scenarios where waterboarding a guy will save the planet. To me it looks like either 44% are very comitted deontologists or didnt really think about hte question.
For the record I would probably answer the 'should it be legal" with a "no" and the "could it be acceptable" with a "yes". Interesting that I/S would consider that so distressing as if the truth is a mark of a lack of civilization.
(6) The hardest word
"the new Australian government opening talks with Aboriginal leaders on the wording of an apology for Australia’s crimes against its indigenous people."
Sounds like a waste of time to me - but if I was an Australian and if it will make the aboriginal people feel better I would not really care.
(7) A New Zealand innocence project
this group gets people who were previously convinced out of jail based on DNA evidence. Interesting that NRT would support it when I pick him for being the same sort of person who would oppose collecting DNA from people in order to ensure they did not get convicted in the first place.
I suppose his idea is to get more people out of prison which sounds rather like some sort of tribalism motivated policy .
(8) The nightmare is real
"Suppose an innocent person ends up in Gitmo?"
yes indeed innocent people do get caught in the net. if we were to say 'no innocent people should ever get sent to prison' the only solution would be no prisons.
(9) Climate change: avoiding deforestation
"Last month, the government of the South American nation of Guyana made a dramatic offer: they would place their entire rainforest under international control as a carbon reservoir, in exchange for development assistance."
Now that’s how we should be solving the worlds problems - buy the rights to protect the rainforests and buy the rights to the oil and coal in the ground and keep it there. We should however also force a good deal upon those that would try to extort the global community.
(10) Another nail in Rickards' coffin
poor Rickards - so much unpaid leave and now he has to put up with not getting revenge.. poor poor man
posted by Genius at 9:51 PM
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