“Enhanced interrogation”

The Bush administration calls its torture techniques “enhanced interrogation”. Turns out that they aren’t the first to use this particular newspeak – according to Andrew Sullivan, the Nazis coined it in 1937. Why am I not surprised? (Courtesy Josh Marshall)
I think it’s pretty safe to say that this was an unintentional echo [...]

Jesus for the Non-Religious

part 1 – – – part 2 – – – part 3
I am reading Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious, and I must say that I am totally fascinated by the book. While I have never been a literalist, and I have no attachment to dogma, what Spong has to say is challenging. But [...]

Amazing ants

This is an amazing story about army ants – that when army ants find a hole in their trail, one of them will plug the hole with its body, allowing the other ants to use it as a bridge. If the ant is the right size to bridge the hole she will stay in [...]

Why?

Another PhD Comics post that could almost have been written about me. Ok, so I managed to spell my name properly…but there’s a typo in the title.

First Person

My favourite part of the Chronicle of Higher Education is the First Person segment – stories in which individuals talk about their experiences. Over at TPM Josh Marshall commented on the fact that the tide appears to have finally turned against Gonzales, and gives credit to Comey’s testimony…not because it told people anything new [...]

Ashcroft as hero

Steve Benen, over at TPM gets into something I have been thinking about for a while – in the wake of the James Comey testimony, Ashcroft comes out as something of a hero, as the great defender of constitutional rule of law (and had I read people like Wonkette and Andrew Sullivan, I would [...]

Greatest cartoon ever

This is the greatest cartoon ever. Having finally submitted his dissertation, Mike Slackenerny is faced with that utterly unreasonable question “Are you going to get a job?” (Since she has been supporting him for years and is holding their baby, Mike’s wife probably sees her question as reasonable).
Of course, the previous Piled Higher [...]