Discourse.net is a semi-finalist for the 2004 Koufax Award For Best Series for the various items I did on the Torture Memos.
Given how the voting went in the first round, it doesn't seem that likely I'll win, but it is nice to be in such good company.
You can vote for any one of the excellent candidates by leaving a comment at Wampum.
[revised] The National Security Archive has put Richard Clarke's prophetic memo about Al Qaeda and terrorism (January 25, 2001) (pdf) online. Also note the very important attachments.
The significance of these memos is that they contradict the claim made by Dr. Condoleezza Rice and others, that the Clinton administration did not leave a plan behind to confront Al Qaeda…although you do have to wonder why they waited so long themselves.
Note that the memo itself is addressed to….Condoleezza Rice.
I have no particular reason to think he'd be a good Senator, should he ever choose to run, but Al Franken does have a way with words:
They don't get it. We love America in a different way. You see, they love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world.
From Chapter Five of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.
(via The Liquid List)
In response to UKIP and other get-out-of-Europe types, this hysterically funny Monty-Python dervived animation, What has Europe ever done for us?.
(Via Caroline Bradley, who notes that there is a a quicktime clip online of Monty Python’s “What have the Romans ever done for us?” from The Life of Brian.)
In-class dialog, sometime earlier this week:
Prof: There is no curve in this class. Nothing would please me more than to give everyone an A in this class. It would feel like I was a great teacher.
Student: You couldn't do that.
Prof: Sure I could. I have tenure.
[very great laughter from all students]
Student: No. I meant you can't do that.
Prof: They couldn't stop me. But of course you'd have to earn it.
Student: I meant you aren't able to do that.
Prof: Oh. It was a psychological observation.
Do they know me that well already?
Mark A. R. Kleiman posts an interesting real-life ethics problem.
And, he doesn't tell us what he did.
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