I don't say "torture," because it's not clear to me that any of the techniques used by the CIA or military intel guys are actually "torture." Waterboarding comes the closest, but it's still not torture. Or, at worst, it's a very low-level sort of torture perfectly justified for use against the bastards we're up against.

Let me deal with the objections constantly offered:
more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:00 PM | Comments (34)
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The Excitable One is on a tear:

"BE AFRAID!": If the guiding mantra of the last Pope was "Be Not Afraid!", the lodestar of the current one is, arguably, the opposite. Everywhere, there are reasons to be afraid: the great work of celibate, faithful gay priests, the insights of independent lay women, inter-faith communication, theological debate, the new frontiers of science, and on and on. The spirit of a saint like St Francis - so open, so confident, so unafraid - is obviously one that Benedict needs to control and silence, as he must control and silence every other aspect of the Church that does not conform to his views. And so another window closes. Eventually, the darkness will be perfect.

Yeah, who elected this guy Pope? Oh, right, the College of Cardinals.

Saint Andrew, it's not the celibate gays the Church fears. I'm sure you must have heard -- in fact, you blogged about it quite a bit -- that it's the non-celibate gay priests the Church fears.

Who could tell if a celibate man were gay or straight?

See, I hate to remind you of this discomfiting fact, but the dust-up began when gay priests started being pretty damn non-celibate with underage boys.

Do straight priests take advantage of the young? Indeed, they do. But the number of females taken advantage of by priests is dwarfed by the number of boys so violated.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know: The fact that a man has sex with a boy doesn't make him a homosexual, it just makes him a pedophile, right?

Well, yes, it does make him a pedophile, but it's kinda hard to ignore which gender constitutes object of his nasty affections, unless one is resolutely blind to such minor details for political reasons.

Do gay men molest boys in higher proportions than straight men molest girls? The numbers suggest the answer is, unfortunately, yes. (Attempts to demonstrate equal propensity to molest do so only by defining many man-on-boy molestations as not really "homosexual" at all, which seems a rather ludicrous semantic dodge.)

But it certainly seems the case that gay priests molest boys more than straight priests molest girls. That isn't necessarily a knock on gays as a whole; it may just be that the many gay men who join the priesthood do so to avoid confronting their sexuality, to a greater degree than straight men do. (A greater of proportion of straight priests may simply have low sex drives compared to the average man.)

And repressing one's sexual appetities, if one has them, can only work for so long.

In any event, I don't think the Vatican is particularly worried by celibate priests of either sexual orientation, and it's just another absurd Sullivanism to claim otherwise. One can argue if the presumption of guilt is fair or not, but to reduce it, as always, to a concerted campaign against people who just happen to be gay is just his typical uncivil assignment of bad motives to a political opponent.

Posted by: Ace at 11:29 AM | Comments (47)
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I won't go into long Andrew Sullivan-like details about my health (once again, we need to know about each and every sniffle suffered by Saint Andrew of the Sacred "Heart-Ache"), except to say that, while I have a Constitution of 19 and a Strength of 18/75, even I come a little under the weather sometimes.

Karol and I weren't able to get a guest for this week, and that, combined with the fact that I failed my saving throw against fatigue, has suggested to us that maybe a week off would be a good thing. A repeat will be on; I think it will probably be last week's show with Peter Schweizer, which was pretty good. (At least the beginning was.)

Then again, it may be something else. No one tells me nothin'.

Sorry for the late start. I'll try to rally and put some stupid crap on this retarded moronblog today. I'm all goofy on Nyquil, though, so the high-quality you've come to expect from this site -- okay, the low-to-middling quality -- may not be on display.

Posted by: Ace at 11:06 AM | Comments (14)
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Here, enjoy:

MALKIN AWARD NOMINEE: "That McCain broke under torture doesn't make him any less of an American hero. But it does prove he's wrong to claim that harsh interrogation techniques simply don't work." - from an article titled, "John McCain: Torture Worked on Me," on the right-wing website, Newsmax. Just when you think the pro-torture right cannot sink any lower, they do.

What, precisely, is objectionable about that, Saint Andrew of the Sacred "Heart-Ache"? One of the lies the torture hysterics have been peddling for years is that torture never works. No one ever gives up any valuable information; everyone will say whatever you want them too when you break out the tongue-forceps.

It's untrue and it always has been. I link, once again, an article from the Atlantic Monthly by Mark Bowden of Black Hawk Down fame, in which he interviews a professional torturer. The man's opinion? Of course it works. It always has worked and it always will. It's a question of when, not if.

A human being, no matter how heroic or fanatical, can only take so much misery and pain and dispair before breaking.

So Newsmax offers the genuine martial and moral hero (at least he was such some time ago) of John McCain as yet another strong, committed, patriotic man ultimately broken down by torture. Andrew Sullivan finds this, of course, objectionable.

It reminds me of a correction a judge issued to a lawyer. Evidence may be excluded from court if it is unduly predjudicial, that is, while it has some relevance, its propensity to turn the jury against one party for irrelevant reasons ("He's just a bad guy, all around") makes it prudent to exclude it. In a case, a lawyer objected to evidence, citing the fact that it was "prejudicial."

"Of course it's prejudicial," the judge explained. "If it weren't predjudicial, the other side wouldn't be offering it at all. The question is whether it's unduly prejudicial."

"This really hurts the bullshit case I'm trying to make" is not considered a legitimate objection to evidence.

But that Andrew Sullivan for ya. The Shrill Shill writes in the most overblown and emotional and ad hominem of terms, but when relevant evidence that damages his claims is offered, he cries foul. It's just not civil, he whines.

The fact that McCain broke under torture is no knock against him, and Newsmax didn't mean it as such. (Little hint: they state clearly that the fact "

Almost everyone breaks, eventually. A soldier can consider himself to have survived torture with honor if he is merely successful in delaying giving up operational intelligence until the point at which it becomes stale, or mixing in enough lies with the truth to render his "intelligence" all but useless.

We can debate the immorality of torture, but we can hardly be so childish and pretend that it's also ineffectual, or revert to complete pre-schooler neener-neener mode when evidence of its effectuality is offered.

Posted by: Ace at 10:56 AM | Comments (30)
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This is pretty good.

I've been following Tex at Whacking Day's fun and games with a Green Party candidate in Australia.
The candidacy is over, but the fun continues.

Thom said he was drafted into the RAAF, yet elsewhere claimed he volunteered. Thom has not provided any details of when he served in the RAAF, not to mention the fact that nobody was drafted into the RAAF.

When asked - repeatedly - to clarify wether he volunteered or was drafted into the RAAF, Thom again refused to provide details, and raged at me that I was mentally imbalanced and "a danger to the community".

According to Tex, this fellow also has claimed to have been in the USAF and to have worked at Los Alamos.

Tex is a hoot. Well worth going back in his archives to find more quotes from the esteemed Thom Lyons of the Australian Greens.

Once again; those who are utterly antagonistic to the military take some perverse pleasure in pretending to have served. I don't think its all about getting creds. Part of it is pure fantasy fuel.

Posted by: LauraW. at 09:12 AM | Comments (13)
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Lovin' the troops, Rall-style.

Hat tip to Karol and Naked Testicle Spiderman.

Posted by: Ace at 04:25 PM | Comments (140)
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Notable arrests yesterday in the parking lot of Tampa's Raymond James Stadium during the Bucs - Bears game, arising from a mobile strip club:

Undercover officers fumbled upon the business running under the name Déjà Vu when they found them distributing flyers promoting the mobile strib club. Police found several bouncers and dancers inside the 40-foot-long 1987 motor home.

Police found alcohol being sold inside and lap dances being conducted at $20 if the girl was topless and $40 if she was nude. Officers confiscated $2,000 and the arrests were made before kickoff.

I have no clever comment to make and merely marvel at the 'why didn't I think of that' business savy of the alleged entrepeneurs. Aside from the illegality, an idea of simple, elegant genius.

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 12:08 PM | Comments (18)
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Cinderella

Once upon a time there lived a sad little girl named Tara Reid Nipple Slip. She lived in a great old castle with her Stepmother and her two step-sisters, Terrell Owens and Anna_Kournikova_Bends_Over_To_Tie_Her_Shoes.jpg.

The Prince, who was very Kevin Federlane Is A Worthless Douche-Nozzle, sent out word throughout the land that he intended to marry, and that he would select his bride from all of the Naked Field Hockey Bulldykes In Heat who attended his ball.

But Tara Reid Nipple Slip's wicked Stepmother would not let her attend the Free Penis Enlargement Hypnotherapy. Instead, she made poor Tara Reid Nipple Slip clean all of the chimneys of ash and soot and Jude Law Naked Dick-Pics.

She was cursing her fate when suddenly her fairy godmother appeared, dressed in shimmering Secrets From the New Harry Potter Book. The fairy godmother turned a pumpkin into Tom Sizemore Sex Tapes and her mice into The Hot Russian Fake Lesbians From "Tatu."

Her stepsisters were shocked to see Tara Reid Nipple Slip looking so resplendant at the ball, and the Prince was taken with her as well. But as he was about to propose, Tara Reid Nipple Slip had to rush back to her Paris Hilton Cellphone before midnight, as at that time the magic would be undone and once again she would turn into a plain, poorly dressed Ask Jeeves: Seriously, What's the Skinny on that Richard Gere/Gerbil Story?

She was in such a hurry to leave she left behind one of the shoes her fairy godmother had conjured for her, a beautiful bejeweled Bob Dole's Cock, which, frankly, really should have vanished at midnight along with the rest of the conjured crap, but this is a kid's story, and kids don't sweat massive plot-holes like that, because they're basically just little retards.

Anyway, the Prince searched for the one foot that would fit Bob Dole's Cock, and then found Tara Reid Nipple Slip at Free Metallica Dowloads. He placed Bob Dole's Cock on her Ashley Simpson Lip-Sync Video and found it was a perfect fit.

They soon married, and Tara Reid Nipple Slip was crowned Queen William Shatner Getting a Handjob From George Takei, and they all lived happily ever after.

Except for the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, of course, who wound up living poor and Half-Life 2 Walk-Thru and had to take jobs as College Schoolgirls Sharing Sexy Secrets About Their Dirty Stinky Feet.

Posted by: Ace at 10:48 AM | Comments (16)
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Ramsey Clark vs. the judge in Saddam's trial.

One risks his life to achieve justice for Saddam Hussein and Iraq, the other parachutes in to suck up to yet another genocidal tyrant.

Which seems to have a better grasp of the American ideals of democracy, freedom, and courage in the face of fascism?

If a lot of Iraqis don't seem fully on board with this "freedom" and "human rights" stuff, bear in mind: a lot of Americans aren't really that thrilled with the ideas, either.

Posted by: Ace at 10:24 AM | Comments (19)
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He used to sit the song out as a political protest.

But that was before he negotiated for higher money in free agency. After the issue was discussed with him, he's decided that his political protest isn't quite as important as following "team rules."

Some may call it yet more hypocrisy from the left. I, however, see it as a case of Cash-Money Censorship by Capitalist Stooges.

Poor Carlos Delgado. When The Man comes waving a fat check in your face, it's just another form of political oppression.

Thanks to The Wardrobe Door.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 AM | Comments (18)
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