Karma pays dividends

Have you ever considered what would happen if your money suddenly became worthless?

It could happen, and sooner than you think.

This pain is yours and mine

“Today is May 21,” a naval official declared to a camera videotaping the event. “Right now we’re ready to do a root canal treatment on Jose Padilla, our enemy combatant.”

Several guards in camouflage and riot gear approached cell No. 103. They unlocked a rectangular panel at the bottom of the door and Mr. Padilla’s bare feet slid through, eerily disembodied. As one guard held down a foot with his black boot, the others shackled Mr. Padilla’s legs. Next, his hands emerged through another hole to be manacled.

Wordlessly, the guards, pushing into the cell, chained Mr. Padilla’s cuffed hands to a metal belt. Briefly, his expressionless eyes met the camera before he lowered his head submissively in expectation of what came next: noise-blocking headphones over his ears and blacked-out goggles over his eyes. Then the guards, whose faces were hidden behind plastic visors, marched their masked, clanking prisoner down the hall to his root canal.

December 4, 2006 in the New York Times, by Deborah Sontag.

Hat-tip to Digby and Gen. JC Christian.

Update: Read Glenn Greenwald too.

PJ tells Novell…

…to go fork themselves.

Related post:

• How stupid Novell must be…

Obama on our minds

Make no mistake, Arianna Huffington is a more formidable politician than Hillary Clinton. The idea of triangulating your positions to obtain the maximum advantage is what she’s talking about, and when someone is caught out doing it they ought not to be trusted with very much power.

If Barack Obama can come out in a leading position and have the support of a solid consensus of the liberal blogosphere (or blogtopia, ysctp!) then he can be president in 2008. I’m with Arianna on this.

Related post:

• Barack Obama for president

Postscript: I could see a Barack Obama/Arianna Huffington ticket being very capable of winning.

Update: My wife reminds me that Arianna would have to be a natural born citizen of the United States, but she was born in Greece. So much for that trial balloon.

Stephen Colbert wins an award

2006 Media Person of the Year

by the readers of I Want Media

via Huffington Post.

Say hello

to Splitters.

Another one bites the dust

In honor of the resignation of John Bolton.

(Fooled ya on the music, didn’t I?)

Update: Read John Amato and listen to “the Bolton scream.”

The Rheostatics are a really great band

Jesus smoked pot.

It’s in the Bible.

Titles are pretentious

I baked bread today, instead of posting. I didn’t have anything very important to say on a Sunday that could not wait.

I’ll probably have a whole bunch to say later.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I’m beginning to look forward to the end of our political battle, a time when we can rest and enjoy the fruits of our labors.

It’s easy.

A little Christmas spirit