Talking Rights

Newly-elected French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy shocked many when he named Bernard Kouchner as his Foreign Minister. His tenure will be a test of how a “human rights” perspective will work at the highest level of international diplomacy.
Best-known as one of the founders of “Doctors Without Borders,” Kouchner “sees things through a humanitarian perspective,” as [...]

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This excellent oped in today’s Washington Post talks about the “recuperative power” of supposed terrorists subjected to torture. The authors, a former Marine commandant and a former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, say that torture actually “nurtures” the recuperative power of the enemy, allowing them to gain the moral high ground in any [...]

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Usually, I don’t favor knowing a lot about the personal life of an author I like. If the words and story move me, that’s enough. When I have learned details, often it takes away from my enjoyment. I don’t want to know that the marvelous wordsmith was a beast to his wife; or that the [...]

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A disturbing poll quoted in the Washington Post found that over 30 per cent of American soldiers in Iraq consider abuses not only normal, but necessary…

More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed [...]

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“Bodies: The Exhibition” may reveal intricacies in the human form, but what it conceals is gruesome. Now at several cities in the US, including Durham, the show features “plastinated” bodies posed to show the workings of muscles, ligaments, bones and internal organs. “Plastination” preserves living tissue, and these are real human beings.

But the problems with [...]

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