Talking Rights

from today’s USA Today:
Before her visit to China, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the issue of human rights from the table, saying it could “interfere” with talks on the global economic crisis, climate change and security.
She missed a critical point. Human rights aren’t a side dish on a crowded buffet. Human rights support and [...]

The history of what is studied in universities is long and abundant in controversy. In his old age, Plato once complained that his star student, Aristotle, was “kick[ing] me, as foals do their mothers when they are born” by refuting his teachings.In more recent times, we’ve seen battles erupt over area, gender and ethnic [...]

There is quite a kerfluffle going on now about Obama’s position on extraordinary rendition.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that “under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States. Current [...]

Here is a sickening defense of torture — and it is from a coward.  Someone with cojones would have actually used the words:  “I support torture.” But John Yoo is not only wrong and a criminal — he is sin cojones…
I’ve included refutations of his argument in parentheses.
Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo
by John [...]

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer has a new piece on President Obama;s thinking on torture.  A vignette that stands out (and was highlighted by Swampland, the Time political blog) show how deeply our military abhors torture.
Not only is this important for the right to understand; the left, which has a knee-jerk reaction to anything in [...]