Thursday, December 15, 2005

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It's hell being popular, Arjan, but somebody's gotta do it and you're elected. Glad to see life is steaming along for you. Here in the dead of winter on the shores of Lake Ontario (Toronto) high on a windy bluff overlooking the steaming lake (water is warmer than the air so the lake appears to steam) my little black & white domestic short hair (the 'Princess' Mandy) and I await the sight of Santa and all his reindeer flying over the moon...oh what the heck. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and the kitty cat, in case you go away for the holidays early. Thank you for letting me share your blog and events in your life this past year. Look forward to more exciting revelations from the new, pumped-up, slimmed down and PUBLISHED Arjan Dasselaar in 2006! f.d.

foreign devil (ip:70.30.12.120) 15 December 2005 - 23:02 uur

Not dead is very good, Arjan. You can do a lot with not being dead.

I like that Bush has leveled with us & hope that there will be some early retirements from the CIA. First they told us that the USSR was doing just fine, then they told us Saddam had nukes, and now they're telling the NY Times just about anything.

I do have a problem with the McCain amendment, though. One problem with the common law system the British left their former colonies is a sort of ratchet effect where things can only either advance or stay still. Nothing can go back. The McCain Amendment refers to the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution, which was originally intended to prohibit such things, permitted under British law at the time, as drawing and quartering, torture, and hanging children for petty theft. As more recently interpreted, the courts have construed the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment to exclude solitary confinement and crowded jails. The old jail in Boston was closed down because of inadequate toilet facilities.

There is a big difference between torture and the kind of thing prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. I don't want to see anyone put on the rack, subjected to fake executions, or shocked with electric cattle prods. There is a middle ground, though. Keeping the lights on in the cell, or adjusting the heat and air conditioning to uncomfortable levels does not strike me as torture, although we would not do this to a normal convict. I don't want to see anyone tortured, but neither do I want to see people who blow up civilians treated with excessive delicacy if we can save lives by a little rough treatment.

Mitch (ip:71.243.91.116) 15 December 2005 - 6:57 uur

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