Minotaurs!

Priceless video from the Onion.


Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

I especially like how the "balanced" panel has three defenders of the minotaur and only one person objecting.

Hat tip to Brad DeLong.

today's anti-health care idiocy

From the Investor's Business Daily:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

As Jay Bookman points out,

Of course, that same Stephen Hawking who wouldn’t have a chance in the United Kingdom was in fact born in the United Kingdom, has lived his entire life in the United Kingdom and lives there still today, at the ripe old age of 67. (He was in fact hospitalized earlier this month.) Hawking is, you might say, living, breathing proof that these people are first-class fools.

He's far too kind. They are simply soulless atavistic liars.

They really are sociopaths.

it shouldn't need to be said, but...

part of the argument against any kind of torture policy is the simple idiocy of the people who have implemented it.

Andrew Sullivan's guest blogger Chris Bodenner points us to a horrific story:

Mowj Camp reports that a deaf and mute man was tortured in Evin prison for several days before he was released. “A detainee, who was suspected of pretending to be deaf and mute, was severely tortured for several days to make him speak until finally he was released after a doctor confirmed that he was really deaf and mute.”

I think this incident perfectly exemplifies the stupidity of torture.