Insta-easta-bunnies

It's Easter, so the hoglets have become bunnies.

From the Scottish Sunday Herald, an audacious and informative article that I don't believe any newspaper in the US would be able to print without being deluged by hate mail. It simply asks the question "Do Christians have to believe in the resurrection?" The answers, from scholars and clergy alike, are fascinating.

Then at the other end of the scale, rabid wingnut Adam Yoshida rants about the anniversary of the death of activist Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Palestine two years ago. He happily drools

"Well, it looks like it’s time once more to recall the story of the traitor Rachel Corrie, who has now been burning in hell for exactly two years. Frankly, I find her story very comforting: I take it as a sort of reassurance that, though the Lord cannot answer all of our prayers, at least he will occasionally take the time to remind us that, at the very least, he still has a sense of humor.

Yes, I know he is Canadian, but people like this are why John Pike and Glenn Reynolds are writing stuff like this and this. It's easy to see why he has no comments on his blog.

The Left Coaster saved me a whole deal of work when Steve Soto posted the definitive word on Bush's sale of F16 multi-role fighters to Pakistan. I've mentioned before that I think Musharraf is playing the international community and that Bush and Blair are not ignorant of the fact. Steve says

We also know now that the Bush Administration’s concept of spreading freedom and democracy also means letting the military industrial complex have additional opportunities to make profits while sparking arms races in global hot spots.

Read it.

Reuters reports that American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners at a military base in Mosul but nobody was court martialed over the abuse. Army documents released to the ACLU after a Freedom of Information lawsuit reveal

mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was not confined to the Abu Ghraib jail, where abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates caused worldwide outrage last year.


An investigation by a U.S. officer after an Iraqi prisoner's jaw was broken at the base in Mosul found that "detainees were being systematically and intentionally mistreated" in late 2003.


Inmates were hit with water bottles, forced to do exhausting physical exercises until they collapsed, deprived of sleep and subjected to deafening noise, the investigation report found...

The investigation was unable to determine which guards were at fault, so none were punished. But the investigating officer said many of his recommendations for improvements were implemented, including ceasing physical harassment of prisoners and putting the detention room under military police control.

The Pentagon has issued it's usual "a few rogue soldiers" denial.

It's hardly surprising that these incidents of "the torture no-one ordered" are so prevalent. There are way too many in this administration and among it's supporters willing to nit-pick the US constitution and conclude that torture is ok and anyway the Constitution doesn't protect non-Americans. I strongly doubt that the wise heads who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would have felt that way - they were informed by the humanitarian writings of the Scottish Enlightenment and the basic precept that "all men are created equal". All men...get it?

I missed this when it first broke, so thanks to PSoTD for bringing it to my notice. There has been a huge kerfuffle because someone stated the obvious - Atrios isn't actually all that good. There's more comment on the subject over at Loaded Mouth too.