Wait, what was I saying?

From the New York Times

Holder Tells Senators Waterboarding Is Torture

(quoting the relevant sections)

Pledging to run an independent Justice Department free of political taint, Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday that he believes unequivocally that “waterboarding” is torture, and that it must not be practiced by the United States regardless of the circumstances.

....


Asked whether a president might have the power to immunize people against criminal charges if they employ waterboarding, which creates a drowning-like sensation, to obtain intelligence to use against terrorists, Mr. Holder answered unambiguously: “Mr. Chairman, no one is above the law.”

What gives people the idea to do these sorts of things?

You know you're working at an aid organization headquarters if...

1. You just had a pre-meeting to discuss your strategy planning session for the new initiative to reduce poverty by increasing access to safe water/credit/food/health care through fair and equitable distribution to those with the right to said good or service through engagement with duty bearers in the government and other stakeholders and civil society organizations.

2. You just repeatedly slammed your head into your keyboard after spending the last 20 minutes trying to get your Skype conference call between Port au Prince, West Bank/Gaza, Delhi, Nairobi and New York to work only to fail miserably.

3. You realize that you can no longer squeeze into your cubicle past that cool hand-woven cloth from Mali, the wooden mask from Congo, the elephant figurine from Thailand and the rug from Afghanistan.

4. You just completed an annual report to your donor explaining that you're very sorry that you only managed to accomplish 2 of your 14 objectives due to sudden onset of war, drought or an invasion of futuristic nano-robots.

5. You just finished explaining to the donor that you are likely to need a two-year extension and an extra $200,000 to hire an independent consulting company to come up with a plan to fight off the nano-robots, carry out said plan and then finish up the original activities.

6. You realize that you just used cheers, karibu, Insh'Allah or namaste in casual conversation despite the fact that you are not English, Kenyan, Arab or Indian.

7. You realize that your favorite and most frequented cafe is located in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

8. You just finished depressing a volunteer caller from the Red Cross for the 12th time this year who reluctantly agreed that you are not eligible to donate blood because you just got back from [fill in malarial region here].

9. You're pumped with antibiotics more frequently than a cow in a concentrated feeding operation.

10. You tell yourself it's not failure if you turn it into a lessons-learned document.

Combine darkwingjhu's meatballs with marag, I'm returning the book recommendation with two (because odds are you've read one or both of them). Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible

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There are a lot of shows that I've fallen in love with, only to see them fall by the wayside. Journeyman on NBC last year was quite good. The sequel to Babylon 5, Crusade was finally finding its way towards the end of its all to brief run. But since I have to pick one, I'll choose Brimstone starring Peter Horton as a dead cop sent back to the Earth to hunt down souls escaped from Hell. In particular, it was John Glover's performance as the devil, and the interplay between the two of them, that made the show.

Somehow, some way, I'm doing really well in my HopSFA Fantasy Football leagues.

This is just inconceivable.

I've played in other, non HopSFA, leagues and I've done very well, never quite won a league, but have finished top 2 or 3 on a regular basis. Over in HopSFA my record has been closer to .500 (at best) and I've never made a playoff. So I figure our HopSFA leagues must have some pretty damn high quality ownership.

This year though, in part because of some quality drafting, in part because of luck, most of the bounces have been going my way.

( fantasy football rambling )

The only thing worse than feeling sick is feeling sick and guilty about it.

So should you.