“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Benjamin Franklin
Over at DiscoverMagazine.com, Chris Mooney takes issue with this blog post by Jerry Coyne on what Coyne calls “accomodationism” of religion in stances by the National Academy of Science and the National Center for Science Education, two leading scientific organizations in the US.
I have to side with Coyne on this one. If anyone’s attack is unfair, it is Mooney’s…
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To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush’s Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity.
Their language is the precise bureaucratese favored by dungeon masters throughout history. They detail how to fashion a collar for slamming a prisoner against a wall, exactly how many days he can be kept without sleep (11), and what, specifically, he should be told before being locked in a box with an insect — all to stop just short of having a jury decide that these acts violate the laws against torture and abusive treatment of prisoners.
Editorial - The Torturers’ Manifesto - NYTimes.com
Someone remind me what we’re fighting for.
It seems everyone has a slightly different way to make that “perfect” mojito. Piecing together a few different tips from the web, I made a pretty good “practice” mojito last night, as follows:
2 Tablespoons baker’s sugar (extra fine, so it mixes into the drink well)
1 handful of fresh mint leaves
2 oz rum
1 small lime
Dash of (Angostura) bitters
Ginger ale (club soda is apparently a more traditional alternative)
Ice
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At Wednesday’s G20 summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested creating “a new reserve currency” to replace the dollar. In a paper published March 23, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan also proposed a new reserve currency, one “disconnected from individual nations.”
China and Russia want a new global reserve currency. What would it look like? - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine
Seems to me like little more than excuse to hire some out-of-work accountants. Like the article goes on to say, countries who don’t want to hold dollars don’t need to- they can buy other currencies with which to hedge. The important thing is a floating currency exchange. Any attempt to create a de jure global reserve currency just means a bunch of bureaucrats who think they can arbitrate the relative value of currencies better than the markets can.
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