Looking through the various memos released detailing the United States involvement in torture, among all the many shocks, are some nasty details concerning torture that was based on the religion of the victims. A torture not only physical but also spiritual, since attempts were made to coerce the conscience of the victims. Look at these [...]

Torture, as well as being in itself an evil thing, helps to train the enemy. I don’t mean that the enemy learns how to prepare for particular torture techniques (though that will happen), but that it gives the enemy precisely the right incentive to fight more cleverly.
Because, if any enemy wants to avoid the discovery [...]

What on earth does the New York Times think a “scientific convention” is? (H/T Amy Welborn) In the course of describing the first Sunday sermon by the new New York archbishop, the NYT writer writes:
He did not refer to it, but

Which is a wonderful way of being able to write about almost anything at all [...]

Why does it seem entirely predictable that a post containing the phrase “With respect, Holy Father” is in fact not going to show respect to the Pope? This time it comes from Damian Thompson on his Holy Smoke blog. The post came about because it is time for another attempt at a United Nations conference [...]

Steve Schmidt, the operations chief of the 2008 McCain presidential campaign, gave a talk to the Log Cabin Republicans, recommending that the Republicans should support gay marriage. The talk was problematic, since neither the moral rationale given for supporting gay marriage, nor the possible political consequences were given more than a muddy, and partial focus.
In [...]

Last Tuesday Obama gave a speech on the economy, containing an explicit reference to religious texts. So, how well did his speech-writers stick to the context of the original words, while adapting it for current circumstances?
Here’s the reference, in Obama’s words:
Now, there's a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells [...]