Toxoplasma Modified Humans – i’m glad to see that people who actually know what they’re talking about are looking into this, because i have been suspicious of Toxoplasma gondii for number of years, and this guy seems to be talking about the same stuff that i’ve been wondering about for a long time. the big question is: is ‘the meaning of life’ merely to accelerate the reproductive cycle of a parasitic protozoa? disturbingly, it also sounds suspiciously like the scientologists’ story about microscopic aliens controlling our behaviour…
Can we arrest him now? – i guess the phrase about “liberty and justice for all” was only for some people… 😐
Bush Admits to War Crime
June 4, 2010
By Ed Brayton
Former President George W. Bush, following in the footsteps of his former Vice President Dick Cheney, admitted to authorizing the torture of at least one detainee during an appearance in Grand Rapids. CNN reports:
In some of his most candid comments since leaving the White House, former President George W. Bush said Wednesday he has no regrets about authorizing the controversial waterboarding technique to interrogate terrorist suspects and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again.
“Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” the former president said during an appearance at the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
There is no question that waterboarding is torture; we have tried and put to death soldiers from other countries for waterboarding our own troops and even convicted and tried and imprisoned American soldiers for doing it as well. And there is no question that torture is illegal in the United States, under both statutory and treaty law.
The UN Convention on Torture, which was pushed through and signed by President Ronald Reagan, could not be more explicit in obligating the United States to prosecute anyone in this country that authorizes or engages in torture. It also could not be more clear that there are no possible circumstances that can be used to justify the use of torture. Article 2 of that convention says:
Article 2.
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
The definition of torture from Article 1 is similarly unambiguous:
1. For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
President Bush just admitted to violating that convention.