THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Waterboarding: The Latest Fad To Sweep The U.S.: Back in March, The Stiletto noted that many more Americans have undergone waterboarding out of curiosity than terrorists out of necessity. Add Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens to the list (video): “I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”
Yes, but how torturous a form of torture is waterboarding? Slavery can be considered torture (fourth item) that lasts a lifetime, whereas waterboarding is over within seconds or minutes. As “rough interrogation techniques” go, waterboarding isn’t nearly as bad as it gets. With all due respect to Hitchens, The Stiletto is still not losing any sleep over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s waterboarding.
† Michael Vick Is Like Richard Nixon, But Leona Helmsley Is No George Bush (second item): After Michael Vick pleaded guilty to conspiring to run a dogfighting operation last year, no one knew what would happen to his 50 pit bulls, according to The Washington Post – and some animal rights groups advocated these “ticking time bombs” be euthanized when “they were no longer valuable as evidence” in the case. But U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson took a chance on the dogs, and many of them have been rehabilitated:
Of the 49 pit bulls animal behavior experts evaluated in the fall, only one was deemed too vicious to warrant saving and was euthanized. (Another was euthanized because it was sick and in pain.)
More than a year after being confiscated from Vick's property, Leo, a tan, muscular pit bull, dons a colorful clown collar and visits cancer patients as a certified therapy dog in
Of the 47 surviving dogs, 25 were placed directly in foster homes, and a handful have been or are being adopted. Twenty-two were deemed potentially aggressive toward other dogs and were sent to an animal sanctuary in
Veterinarian Frank McMillan, who is following the progress of some Vick’s dogs, tells the WaPo that there is little research on deprogramming fighting dogs because “these animals don't survive.”
† It’s Only Porn If It Involves A Conservative: In a Washington Post editorial Michael Kinsley defends “professional jokester” Al Franken (D), who is looking to unseat incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), and the “arge inventory of potential gaffe material to explain away” on account of having been “a professional comedian before turning to politics.” Kinsley adds: “Franken (a slight but friendly acquaintance of mine) is in a quandary. He can't stop his campaign to defend every joke he's ever written that someone now finds offensive, or pretends to. Trying to explain a joke is notoriously pointless anyway.”
A post about this WaPo editorial on The New York Times blog “The Opionionator” is titled “Endangered Punchlines.” Chris Suellentrop should get a grip. The only danger Franken and other comedians in the
A Canadian stand-up comedian will face a human rights tribunal hearing after a woman complained she and her friends faced a “tirade of homophobic and sexist comments” while attending one of his shows.
In a decision released this week, the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled there is enough evidence to hear the case of
"Mr. Earle does, however, admit that he used comments which he now regrets," says the tribunal. "Those admitted comments may go to establish discrimination." …
Mr. Earle said the complaint is an attack on comedians' right to perform. "I would never have expected it would get escalated to a philosophical battle."
Earle is holding a benefit concert in
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