The world isn't black and white. There are nightmare scenarios that could occur at any time. We elect leaders like President Obama to make the most difficult decisions and then live with the consequences. I do not think he would have anyone tortured without an immediate, imminent, credible threat. But that's why we elect our leaders -- to make those decisions.

Using a completely hypothetical scenario, if our security agencies uncovered a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, had discovered that the bomb had already been smuggled onto our soil, and had apprehended one of the terrorists with direct knowledge of the pending attack, why shouldn't torture be on the table if all other means of extracting information necessary to thwart the attack have failed?

How many lives do we need to sacrifice on the altar of the moral highground?

Should such a scenario arise, it would behoove us not to exclude all available options, but rather to make completely transparent whatever course of action we choose.

I'm appalled at the sex police up in arms over this movie. It is NOT your business if two consenting adults want to engage in homosexual sex, heterosexual sex, BDSM, oral, anal, or any other consensual sex act. Keep your morals out of my bedroom.

Hasn't the cowardly group using human shields earned the lion's share of the blame when those civilians are killed in retaliation?

This is not directly related to the current I/P mess, just general musing.

This utilization of this necessary police tool has quickly grown to unnecessary levels. There is no reason to apply for a No Knock search warrant for the vast majority of drug raids -- unless going up against the cartel, we shouldn't ever hear about these things.

No Knock exceptions were designed for the pinnacle of extreme danger and should be utilized in a tiny fraction of police raids: looking for murderers, terrorists, kidnap victims, etc.

The risks are too high and rewards too low to justify a No Knock raid on a low level drug house. This madness has to stop.

There were SEVERAL posters in the first couple threads on this story who were extremely condescending in their disdain for anyone who supported the arrest of the father in this case. They were vocal and loudly proclaimed how the murderer's search history was irrelevant and that we were wrongfully convicting this man in the court of public opinion.

Their voices are curiously absent from the recent threads detailing the mounting, crushingly-overwhelming evidence of his knowledge and his premediation -- evidence of his guilt.

I'm glad that the father gave a statement to police without counsel. He may have gotten away with this if he had invoked his right to remain silent.

The accomplishments of the Women's rights movement over the last century are not going to be chipped away at without a hell of a fight.

...she retires soon. Like, say, tomorrow. We need her replacement to be young and liberal to the core. As much as I appreciate her incredible service to our country, her work will be undermined if her successor is picked by the Republicans. Kennedy needs to step down, too, and let PBO replace him.

How long until some company decides that paying for maternity and childbirth coverage is against their religious (financial) interests, but abortions are just fine (cheaper). The war over women's bodies is far from over, folks.

I can't wait for a company to say they'll pay for the abortion but not the birth and see how fast the right-wingers shit themselves.

A dark day for America.

Hobby Lobby is now a religious corporation in a 5-4 decision. Ginsburg's dissent calls the majority opinion a "decision of startling breadth."

http://scotusblog.com


BOYCOTT Hobby Lobby! Send the message that this WILL NOT be tolerated.

If the anti-choice crowd can muster bodies to protest, why not beat them at their own game? Let's start a movement in which pro-choice activists descend on every clinic in the nation, and physically occupy the space before these anti-choice harassers can.

This can be a temporary movement while we work to construct abortion clinic facilities that are designed to maximize the private property surrounding the facility. I'm imagining clinics surrounded by private grounds, accessible from multiple avenues and enterances, in which protesters cannot ever lawfully be wjthin even earshot of patients.