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From McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Conversations My Parents Must Have Had While Planning to Raise a Child:

DAD: When I teach her to ride a bike, I will tell her that my hand is on the seat, but then I will take it away just as she is getting the hang of it.

MOM: That will not turn out well.

DAD: No.

DAD: I will demonstrate a total lack of understanding of the proper grammatical way to use quotation marks, and sign every birthday card with “Love.”

MOM: That will keep her on her toes.

Like The Onion, McSweeney’s consistently brings the funny. Sharp wit, tight writing and impeccable timing fuel the McSweeney’s team in all their myriad of ventures (Wholphin, Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern).

It’s a measure of talent for a musician to sound as good on television, live and stripped down naked with just an acoustic guitar, as she does on her CD. Color me impressed.

From Karl Rove’s op/ed in the Wall Street Journal:

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can’t raise his arms over his head.

Regarding Donald Rumsfield in the Wall Street Journal (via Yale):

U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could put prisoners in “stress positions” for as long as four hours, hood them and subject them to 20-hour-long interrogations, “fear of dogs” and “mild non-injurious physical contact,” according to list of techniques Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved in December 2002.

McCain’s torture in Vietnam was, in part, being held in stress positions. The very same stress positions were approved as an interrogation technique by the US in the war on terror.

So what was considered torture to McCain is not considered torture in Guantanamo.

From Newsweek’s piece on new revelations in the Bush administration’s spying on Americans:

The revelation of the existence of the documents comes at a time when Congress is bracing for what is expected to be a grueling summerlong debate over the surveillance measure. Administration officials say that unless Congress acts by this summer, existing court orders permitting surveillance of suspected overseas terrorists will expire, threatening the U.S. government’s ability to keep track of potential plots against the homeland. If new legislation is not enacted before the current stop-gap law expires, Republicans may try to use this as an election issue against Democrats.

So the Republican ads would read: Don’t vote Democrat! They’re anti-America and want to let the terrorist win! While the Democrat would say: Don’t vote Republican! They’re anti-Americans and want to terrorize you with their spying!

Where is the reason in this public policy?