Is torture ever justified? If so, when?

The US Government uses torture at Guantanamo. Is it justified? Is the goverment taking a responsible approach to serve the US citizens it represents?

WSJ Article Abstract:
Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, a former marine and current military prosecutor, declined to prosecute an alleged terrorist involved in the 9/11 attack because he came to believe the man was tortured into confessing while being held at Guantanamo Bay. The case is the first known instance where a U.S. military prosecutor refused to bring charges because essential evidence llegedly was tainted by torture. It may not be the last; Guantanamo prosecutors estimate that at least 90% of their cases depend on statements taken from prisoners, making the credibility, and admissibility, of such evidence critical to any convictions. (From WSJ Weekend Edition, 31 Mar 2007)

Restaurant Smoking Ban

I knew this "progressive" action would hit Virginia sooner or later.

Free Exchange on Campus Coalition

I got an interesting email, inviting us to take part in some activism. Are we interested?

My name is Kendra Wobbema; I work with the Free Exchange on Campus
Coalition, a network of faculty, student and civil liberties organizations
working to stop restrictions on what students are able to learn and faculty
able to teach in higher education. Specifically, we're working to stop the
so-called "Intellectual Diversity" bill being pushed in legislatures around
the country. This bill, similar to David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of
Restrictions," would stifle the free exchange of ideas on campus and
severely damage education for students.

This year, as you may have heard, members of the state legislature have
tabled a bill that would enact these restrictions in Virginia (HB 1643).
Proponents of this legislation are arguing that the biggest problem facing
higher education today is that students are incapable of being exposed to
new and controversial ideas in the classroom without being indoctrinated by
them. They claim that there is widespread indoctrination and discrimination
against conservative students in Virginia colleges, and that faculty are
acting inappropriately by bringing politics into the classroom. They also
claim that students don't have adequate recourse to deal with this problem.
Without proof of these claims, they're pushing for a bill that would
restrict what faculty are able to teach, presenting a tremendous threat to
the free exchange of ideas between students and professors. In effect, it
would place restrictions on what faculty could teach and what subjects were
open to debate in the classroom.

Across the country, when these proposals are introduced there is little to
no evidence of any problem, certainly none warranting legislation or
restrictions on what ideas college students can be exposed to and how
faculty can teach. In fact, the one state that has held formal hearings
into these claims, Pennsylvania, found that legislation was not necessary
and that academic freedom violations in the state were rare.

We know that there are bigger problems facing education in Virginia, and
that restricting the education students are exposed to can only hurt higher
education. To keep this bill from being re-introduced and passed in
Virginia, we're working with higher education organizations, students,
faculty and administrators to make sure the legislature understands what
actually happens in college classrooms, that it's hearing opposition to
these proposals, and that the media is covering our side of this debate. If
you or your student/faculty organization is interested in being a part of a
coalition in opposition to this "intellectual diversity" legislation, please
let me know. There are varying levels of involvement, from signing a letter
to gathering widespread support on your campus. I will be in Virginia April
9-13 and would be happy to schedule a meeting to further discuss your
involvement.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kendra Wobbema
Free Exchange on Campus Coalition
(312) 291-0349 x218 (office)
(310) 995-7219 (cell)
Kendra@campusspeech.org
www.freeexchangeoncampus.org

Transgenic mice see all colors

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070319/full/070319-12.html

So we've made another kind of supermice now- would we want to give humans IR or ultraviolet vision?

Taxes Stifle Innovation?

Here's a hilarious/depressing post from the folks at Reason.

Cockfighting Ban

Libertarian thought might break down in terms of basic decency when banning cockfighting is thought of as an infringement on liberty.

RIP Penn Radio

Penn Jillette's Penn Radio, the hour long radio show that ran on Free FM on weekdays, has ended. Daily, Penn stood up for liberty, and always defended the libertarian "nut point of view."

I just found out about this because I had been listening to the podcasts, with quite a bit of delay. The last show aired on March 2.

Don't fret though. The show ended because Penn is so busy. You can see him elsewhere because he's involved in a number of other projects, and there's a good chance that he'll be back in radio in the future.

Recording CLR would make a great podcast, come to think of it.

Virginia is for Lovers

Loving v. Virginia

A panel discussion on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court case that outlawed Virginia's prohibition of interracial marriage.

Philip Hirschkop, Independent Virginia Attorney
Lead Counsel representing the Lovings before the Supreme Court

Robert A. Pratt, Department of History Chair, University of Georgia
Childhood Neighbor of the Lovings; author of articles on the case

Earl Dudley, UVA Professor of Law
Supreme Court clerk when the case was argued

Thursday March 15, 2007
4:00-6:00 PM
Kaleidoscope Lounge in Newcomb Hall, 3rd Floor
Light Refreshments Provided

Sponsored by the Carter G. Woodson Institute for
African-American and African Studies and the Center for the Study of Race and Law

Contact abd5e@virginia.edu for more information

Fun with Eugenics (?!)

The Undergraduate Bioethics Society will meet tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, March 13. The speaker will be Elizabeth Fenton, a graduate student in Philosophy who has just published the article "Liberal Eugenics & Human Nature: Against Habermas" in the Hastings Center Report.

Who: Elizabeth Fenton, Cand. PhD
What: Liberal Eugenics: Against the Critics
When: 7:00-8:15 PM, March 13
Where: 101 Cocke Hall

We are all rightly horrified by the kind of eugenics that inspired the Nazis and the American sterilization movement, but what are the prospects for a more benign, positive brand of eugenics--i.e., genetic enhancement for the betterment of individual lives, freely chosen by individual parents? Some critics, like the famous German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, claim that such genetic tinkering undermines the distinction between the natural and the manufactured, and thereby undermines the ability of "enhanced" children to see themselves as the authors of their own lives. They thus condemn genetic enhancement technology as unethical. Elizabeth Fenton disagrees.

Rumor has it that light refreshments will be served along with good conversation.

Any crime is domestic terrorism.

"Domestic terrorism" is weirdly broad.


Via BoingBoing.

Potential Legislation about Homosexuals in the Military

This story screamed CLR.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070228-113750-3284r.htm