Author Archives: Bok
Thanks for the Memos
Now that Obama has released the “torture” memos, and Joe Biden has released Cheney’s undisclosed location, the former V.P. is in a releasing mood himself. Obama said there would be no prosecutions. That was before he said there might be, but only for lawyers – and who among us is against prosecuting lawyers? Cheney says Obama left out the memos that show “harsh interrogation” kept the country safe from more 9/11 style attacks. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi says memos lie.
Empathy for the Court
David Souter says he’s retiring from the Supreme Court and President Obama is looking for an empathetic replacement .
There is a new Hate Crimes bill before Congress.
I’m not sure exactly which groups won’t make the cut for hate protection under this law but I’m guessing things might go harder on you if you shoot up a gay wedding than if you take out, say, a gang of global warming deniers. Given the coming need to sort out all our guilty thoughts, it’s not hard to figure Obama’s emphasis on empathy.
Nat Hentoff hates hate crimes laws here. Meanwhile, here is Thomas Sowell’s expression of his lack of sympathy for empathy.
New Page
Next time Specter the Defector should get it in writing. (So should I. A previous version had a spelling error. This is the correct version.)
Mum on Merrill
Bank of America shareholders are not happy about being infected by Merrill Lynch’s toxic assets. Ken Lewis, the fired chairman, says Paulson and Bernanke pressured him to keep Merrill Lynch’s sickly condition secret while Bank of America acquired it. Here’s a story in Forbes and here is a WSJ editorial.
