Dog Bites Man

More allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The twist? The ACLU is up in arms becomes an American soldier who allegedly shot and killed a belligerent prisoner was released on a procedural issue. Isn't the ACLU supposed to be guarding the rights of the accused by making sure that due process is followed, and failing that, that the alleged criminal is given the benefit of the doubt and released?

Dems Dragged Kicking and Screaming to the Center

The Democratic leadership is considering a "softening" of its pro-abortion stance. This is excellent -- hope it happens. It would strengthen the Democrats and could signal the beginnings of political compromise on the most divisive issue in politics today.

Or they could listen to Dean and just change the curtains but keep all the furniture.

Getting So Much Better All the Time: Changing Senate Looks Better to Abortion Foes

Staunch abortion opponents Coburn and Brownback have been added to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Don't know if this will suffice to keep Specter honest, but it can't hurt.

Hat Tip: Mike Aquilina

Michael Crichton on Scientism

A delightful discovery: an excellent lecture by Michael Crichton to CalTech students on junk science trends in modern policy and media. Crichton's got a great list: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, The Population Bomb, Nuclear Winter, Second Hand Smoke. He suggests Global Warming is the latest deity to be added to this dubious pantheon. There are lots of good points here, e.g., the tension between the methodological demands of good empirical science and the sociological realities of the use and abuse of consensus.

Antony Flew

Atheist Flew has gone theist. How significant is this? Well, he's not getting circumcised or baptized any time soon. However, considering that less than 10 years ago, he was criticizing Stephen Hawking for conceding too much to believers, it's hard not to see it as a major change in views of a leading apologist for atheism.

Still Tone Deaf? Dems Join the Church of Christ Without Christ

Wonkette reports on a gathering of religious leaders at the Center for American Progress to help the flagging Democrats with their Faith Problem. These leaders, along with Democratic bigwig John Podesta, reportedly sang "You Have the Whole World in Your Hands." That's strange, when we were young we always sang a song called "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." In our version, the referent of "He" and "His" was clearly the Lord God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is the CAP's version intended to be addressed to the Democratic Party, who has the whole world in its hands, if it just believes? Maybe we're reading too much into this, but it sounds to us like these "religious leaders" seem to view faith primarily as self-affirmations -- religion as self-deifying pep rally.

File under "They Just Don't Get It."

UPDATE: On second thought, maybe it's just yet another awkward way of making traditional texts "gender neutral." If so, it's still revealing of the faith stylings of the Democratic Party.

UPDATE: Wonkette has put a correction on her site. They got the song right after all. Figures. If you can't trust Wonkette with an election, can you trust her with a hymn?

Netherlands Dispatches Sick Children to the Netherworld

At least one Dutch hospital currently has a policy of killing terminally ill, incurable, or extremely deformed newborns. This story is as predictable as it is saddening.

Hat tip: James Taranto at Best of the Web on OpinionJournal (scroll down).

Treacherous Tehran, Bush Holding Fast

According to the New York Times, Iran Says It Will Suspend but Not End Its Uranium Program. W is not satisfied.