The Working File

Wow. This episode had a very big event at the end. Good episode, although in some ways it seemed a bit by-the-numbers. Plus, there was a revelation about “Sam,” with its own fallout. There really is only one story this week, with some interrelated subparts.

Exploding SUV

Jonas, Mack and Bob are chasing Russian terrorists in Los Angeles, and while doing so, they are contacted by Sam, who informs Jonas he is holding Molly hostage. Bob is dealing with an attractive Russian informant, and Kim and Tiffy call the police when they discovery Molly is missing and they do not believe Col. Ryan takes it seriously. Also another week with no Charles.
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Sometimes I blog something just so I can find it more easily in the future.  This is just for me (JFM).

Madrid’s solution to this lack of knowledge is to encourage Catholics to read one chapter of the Gospels and three paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church daily, noting that within one month people will notice a marked improvement in their understanding of the faith.

via Ten Reasons: Madrid’s solution.

A delightful must read.

Conversion Diary: A name for baby Joy – The diary of a former atheist.

I cannot read such things without my faith being strengthened.  Thank you Jennifer.

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a Facebook group prodding Sean Hannity to keep his promise to undergo waterboarding for charity. They describe themselves as follows:

Sean Hannity recently volunteered on his show to be waterboarded to raise money for the U S Troops and their families. I think this is a laudable cause and I, for one, appreciate his patriotism. Let’s all support Sean in this noble endeavor. I suggest that he make the funds he raises available to Fisher House, a highly rated charity that makes lodging available to 10,000 troop’s families every year. Go to Sean’s contact page and let him know how much you appreciate his volunteerism. And Please: Spread the Word! If Blogoshere [sic] can help Sarah Palin onto the Republican ticket, we can use it for the benefit of the troops as well.

via Facebook | Waterboard Sean Hannity for Charity.

This is why I have stayed away from the torture debate. In brief, I believe we did things that are terribly wrong, in particular by Catholic rules of ethics that I try to live by. But I also think some valid distinctions can and should be made, and have found that discussion of this subject is nearly impossible without being demonized by one side or the other.
This Facebook group is just one symbol of how low this debate has sunk. Among my friends on the left, most believe that we have tortured, that waterboardng is torture, and that George Bush and others in his administration are war criminals. This Facebook group, while somewhat light-hearted, is also clearly of the left, and I suspect its founders and many members also believe waterboarding to be torture.

Yet they urge that Sean Hannity undergo this ordeal. Hannity invited it. He is a blowhard and a self-promoting idiot. He seems to have made this pledge in an off-guard moment and is trying to slink away. I would not be surprised either way, if he decided to quietly back away or to stand up to his pledge. Of course, the more public attention is focused on his pledge and his failure to live up to it, the more pressure he will face to undergo waterboarding.

So this is where we are: the anti-waterboarding faction, the anti-torture partisans, are trying to convince a man to voluntarily experience what they denounce. If he backs off, they win. But if he caves to their pressure, what have they accomplished, and at what cost to themselves, to their souls? I am anti-torture, and of the right. I would welcome a chance to stand with those on the left for a common cause, but I cannot stand with such a group.

Another week with no Charles, and Mack stays home. Our 3 story lines are (1) Jonas and Bob undertake a 2-man mission in Hong Kong, (2) Molly and Susan Gillum get kidnapped by the Leon Drake gang, and (3) Mack and Tiffy discover that their older daughter is dating an older man.

Angry Mack Daddy

This is Witness.

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.

First Things » Blog Archive » Declining Notre Dame: A Letter from Mary Ann Glendon.

This is considered torture, and by some a constitutional violation:

In this procedure, the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet. The individual’s feet are generally elevated. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes. Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner. As this is done, the cloth is lowered until it covers both the nose and mouth. Once the cloth is saturated and completely covers the mouth and nose, air flow is slightly restricted for 20 to 40 seconds due to the presence of the cloth. This causes an increase in the carbon dioxide level in the individual’s blood [that]… stimulates increased effort to breathe. This effort plus the cloth produces the perception of “suffocation and incipient panic,” i.e., the perception of drowning. … The sensation of drowning is immediately relieved by the removal of the cloth. . . .
We also understand that a medical expert with SERE experience will be present throughout this phase and that the procedures will be stopped if deemed medically necessary to prevent severe medical or physical harm to Zubaydah.

This is a constitutional right:

The primary form of abortion used at or after 16 weeks’ gestation is known as “dilation and evacuation” or “D&E.” 11 F. Supp. 2d 1099, 1103, 1129 (Neb. 1998). When performed during that stage of pregnancy, the D&E procedure requires the physician to dilate the woman’s cervix and then extract the fetus from her uterus with forceps. Id., at 1103; App. 490 (American Medical Association (AMA), Report of the Board of Trustees on Late-Term Abortion). Because of the fetus’ size at this stage, the physician generally removes the fetus by dismembering the fetus one piece at a time.3 11 F. Supp. 2d, at 1103—1104. The doctor grabs a fetal extremity, such as an arm or a leg, with forceps and “pulls it through the cervical os … tearing … fetal parts from the fetal body … by means of traction.” Id., at 1104. See App. 55 (testimony of Dr. Carhart). In other words, the physician will grasp the fetal parts and “basically tear off pieces of the fetus and pull them out.” Id., at 267 (testimony of Dr. Stubblefield). See also id., at 149 (testimony of Dr. Hodgson) (“[Y]ou grasp the fetal parts, and you often don’t know what they are, and you try to pull it down, and its … simply all there is to it”). The fetus will die from blood loss, either because the physician has separated the umbilical cord prior to beginning the procedure or because the fetus loses blood as its limbs are removed. Id., at 62—64 (testimony of Dr. Carhart); id., at 151 (testimony of Dr. Hodgson).4 When all of the fetus’ limbs have been removed and only the head is left in utero, the physician will then collapse the skull and pull it through the cervical canal. Id., at 106 (testimony of Dr. Carhart); id., at 297 (testimony of Dr. Stubblefield); Causeway Medical Suite v. Foster, 43 F. Supp. 2d 604, 608 (ED La. 1999). At the end of the procedure, the physician is left, in respondent’s words, with a “tray full of pieces.” App. 125 (testimony of Dr. Carhart).

Got that?

UPDATE: The Baseball Crank had a similar idea.

This episode seems to have left a lot of people scratching their heads, but I liked it. There were really just 2 stories, apart from the cold open, instead of the usual 3: Sam (Whiplash) attempts to rape Bridget (Red Cap), and flees; and Mack and Tiffy inherit a home in Western Springs, Wyoming, where Mack has a chance meeting with a troubled kidnapper in a local church. The opening shows the Unit — still minus Charles for reasons not fully explained — capturing an American Taliban in Afghanistan. Jonas, Mack, Bob and Sam each shoot one of his comrades, then easily take him into custody. As they load him into their truck, he boasts about how the unit is outmanned and outgunned and will never get away with him, just as a single US bomber destroys his base camp.

Bombing Run.

One note before continuing: the CBS site for “The Unit” calls this episode “Whipflash,” but most everyone else calls it “Whiplash.” I suppose CBS could make a mistake, but until there is confirmation of that I would consider CBS to be authoritative.
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So after two people from team Boxee graced my comboxes in this post, I felt compelled to give it another shot. I bought a new 2GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro USB stick, ran the Patchstick creator, plugged it into the back of my Apple TV, and it worked. Further, I am glad that I had a chance to see the video that Dave linked to in his comment, because after you boot up the ATV, the patchstick runs, scrolling a lot of text that just ends, without any message that says, in effect, “You are finished.” Because I saw his video, I knew that the process had ended properly, so I removed the USB, and rebooted the ATV again.
Now I’m trying to figure out whether I will be able to adjust any settings either in the Boxee software or on the ATV to make internet sources such as Hulu run smoothly. Right now, they run with a very choppy video, and sometimes they just freeze.
It appears that this is partly due to the underpowered nature of the ATV, and due to the fact that Hulu is not designed to deliver content to anything but a regular computer screen. Some people have reported success by lowering the video output from 1080p to 720 or even lower. I’ll check the forums for more tips. Plus, as I’ve noted, Boxee is still in alpha and an update might help this issue.

I found this article fascinating:

Most Americans trust the judgment of the public more than political leaders, view the federal government as a special interest group and believe that big business and big government work together against the interests of investors and consumers. Only seven percent 7% share the opposite view and can be considered part of the Political Class.
On many issues, there is a bigger gap between the Political Class and Mainstream Americans than between Mainstream Republicans and Mainstream Democrats.

via Rasmussen Reports™: The Most Comprehensive Public Opinion Data Anywhere.
There’s more, and the focus is how the Political Class had a very different, and much lower, opinion of the April1 5 Tea Parties than did the rest of the country. What i found interesting, however, was this concept of the Political Class as defined by Rasmussen, and the data that defines it.
I would very much like to get more detail. For example, the article states that “most Americans” believe the three statements listed above, but does not define the size of that majority. Is it a bare 51%, or significantly higher. In addition, it gives no information on how many people believe some combination of only one, or two of the three propositions, and which ones are most believed and which are least.
Further, I’m quite surprised at how low the support for the negative side of those three propositions is. That group seems to be dominant politically, which is why I suppose it is reasonable to call them the Political Class: depsite low numbers, they dominate and rule the rest of us through politics.
Couldn’t we stop that?