In today's pages
Shaul Bakhash relates his wife's experiences as a prisoner in Iran, accused of plotting a "velvet" revolution:
Since her incarceration 17 days ago, Haleh has been allowed only one- or two-minute phone calls with her mother. She speaks as if a minder is present. No visits are allowed, no legal representation. With so little contact, I have every reason to assume the worst: that she is subject to blindfolding, solitary confinement and harsh, even brutal interrogation calculated to extract a false confession.
Columnist Rosa Brooks explains why a navy lawyer's decision to leak information about Guantanamo detainees was the wrong move for the right reasons, and David O. Stewart argues for the abolition of the electoral college. Columnist Joel Stein tells a few members of the L.A. Philharmonic what not to wear.
The editorial board wonders whether Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department has crossed too many lines, and if Congress is ever going to stop blaming oil companies for high gas prices. The board also thinks reality TV can be too real, particularly if the subject is the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.
On immigration, letter writers have varied views on reform. Claremont's Owen Keavney, citing the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty and saying it doesn't reflect American values anymore, asks, "Are we a better nation today?"
US immigration laws are not breaking up families; everyone in a family is allowed to return to "the old country." The American Dream (streets
paved with gold) is breaking up families. I haven't seen anyone swimming
the other direction. America is the strongest magnet in the world.
During the Soviet Union era, I always said that the US could overthrow
Moscow with a dozen pair of panty-hose and a half dozen Levi's.
But, some hot shot in a Cessna 172 beat me to it when he flew his
plane from Poland and landed in Red Square. So make that a dozen
panty-hose, a half dozen Levi's and a Cessna 172. As for all these
foreign countries today; I could over-throw most of them with a
bar of Ivory soap. And I would clean up.
Posted by: yours truly, johnny dollar | June 13, 2007 at 05:20 AM
Only problem I have with Alberto Gonzalez is that every time I see and listen to him on television, I see and hear Pee Wee Herman. I can't keep a straight face.
Posted by: yours truly, johnny dollar | June 12, 2007 at 03:51 PM
Speaking to the world.
There’s a meadow
sometimes at the end
of a delicate candle,
and often, when
you’re speaking
to the world,
a line disappears
regarding a pleasure
to the song of
the bells, that
beautiful care arising
alone when a
voice fades away…
Francesco Sinibaldi
Posted by: Francesco Sinibaldi | May 26, 2007 at 12:09 PM