Whitman boys.

THIS POIGNANT PIECE EXAMINES THE TENSION INHERENT IN ENVIRONMENTALISM.

YESTERDAY PAUL CLEMENT TOLD THE SUPREME COURT that the US does not torture detained “enemy combatants” because it is a poor way to get accurate information. But that doesn’t stop our troops for torturing just for fun, and photographing the proceedings to keep the good times rolling:

One picture depicts an Iraqi soldier standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. He was reportedly left on the box for a long period and told that he faced electrocution if he fell off. Another shows prisoners kneeling on each other, naked except for hoods covering their heads, to form a human pyramid. Another shows naked prisoners being forced to pretend to have sex with one another.

In case you were wondering, this is the problem with war–not what our enemies do to us, but what war allows us to do to others. By systematically demonizing and dehumanizing others, we justify killing them. And once we can kill them, why not force them to sodomize each other? And so we are dehumanized.

ADDITION 5/3/04: Josh Marshall says it better:

Put tens of thousands of young men and women in a hostile situation, give them near absolute control over people they learn to both fear and hate in equal measure, and awful things are bound to happen.

THE TASTEFULLY NAMED GREGG EASTERBROOK’S EASTERBLOGG at The New Republic is going defunct so Easterbrook can work on his book. He concluded Tuesday with his “All Suck-Up Edition,” guaranteed to boost his own Google results. But don’t forget–Tuesday Morning Quarterback resumes regular posts when the NFL preseason starts.

AS PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED, I REVERE DAHLIA LITHWICK. Her acerbic observations in reporting on the Supreme Court for Slate are among the high points in my little legal world. From today’s report on the Padilla hearing:

Ginsburg asks whether the government has any justification for trying certain defendants (John Walker Lindh, Zacarias Moussaoui, James Ujaama) and locking up others. Clement replies that those terrorists had “no intelligence value,” so it was fine to put them into the judicial system. (The notion that the government will learn more from interrogating Hamdi, a Taliban foot soldier, than Moussaoui, a man who ate ice cream with ranking al-Qaida members, is so preposterous that it cannot just be left on this page to die.)

THIS NY TIMES PIECE–A PROFILE OF KERRY’S PERSONAL ASSISTANT–IS BAFFLING. The why of it, that is: “why did anyone incur keyboard wear and tear writing this?” And the where: “Why is this in the Times rather than the Enquirer?” But from it we get this factoid: Kerry owns, and travels with, a Serotta.

GIANT BLIMPS–FOR SPOTTING ENEMY MISSILES. It’d be funny if it weren’t so freakin’ sad.

HEY CRACKHEAD! (link from Brooks)

YOU CAN BUY THE ARK OF THE COVENANT ON EBAY. And you should. The minimum bid is US$10M, but I’m sure the seller would accept any form of exchange used by Old Testament prophets…goats, slaves, virgin daughters.