Majority of Church-Going Protestants in US Support State Torture?

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Some interesting findings from surveys of cross-cultural attitudes to torture cited at Will Grigg’s Pro Libertate blog:

“a country in which a bare majority, according to a recent global survey, opposes state torture.

That survey found that Americans are much likelier to support government-inflicted torture than citizens of Communist China, and marginally more indulgent of the practice than the residents of Muslim Indonesia and Muslim/socialist Egypt. Support for torture is also more widespread among Americans than among Iranians.…..

…A survey taken earlier this year documented that a majority (54 percent) of people who attend church at least once a week support torture.

Perhaps the most arresting discovery was that more than sixty percent of white, evangelical Protestants condone the practice. Torture advocates of this theological persuasion profess a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. That relationship must be, at best, a distant and superficial one…”

My Comment

I take Grigg’s point, but I’ve put a question mark next to this post’s heading, not because I find it implausible but because I’m always a bit skeptical of public surveys, especially, cross-cultural ones, unless they’re very extensive and prolonged. And conducted by people who have tremendous international experience. In this case, the survey of the church-goers apparently had its defects:

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

It Was All Fake for Decades, Says Madoff COO

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From The Guardian, UK:

Frank DiPascali, a loyal lieutenant who worked for Madoff Investment Securities for 33 years, admitted he helped the fraudster run a $65bn (£39bn) pyramid scheme from the early 1990s to 2008.

……DiPascali, 52, faces a notional maximum sentence of 125 years in prison. But he has agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in return for more lenient treatment, in a deal which victims hope will lead to more Madoff conspirators being unmasked.

One of the firm’s longest serving employees, DiPascali joined Madoff Investment Securities as a high school leaver in 1975. He told the court that by the early 1990s, he knew that purported investments on behalf of thousands of clients were fake. “No purchases or sales of securities were actually taking place,” said DiPascali. “It was all fake, it was fictitious. It was wrong, and I knew it was wrong at the time.”

My Comment:

Check back on my posts on Madoff. You’ll see this blog was one of the first to say the Madoff fraud was obviously old, and dated way back before 2005. We think it was fraudulent from the get go. In fact, we think Madoff is taking the fall for many other people, for whatever reason.

Bit by damning bit, we’re going to find out that a LOT of people knew. You can’t run a racket like this without nearly everyone near you either knowing or suspecting something’s amiss.

We’re on record calling DC a den of thieves. We never said it was a den of morons. There were plenty of smart people there who caught on to what was going on. Why didn’t they speak up? We know Henry Markopoulous did, even though he was afraid for his family. So what about the rest?

Which powerful, well-organized group of insiders overawed them?

Media Reports Raise Fears of Indo-Chinese Water Wars

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While Chinese government officials apparently deny it, the Indian media is seriously discussing reports about China’s diversion of the River Brahmaputra (on which India, Bangladesh and China depend).

Here’s a piece from the Hindu Business Online

“China’s attempt to divert the Brahmaputra has reared its head again. The Chinese are apparently eyeing about 40 billion cubic metres, out of the annual average inflow of 71.4 billion, of the Brahmaputra’s waters. The river skirts China’s borders before dipping into India and Bangladesh. China has a serious need to feed water to its north-west territory, the Gobi Desert, which contains almost half the country’s total landmass, but only seven per cent of its freshwater. The Gobi occupies an area of 13,00,000 sq.km making it one of the largest deserts in the world. Desertification of Gobi since 1950s has expanded it by 52,000 sq.km and it is now just 160 km from Beijing. It is said to expand by 3 km per year.…….
What does this diversion mean for India? The move by the Chinese Government will put almost 40 per cent of India’s hydel potential in trouble…”

Do-Gooding Dimwit?

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Meddling and ignorant idealism is never a power for good, as this recent turn of events in Burma illustrates:

It is a remarkable irony that an unknown American, who presumably wanted to champion Suu Kyi’s democratic cause, was the catalyst for her latest troubles. But so go the unintended consequences of political inexperience. “Burma’s pro-democracy movement has long been an attraction for fantasists, fanatics and adventure tourists,” writes Aung Zaw, editor of the respected online news magazine the Irrawaddy, sho covers Burma from neighboring Thailand. “Did John William Yettaw consider the consequences [of his swim]? Did he think for a minute that he would do more harm than good? Probably not.”

One of Suu Kyi’s lawyers branded Yettaw a “wretched American.” Inside the country, it can be easy to spot the foreign idealists masquerading as, say, tourists or teachers, who have made it their mission to change Burma…… As Aung Zaw noted in the Irrawaddy, two British activists who were convicted for staging separate political protests in Burma in 1999 were both released early after serving only a fraction of their jail sentences. Good news for them. But Burmese can hardly expect the same treatment. If Suu Kyi is convicted — and Burmese courts have a frighteningly high conviction rate — few expect the Lady to taste freedom anytime soon. “

More here at Time.

My Comment

Idealists? I wonder. A large number of these do-gooders aren’t idealists so much as vain, self-important no talents, who gain a passing glory by linking themselves to ‘mass movements’ or ‘popular leaders’. In their own countries, they’re nobodies. But in a third-world country, their US citizenship, racial membership in the ‘ruling class,’ and the relative strength of their currency, gives them a status that their own accomplishments cannot. It goes to their head. Pretty soon, they fancy themselves saviors. They interfere, stir up trouble, and then conveniently leave, letting the ‘natives’ take the rap for their arrogant intervention…

On the other hand, there’s something remarkably “stagey” about the whole incident. And when I note that Gordon Brown – he who sold off Britain’s gold at the bottom of gold prices and has now presided over the bankruptcy of its banking system — seems to be throwing righteous and media-genic fits over the Burmese junta’s response, I have to wonder.

I think about Bill Clinton’s miraculous intervention on behalf of the two journalists in North Korea….and in a world of simulation and media myth-making, I have to file this under “What really did happen?”

Liberal Blogs Merge with Establishment Media

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An interesting clip on the way liberal-left blogs merge into the mainstream media:

My Comment:

Someone might counter this with the argument that Fox, Limbaugh, and right wing talk-radio more than make up for the mainstream bias. Now, there’s some truth in that, if you’re only thinking in terms of popular appeal. But no one thinks of Fox etc. as unbiased. The mainstream outlets claim objectivity and have the imprimatur of “news” – not “opinion”. Their responsibility is greater.

Also, it’s doubtful if conservative voices would be so shrill if mainstream news were more even-handed.

Who started the culture wars isn’t a useful question to raise at this point. More useful is, who’s going to end them?

Cardinal Criticizes Argentine Poverty…

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In Argentina, the view from below is not nearly so pretty as the vineyards of Mendoza:

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the highest authority of the Catholic Church in Argentina, criticized the lack of action against poverty in Argentina and warned of a “dramatic situation” as he was leading the traditional San Cajetan mass, a day after the Church unveiled a statement from Pope Benedict XVI denouncing a state of “scandalous poverty.”

“We’re noticing situation of dramatic poverty and unemployment,” said Bergoglio in Liniers. “More and more people are sleeping in the streets, and they have become disposable materials,” he added. Bergoglio, a critic of the Kirchner administration, echoed the word of the Pope and said the local church also noticed “scandalous poverty.”

More at the Buenos Aires Herald.

Travel Like a Libertarian….

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A new piece with some travel tips at Lew Rockwell.

Here’s the opening:

“A while ago I wrote an article suggesting that for some libertarians it might be time to run.

I still think it is. But I also think your journey abroad should be reasoned and carefully planned, or it could leave you worse off, not better. Run smart, not stupid.

To help you do that, here are some things I’ve learned from years of going back and forth across the world. I’ve grouped them under four headings that express fundamental elements of a libertarian stance in the world.

Connectivity (the free market is all about communicating and persuading)
Security (libertarians should take the initiative in defending themselves)
Simplicity (less always makes for more independence)
Flexibility (don’t resist change; it’s the essence of the free market)