Links and Minifeatures 01 24 Tuesday

Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Eric's Grumbles, TF Stern's Rantings, Eidelblog

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Something that is way too common. A story that contradicts its headline: Investigator: U.S. 'Outsourced' Torture

Marty said there was no irrefutable evidence of the existence of secret CIA prisons in Romania, Poland or any other country.



"On the other hand, it has been proved that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and all rights and transported to different destinations in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture," he said. If eventually uncovered, the detention centers would likely be small cells that could be easily hidden, he added.

earlier in the story:

"Acts of torture or severe violation of detainees' dignity through the administration of inhuman or degrading treatment

This is known as defining torture down. "Not the comfy chair!"



Here's another link on the same nonsense: Swiss investigator says U.S. 'outsourced' torture; European "But it says there's no formal, irrefutable evidence of such prisons anywhere in Europe."



Another link: Swiss investigator says U.S. 'outsourced' torture; European countries likely knew



No formal, irrefutable evidence? Likely "single, easily hidden cells"? Well, show us the evidence that you do have. You say you can't find them, but with "more cooperation" you would? This sounds remarkable similar to the investigators of many failed scientific hypotheses, claiming "with better equipment, I'll find my evidence!" Well, maybe, but it's not the first thing to check. From what it sounds like, you're building fantasy castles in the air, unsupported by facts. If the evidence is such that it leads to a preponderance of evidence in favor of the hypothesis, let's see it.



How about clemency for the first interrogator to step forward and detail what was done in full? How about tracing the path of one prisoner with evidence he actually was taken the places you claim? How about medical examination showing the damage done by torture to one or more prisoners?



The bottom line is that there are a lot of powerful enemies of the Bush administration who want this to be true, but there is an observed lack of presented evidence. They're making a lot of hullabaloo, but I'm not seeing any substance behind it. Kind of an "invisible friend" argument thus far.



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Captain's Quarters liveblogged the Canadian election last night, but this post is a summary of what happened. If you want more, go to his main page from there.



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Looks like Techography has become the target of a legal terrorist.



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I am still trying to figure out some non-bandwidth intensive and legal way to put a spreadsheet either on this site or the commercial sister-site, when it goes live. The entire idea is to make it interactive, let the viewer enter some numbers of their own and crunch the numbers right in front of them and even draw a line graph.



Right now the dang thing uses half a dozen worksheets in Excel, but I only need to display the front sheet. Furthermore, it could be easily ported to just about anything else. I know enough different spreadsheets that even if I need to learn another, no big deal.



Sorry, out of time for today!