Rumsfeld and the Dictionary

"'There is no wiggle room in the president's mind or my mind about torture,' he said.

'That is not something that's permitted under the Geneva Convention or the laws of the United States.

'That is not to say that somebody else couldn't characterise something in a way that would fit what I described,' he added.
He noted that some have described the indefinite detention of suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a form of mental torture.

'Therefore, that word is used by some people in a way that is fair from their standpoint, but doesn't fit a dictionary definition of the word that one would normally accept,' Mr Rumsfeld said. "


from the OED:

TORTURE

1. The infliction of severe bodily pain, as punishment or a means of persuasion; spec. judicial torture, inflicted by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information; a form of this (often in pl.). to put to (the) torture, to inflict torture upon, to torture.

1551 Acts Privy Counc. (1891) III. 407 Assisting to the sayd Commissioners for the putting the prisoners+to suche tortours as they shall think expedient. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 131 You did deuise Strange Tortures for Offendors. 1608 D. Price Chr. Warre 21 To punish the bad, and to prouide some sharpe and fearful tortors for them. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. iv. 10 We put the Captain and Pilot to torture, who instantly confessed. 1708 Act 7 Anne c. 21 §5 After [1 July 1709] no Person accused of any Capital Offence or other Crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any Torture. 1769 Blackstone Comm. (1830) IV. xxv. 326 They erected a rack for torture. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xxv. 393 Pisander moved that the persons+should be put to the torture, that all their accomplices might be known. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. (1871) I. 16 According to law, torture+could not+be inflicted on an English subject. 1882 Gardiner Hist. Eng. (1884) VI. lxv. 359 note 2 Torture had been allowed [in England] by custom as inflicted by the prerogative, but not by law.+ Torture was inflicted as late as 1640 by prerogative.

2. Severe or excruciating pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the infliction of such.

c1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 269 Doe you preferre the horrible tortures of warre beefore tranquillitee? 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1287 And that deepe torture may be cal'd a Hell, When more is felt than one hath power to tell. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 185 Pain and torture of the intestines. 1659 H. More Immort. Soul ii. x. §6. 220 Who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies, if he could avoid it? 1734 Bp. Petre Let. in E. H. Burton Life Challoner (1909) I. 93 He wasted away by degrees under the torture of the Strangury. 1744 M. Bishop Life & Adv. 52 They were in such great Torture, wishing they had never come to Sea. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii, He determined to relieve himself from the tortures of suspense. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 353 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Scanning Project (thanks wood s lot) 

Canada 2004 - Election Prediction Project nice to see they agree with my call on Nanaimo-Cowichan...

2004 Federal Election - Links to Use and Amuse

The Naked Maja has a thoughtful (I'd never made the "Sunday Morning"/"Northern Sky" celeste connection, for instance) list of favorite British records including the song that haunted my fifth year, until replaced by Gary Lewis & the Playboys "This Diamond Ring".

"The Tornados' "Telstar," number one everywhere in the autumn of 1962, seemed to come from a place that the Shadows were unable to reach; unquestionably futuristic, slightly threatening but ultimately one of the saddest pop records ever made."

I could never quite hate Margaret Thatcher as much when I heard it was her favorite record, too. (more on "Telstar" auteur Joe Meek ) here. 

Arctic explorer tabby cat honoured
" Mrs Chippy, who became the ship's mascot, took great delight in leaping across the kennel roofs of the sledging dogs, tantalisingly out of reach. " (thanks Daphne) 

aeroplastics 

Chapagetti has wonderful thick potato-based noodles and a strong, sweet fermented brown broth & also comes with a wee envelope of onion oil. All for less than a dollar. 

The Early Days of a Better Nation

"When the President claims for himself powers outlawed in every country issuing from the English Revolution, and last exercised when James the II & VII personally supervised the splitting of Presbyterian shins, I guess we have to admit that in the long run the English Revolution failed.

Oh well. Freedom can always choose another people. "

a Fred Neil kind of day around the Manse... 

numerous & cool Roadmaps (via) 

Ed Dorn on Milton at Black Mountain--

ED DORN: I'm glad you noticed that, because aside from the literature I got there--and I've had to go back, frankly, and really repair leaks in the plumbing, because at Black Mountain it wasn't a thorough education, it was a fanatical education. It did cover a lot, but there was a lot also they didn't cover. Nobody had heard of Milton there, for instance. You get out in the real world of literature, and you haven't read Milton, it's like a joke.

EFFIE MIHOPOULOS: Though you're probably better off, not having read Milton.

ED DORN: That was the point encouraged at Black Mountain, but I found that later to be quite untrue. Ignorance is NOT bliss.  

lovepundits

BROKAW: Tim, we've been pals and we've been colleagues, but I say this in the most unalloyed fashion. I'm really proud of you, and I'm especially proud of the book that you've done because it's a gift not just to your family, but it's really a gift to our time. And so congratulations.

RUSSERT: Thank you, pal.  

Happy Juneteenth! 

Penkiln Burn - Job No. 41: "Take a map of your locality. Draw a circle on the map. The circle can be any size. The centre point of the circle must be your home.

Then bake a cake. Travel to a home on the circumference of the circle taking the cake with you. Knock on the door. If there is no answer knock on a neighbours door. If the door is answered say "I have baked you a cake, here it is." They may think you are mad or bad. You are neither. Give them the cake. Go back home.

Bake and deliver cakes to different homes on the circle whenever you want. It's a friendly thing to do." 

Happy Birthday Gena Rowlands
"An aura, a demeanor, a port. And a walk. 'That's true, I know how to walk,' she chuckles. " 

<$Xvarenah$> "Imagine, though, that this were a Commons--an ecosystem--in which variety itself is seen as a benefit. We might even put up with a slightly less efficient economy, just to hang on to things we care about for themselves. Yeah, think of that."

pseudopodium on Ulysses-- "We lose all sense of perspective. We might even come to believe that there was some innate possibility for beauty and joy in the mere inescapability of human limits and plasticity of human vision. Almost like we wouldn't mind being one ourselves. "

Feverfew Pyrethrum Parthenium (Sm.). Featherfew. Featherfoil. Flirtwort. Bachelor's Buttons.  

The audience is the enemy
"'One day people love you more than they've ever loved anything in the world. And the next, you're in front of a courthouse dancing on top of a car.'

In case the audience didn't get the reference to Michael Jackson, he said, 'You know why Michael Jackson's had so many surgeries? He wanted you to like him more.'

Chappelle, obviously, will not pander to his fans. 'You guys are the worst listeners in the country,' he told the Sacramento audience. 'It's like 'The Silence of the Lambs.' Without the silence.'"