Where Are They Now:

Twenty years ago, the guy who turned faith healing, televangelist Oral Roberts, into a megabucks empire told his gullible followers that he needed millions are God was going to kill him. The faithful came forward and coughed up most of the money, and God, or whoever Oral is in league with, left him here on earth, still alive and kicking. So where is he now that he is no longer laying on hands? In California, soaking up the glorious sun, naturally.

Salon.com has an excellent story on the status of the Oral Roberts' empire and what happens when the next generation comes along. Click here to read it. At least this dude never ran for president or used his television station to tell the country that its president ought to murder people, like some other pseudo religious leaders have done.


How English Courts Are Helping Fund Jihad:

Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but it seems as much as Americans have come to fear their courts, they might want to consider what's happening in England. This week's New York Times Book Review has an essay by Rachel Donadio explaining how libel is being abused in the English court system, in order to silence critics. It's worth a look.


"When We Torture People, It Ain't Torture:

It's only torture when the other guys do it. Heck fire, we got some good stuff out of those guys!" It's been all over the news late this week. Georgie Boy has been offering up his Cheneyesque excuses for subjecting "people of interest" to various forms of violent physical abuse.

This should be a wonderful lesson to every public school teacher. Got somebody doing something wrong in the classroom, on the playground, in the restroom? Just enlist the school bully to interrogate any likely suspect. Have the bully beat the crap out of the smallest kid and that child will surely squeal on whoever is causing the trouble, provided it's not the bully, of course.

We've met this enemy before, Pogo.