They always seem to presume that their torture victims are murderous terrorists. So their attitude is, "What the hell? This guy deserves it anyway."

But most of the evidence shows that most of the people they pick up and interrogate have no information. They use these awful procedures to find out whether people have information, rather than actually to get information.

The infamous "ticking bomb scenario" probably never happens. It is a fantasy. If it ever had happened, W. Bush would have told us about it, in an attempt to justify his unjustifiable barbaric torture practices.

Tnsmoke, yours is the best analysis so far, by far.

Or maybe Phil's realistic consiglieri is Colin Powell. And Phil's nasty little lieutenant (forgot name) is Cheney.

Maybe Little Carmine is Al Gore!

You guys are brilliant! And you are making me cuckoo!

Mr. Vice President: Step forward and support your trooper Scooter! Save him. Tell the judge and the world that Scooter was doing your bidding.

Dick Cheney, you appear to have no personal honor whatsoever. The time has come. Be a man.

[You did not even write a letter to the judge for Scooter! Shame!]

One poster said that W.Bush tortured animals as a kid. Another poster speaks of blowing up frogs with firecrackers.

Is this stuff true, or just rhetoric? Anybody know? Can you tell us any facts here?

This is from an article today by Matt Apuzzo of AP:

"Such conduct is not only inconsistent with her own ideals and expectations, but also contradicts her years of public service in the not-for-profit community," said attorneys Jonathan Rosen and Noam Fischman.

They said this about Italia Federici, a big-time Republican, an associate of Grover Norquist. Ms. Federici just pled guilty to lying in the Jack Abramoff investigation, to stealing money from a Republican charity, and to income tax evasion.

You already are nostalgic for The Good Olde Days (tm) of a year ago. It is a fake feeling. Forget it. Do not try to go back. Move forward, whether that includes this girlfriend or not, as Carey advises.

If it works out, okay. If not, okay. You and she both are free, either way.

Just move into life, and become your own self. She probably will like that. All women probably will like that. Women who do NOT like that are trying to play you, or are crazy, and are not worth your while.

Zero women will like you if you concentrate on them, rather than doing something. They want an extremely cool guy who is almost too busy for them.

So take the humble route (great advice from Carey!), and get busy with the rest of the world. Great women will line up for you. Alternatively, if you just want to get laid, PRETEND you are a busy player, and ACT as if you are working on something important.

She sounds like a wonderful woman. Lots of wonderful women everywhere, though. Be cool. Get busy. Que sera, sera.

A couple of posts below (above, call it what you will), you laid out all those Roman accomplishments. Not all true, and over the course of the history of Rome, all of them can be argued either way.

Please do not go for the Simple-Minded Victory here.

We do not want to be Rome. Rome fought and fought, and conquered and conquered. Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, all of Rome.

We do not want to try to be Rome. We are not up to it. The only way we can be greater than Rome is to act like Americans.

Rome was well over 500 years old before they even started their empire, and they fought like crazy that whole time. And then the empire lasted many hundreds of years more, with fighting nearly constant. And they went down in flames.

We (USA) are only 231 years old. We will not last another 50 years if we try to take on the rest of the world.

We are NOT talking about punishment here! This is interrogation.

This is a terrible, brutal fallacy! The people who get tortured may not be guilty of anything, may not even know anything.

...if he had stayed with his original support for gay marriage!

We (Salonistas et cetera) would have loved him. He would have had all sorts of great press. And the rest of the Republican candidates are so goofy that Romney still probably would have been the nominee.

Is it an actual berry? I always thought it was a joke from old plays and essays.

What does it look like? Possibly, do we call it something else in my part of the country? (such as Musk Melon versus Cantaloupe?)

How does it taste? Do you put sugar on it? Cream? Inquiring Midwesterners want to know.

1. Patrick Parisi showed up out of nowhere a few episodes ago.

2. Last episode, Carm said, "Meadow practically lives at Patrick's house now."

3. Patrick took Meadow to a Brooklyn Mob restaurant, where the Now-Toothless Guy insulted her. We did not think much of it at the time, but now !?!

4. Patrick's dad Patsy ran off in a hail of bullets, and we have not seen him since.

5. Patsy may well want more revenge than piddling in the pool. And now the pool has been drained!

Still, I do not believe they will kill Meadow. That would be too much like the end of the Godfather movies.

Stay tuned! 9pm Sunday! Don't fahgeddahbahdiht!

...that Elderberries are poison for little kids, but not for birds or for the Amish.

Thanks for the info on Elderberries, Allie!

Do any of you realize that the whole Iraq/Afghanistan War was launched to bring low-wage athletes (Iraqis and Afghans) to the new Major League Baseball Training Academy in Cuba, a great Latin American baseball Powerhouse?

Isn't it obvious? Do you think it is just a coincidence that the current President of the USA used to own a Major League Baseball team?!