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WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is joining the debate over the Senate's torture report by saying it's hard to rule out the use of extreme measures to extract information if millions of lives were threatened. Scalia told a Swiss broadcast network that American and European liberals who say such tactics may never be used are being self-righteous. The 78-year-old justice said he doesn't "think it's so clear at all," especially if interrogators were trying to find a ticking nuclear bomb. Scalia has made similar comments in the past, but he renewed his remarks on Wednesday in an...

Belgium’s King Philippe, right, and Queen Mathilde throw nuts to the public, during the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, in Bastogne, Belgium, on Saturday. The tradition dates from when the Germans asked for the US surrender in Bastogne, to which General Anthony McAuliffe answered: ‘Nuts!’ Photograph: Yves Logghe/AP Braving snowy weather, Americans and Belgians gathered in the Ardennes on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the biggest and bloodiest US battles of the second world war, the Battle of the Bulge. Jean-Claude Klepper, 62, of Virton, Belgium, said “we must never forget what...

"Verdict is in: Pope Francis is a global rockstar," one Twitter post declared. A recent Pew research report recently found that the pontiff had a positive image in much of the world. In his native Argentina, he enjoys a 91 percent favorability rating. This comes a year after his image has graced some very unexpected magazine covers -- Rolling Stone and The Advocate come to mind. But despite all that coverage from the lay press, many people still don't know what to make of Pope Francis. During a recent synod meeting in Rome that centered on the family -- a...

Universal African People's Organization leader Zaki Baruti (left) and African People's Socialist Party leader Omali Yeshitela.Activists connected to the Leadership Coalition for Justice (formerly called the Justice for Mike Brown Leadership Coalition) and the African People’s Socialist Party announced Friday that they are convening a symbolic grand jury in January to decide for themselves whether former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson should be charged with a crime for killing Michael Brown. The group organizing the symbolic grand jury is called the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, a group that seeks to liberate and empower people of African descent around the...

The federal government is financing the creation of robots that can assist the elderly and make sure they are eating healthily.A nearly $800,000 project from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is pairing the University of Pennsylvania with a robot company to create the machines, which will be able to deliver glasses of water to senior citizens.The government said that the project is necessary due to a demographic crisis in America where soon there will not be enough young people to take care of their elders.“This Partnership For Innovation project develops and tests the use of service robots to monitor and...

De Blasio never got permits for new Gracie Mansion fence A new fence around the mayoral residence adds about 4 feet to the barrier already there. Cops tell de Blasio: Stay away from our funerals Mayor de Blasio failed to secure the proper permits to build his “privacy fence” around Gracie Mansion — and the Parks Department is now scrambling to file the paperwork after the fact, City Hall officials admitted Friday. On Thursday, The Post exclusively reported that the mayor ordered the construction of a roughly 10-foot-tall fence inside an existing 6-foot brick wall to keep the public’s prying...

TCM Remembers 2014

This post was produced in partnership with Beacon Reader as part of a crowd-funded reporting project, “After Ebola Comes Hunger.” Read more about our support for this project, and pledge your support here.Two months ago, it felt like America had a serious identity conflation problem. Amid the Ebola hysteria, people confused Ebola-afflicted Africans with any other African. A Nigerian girl was barred from school out of fear of Ebola contagion; a stadium crowd taunted a juvenile soccer player from Africa by braying “Ebola, Ebola!” at him. Meanwhile, the country faced its own dark scourge—and here, the conflation of identity was...

December 13, 2014 Naked College Students Vs. Black Lives Matter protesters by Cardigan Dean of College Rakesh Khurana speaks on behalf of protesters during Primal Scream early Thursday in Harvard Yard. Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde stands at his side.Dean of College Rakesh Khurana attempts to gain the attention of the participants of Primal Scream by climbing onto the shoulders of a Primal Scream runner Thursday in Harvard Yard. Other students organized a protest in response to recent police brutality that attempted to delay the start of the run. A group of about 30 students attempted to hold a...

Army-Navy game 2014 discussion thread. All comers welcome!

The case started back in 2012, when Dale Lee Norman walked down the street with his pistol showing.  He had recently obtained his concealed carry permit, and did not realize that his firearm was completely exposed. He was convicted of the open carry of a firearm.  His case was appealed to the 4th Circuit court of appeals.   The state Advocate General fought very hard to keep the case from being appealed.   The issue went all the way to the State Supreme Court, which ruled for Norman, to allow the 4th Circuit to hear the case. The 4th Circuit has...

Defying his party's leadership, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz upended plans for smooth passage of a $1.1-trillion spending bill, forcing a rare Saturday session as Congress braces to prevent a new threatened government shutdown.. Cruz launched the Senate into turmoil as he tried to use the government shutdown as leverage to stop President Obama's immigration plans. Now, Congress faces a midnight Saturday deadline to keep federal operations running. Senators were streaming into the Capitol on a sunny winter Saturday for a series of procedural votes, with many not happy about the situation. "I remind everyone, 12 o'clock midnight, 12 a.m., the...

PLAINS, Mont., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A dead coyote hung from a tree with a Christmas bow along a Montana school bus route is outraging residents, but police said the display is not illegal. Plains resident Mary Ellen Siegford, who posted a picture of the less-than-cheerful holiday display on Facebook, said her daughter burst into tears when she saw the dead animal. "A lot of people were just like, 'Well, be glad it's dead. You don't have to worry about it eating your pets,'" Siegford told KECI-TV. "But I don't know. To me, it's morbid, it rings of animal cruelty....

A whimsical statistical study published in the British Medical Journal’s Christmas issue uses a database of bizarre and often fatal behavior to apply scientific scrutiny to what it calls Male Idiot Theory.Finally, a scientific explanation for Johnny Knoxville — he of “Jackass” fame — and the fans that keep him at his dangerous and moronic antics: Male Idiot Theory. New research has rigorously tested Male Idiot Theory, which posits that, well, men are idiots and are driven to take ridiculous risks despite the clear prospects for self-harm, and for no defensible reason. Newly published by the venerable British Medical Journal...

A terrorist attacked a Jewish family with acid in the Gush Etzion region south of Jerusalem Friday, wounding six people including a number of young children. According to Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics, the mother of the family and three young girls between the ages of 8 and 10 were injured in the lower extremities in the attack. Their injuries are described as light. The father, a man in his forties, suffered light-to-moderate injuries to his face and eyes. The sixth victim is believed to be another hitchhiker, and his condition has been described as "moderate". The victims are apparently...

In a stirring speech delivered at the annual Bet El Institutions dinner earlier this week, former Arkansas Governor and US Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee said that the United States should immediately cease its funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and allocate the same amount to housing for Jews in Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank). Huckabee, who led three groups to Israel this year alone, said that he always brings tourists to a random Palestinian shop to ask to see Israel on the maps sold in the store. The shopkeeper inevitably looks confused because Israel doesn’t appear on their...

All the news that fits the desired narrative, and none other, shall be reported by the legitimate "news" media.On February 11, 2013 Vice President Biden said that he and Obama are "counting on...legitimate news media" to help in their gun control efforts. He said he knew people would continue to "misrepresent" the positions taken by himself and Obama, but that "legitimate news media" would cover them in a way that's helpful to the administration. In this post, I use the term "legitimate 'news' media" in the same sense that Biden apparently did. I have been reading Sharyl Attkisson's November 2014 book Stonewalled. Its thesis...

Law could let landmark stay through private ownership of propertyImage by: South40 A law allowing the transfer of the plot of land beneath the Mount Soledad cross from government to private ownership sailed through Congress on Friday and was headed to President Barack Obama to sign. But hope that the bill might put an end to the 25-year litigation surrounding the religious La Jolla symbol on public land is fraught with many yet unanswered questions, including details of the land deal and whether it would pass muster in the courts, especially considering previous efforts have failed. The measure was tucked...

The 17th amendment has created a “winner take all” mentality in the nation’s capital, and the resulting bitterness that grips partisan Washington today is one direct result of its passage. “Interest groups understand that to impose one’s will on 300,000,000 Americans, one must influence one president, the selection of 5 supreme court justices, 51 (or 60) senators, and 218 representatives, a total of 275 individuals who live primarily in physical isolation, far away from those they govern,” says the Campaign to Restore Federalism.

In a November 19 Egyptian TV interview, Jamal Al-Din Ibrahim, who in the past claimed to be a University of California professor, said that ISIS was an acronym for "Israeli Secret Intelligence Service" and had been established by John McCain, as part of a conspiracy to drag the Arab world into a quagmire. According to Ibrahim, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was in fact a Jew called Simon Elliot, who had been trained by the Mossad. Following are excerpts from an interview with self-proclaimed Egyptian-American toxicology professor Jamal Al-Din Ibrahim, which aired on Egypt TV on November 19, 2014: Interviewer: Thank you...