Two somber anniversaries of a moral atrocity

Today marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most horrific acts in history, and that is the dropping of a nuclear weapon on the city of Nagasaki. It follows by three days a similar act committed against the city of Hiroshima. The bomb on Hiroshima killed 80,000 people instantly and another 60,000 in the months that followed and the one on Nagasaki resulted in another 70,000 deaths in the short term. Of course, to these grim totals we must add to that the uncounted number of long-term deaths and illnesses and genetic defects that ensued and the creation of a wasteland where once had been two cities.

This deliberate killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians was an act of moral degeneration, a vile decision and a war crime by any measure. I find it incredible that anyone could have consciously made the decision to incinerate such vast numbers of people in a single moment. As barbaric as that act was, what is even more appalling is that many others not only exulted in it then, but continue to justify it now. It is indeed a sad reflection of our flawed humanity how the tribal mentality prevents ‘us’ from seeing ‘our’ side as incapable of evil and tries to whitewash this unspeakable act and somehow justify it.
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Republican debate post-mortem: It looks like Fox News has tipped its hand

What the first primary debate may have been most helpful in clarifying is where Fox News is placing its bets. I tuned in to the debate just a few minutes before the scheduled time and heard one of the moderators Megyn Kelly give a brief rave review for Carly Fiorina’s performance at the earlier forum. Later I tried to read what Fiorina had said that was so impressive and failed to find anything special though Fox News continued to declare her a breakout winner. Meanwhile, following the main event, Republican operator, pollster, and message guru said that his focus group analysis indicated that Donald Trump’s performance had destroyed his candidacy.
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Reflections on the Republican debate

So I did my civic duty and watched the first debate of the Republican primaries last night. There were really no surprises. Almost all the speakers responded to each question with a brief general statement vaguely related to the question before using it to segue quickly to a recitation of prepared talking points touting their records, such as they are, on issues that may or may not have had anything to do with the question. There were the expected denunciations of president Obama, Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood, abortions, Obamacare, and the Iran deal, and calls for strengthening the military, building walls to keep out undocumented immigrants, and waging vigorous war against terrorism and in the Middle East.
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The negative influence of limited-over cricket on Test matches

There is a big difference in the way that Test cricket is played compared to the limited over game. Test matches are time-limited (five days of play with six hours per day) with no guarantee of a result, while the limited-overs format (50 overs per inning for one-day games and 20 per inning for the roughly three-hour Twenty20 format) are designed to guarantee a result.
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The war on women and why we need to stand with Planned Parenthood

The recent release of heavily edited videos purportedly showing officials of Planned Parenthood selling tissue from aborted fetuses tried to make out that they were engaging in a surreptitious, illegal, profit-making activity when in fact they were only doing what the law allows, and that is to recover the costs incurred in supplying tissue for medical research. Heather Digby Parton explains how the outfit that produced the videos was working closely with some Republican members of Congress to produce this coordinated attack.
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