I have a bit of routine I guess. I’ll sit with the New York Times, read an article then come over to the computer and bookmark the article on my Times account. Sometimes, I do a bit of surfing to find out more about something or listen to music mentioned.

I don’t read too many articles all the way through, maybe one or two at the most each day. Sunday is usually a bit different.

Today, my eye was caught by the front page article, “After Iraqi Toops Do Dirty Work, 3 Detainess Talk” by Alissa J. Rubin. This article was disturbing because the Iraqis not only beat a prisoner to frighten other prisoners, but this seemed to elicit excellent intelligence which led US troops to a house were insurgents were building bombs, thus saving lives. Iraqi law forbids the beating of prisoners (as does US law) but apparently it’s not that unusual. The Iraqi army thinks the US army is far to easy on prisoners and that they pay the price when the insurgents persist in killing them via I.E.D devices. All I can say is I think war is obscene. I have sympathy for the US and Iraqi troops and understand the insane logic in their position. But I can’t help but think of it as another argument for the futility of war. When we (the USA) beat and torture our enemies, we escalate the hate and violence.

On the other hand, “Bush Adminstration Gains Support for New Approach on Food Aid” by Celia W. Dugger is a rare example of something Bush adminstration is doing that is not only sane but actually seems like a good idea. If I understand correctly, the Bush administration is trying to change the way we donate food to the rest of the world. Trying to spend less money on transporting American grown food and using the money to help people who are starving. Of course agribusiness is not happy.

Lastly, Frank Rich decimates the idiocy in the adminstration with some excellent partison points in “Iraq is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac” He voices my thought that Bush’s approach to the Virginia Tech murders seemed a bit too desperate and political. He also points out how the media is missing the point of the recent Gonzales/Wolfowitz debacle: “What’s being lost in the Beltway uproar is the extent to which the lying, cronyism and arrogance showcased by the current scandals are of a piece with the lying, cronyism and arrogance that led to all the military funerals that Mr. Bush dares not attend. Having slept through the fraudulent selling of the war, Washington is still having trouble confronting the big picture of the Bush White House.”