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Saturday Open Thread and News of the Day

By possum

Saturday morning and all is well in Possum Valley.  The news of the day is mixed this morning.  There is much of note for pondering today.

Beginning with an op-ed by Audrey Macklin of the University of Toronto School of Law, we get an analysis of the Omar Khadr trial at Guantanamo.

the prosecution's argument in the case against Canadian national Omar Khadr that all acts of war by unlawful combatants are by definition war crimes points toward the "heads I win; tails you lose" quality of the entire military commissions process

The analysis is well presented and worth the time to read the entire piece.
From the UK is news the Attorney General Baroness Scotland will begin an investigation into the actions of both British and American agents

the torture of Guantanamo Bay detainee and former UK resident Binyam Mohamed

The prosecution request for a resentencing hearing for Salim Hamdan has been denied by the presiding judge.

A U.S. military jury sentenced Hamdan to just 5 1/2 years in prison, including five years and a month already served, at Guantanamo's first war-crimes trial earlier this year. Hamdan is eligible for release by January.

California's Proposition 8 as a ballot initiative is causing quite the stir these days.  If passed the initiative eliminates the right of same sex couples to marry.  One letter writer got the issue right saying

Civil rights are not appropriately accorded by "the will of the people" or based on someone's religious preferences. If that were the case, women would not have the right to vote, blacks would still be slaves and separate but equal would prevail.

Civil rights do rightly come to every human in equal parts without restriction.

Roll back those clocks on Sunday morning (tomorrow as this is written).

Early Sunday morning, Americans say goodbye to daylight saving time - and hello to an extra hour's sleep.

Forget about those dreams of being descended from the Tyrolean iceman or Otzi.  DNA testing found an unusal genetic group in the mummy.  According to Franco Rollo of the University of Camerino in Italy.

this genetic group is no longer present. We don't know whether it is extinct or it has become extremely rare.  At least for the moment that means no one can claim to be "the issue of Ötzi."

And last but not least a big advance in veterinary medicine.  Many large breed dogs have degenerative joint disease in elbows and other joints.  For the first time an elbow replacement has been successful in a dog.

Jake, an 11-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, was the first dog in the Midwest and only the 11th in the world to undergo surgery for a new, cementless elbow prosthesis last April. The procedure, done at MSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital by veterinary orthopedic surgeon Loic Dejardin, has left Jake pain free from elbow arthritis.

Big step for dogs.  Small step for mankind as this moves joint replacement one more step forward.

Peace, all.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on November 01, 2008 (boomark / email).