Who to believe: Mark Davis or John McCain?
Mark Davis is certain. He weighs in on the scandal over CIA destruction of videotapes of agents waterboarding a detainee. He is certain that John McCain, who has personal experience of being tortured, is wrong when he says torture doesn't work. He is equally certain former CIA agent John Kiriakou is right when he says torture does work. Mark Davis has the remarkable skill of being able to tell, with certainty, from his comfortable radio studio on Dallas, Texas, what works and what doesn't work in North Vietnamese prisons and in CIA prisons in Pakistan.
For Mark Davis, "saving American lives is the principle that matters above all others." National laws and principles, international laws and moral outrage over torture, none of these carry any weight with Davis. He's certain that torture is just fine. But why stop at torture? Why not flatten every city, town and village where we even suspect terrorists seek shelter? Why not threaten nuclear annihilation of any country who doesn't surrender to our will? Is there no limit to the evil Americans can and should do in the name of saving Mark Davis' life? Apparently not.
Davis speaks like someone far from the front line, telling others how to put their own lives on the line to keep himself safe and secure. I'll take Senator John McCain's counsel any time over that of a radio rabble rouser. John Kiriakou also speaks with more authority than Mark Davis ever will. But somehow, The Dallas Morning News continues to give Davis a forum. Demagogy sells, I guess.
Suing MySpace can be Good Parenting
Trey Garrison, on Frontburner, dismisses a lawsuit filed by parents whose 14 year old daughter committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by a Celina man she met online. Garrison says the parents are suing "because [MySpace] failed to do their parenting for them."
Uh, ... no. Jack Ikin, the family's attorney, says that "the main goal of the lawsuit is to get MySpace to stand up and put in meaningful protections that will make more difficult to search out and find young girls."
Parents should protect their children. Sometimes that means being with them, where parents can watch and shield them from danger. Sometimes that means making the child's environment safe, where the child can explore and gain independence without needing constant parental supervision. These parents, by suing MySpace, are doing the latter, making the environment safe. It is too late to save their child, but it may not be too late for others.
Now, I wouldn't mind discussing what is reasonable and isn't reasonable to expect a social-networking site to do to protect children from online predators. Garrison's implication that such sites should bear no responsibility is a non-starter.
Just because parents carry much responsibility doesn't mean that others like MySpace carry no responsibility whatsoever. And just because Trey Garrison's parents didn't instill in him a sense of responsibility not to recklessly endanger others doesn't excuse the rest of us. If that offends Garrison's caveat emptor philosophy, so be it.
Mark Cuban Wants to Pay More Taxes
Glenn Hunter and Trey Garrison are working each other into a lather over recent comments by Mark Cuban that the rich, including Cuban himself, don't pay enough taxes. Hunter cites a Cato Institute (!) study to prove the rich are already taxed enough, thank you very much. Garrison goes him one better and says the poor don't pay their fair share of taxes. Soak the poor is his answer to Cuban.
Maybe Hunter and Garrison consider themselves among the poor and are matching Cuban by volunteering to pay more in taxes themselves. Or maybe their arguments are simply self-serving. You decide. I have a simple rule-of-thumb. When two kids in trouble tell two different stories, with the first kid's story being in his own self interest and the second kid's not, the chances are it's the second kid's story that is closer to the truth. Cuban is that second kid.
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