People say that today the nation is very divided politically. True as that may be, it is far from a new development. People have always been very divided politically. In the American two party system, we see it very clearly as everything is painted as right (our party) vs. wrong (their party). With a true multi-party system there is even greater fragmentation of political opinion, but there is also less head to head confrontation, and more coalition building among rival parties. Thus, in a multi-party system, there is incentive to find political agreement across parties to gain a ruling majority. But in a two party system, there is incentive to demonize the other party in an attempt to gain the majority for your own party.

Some people take the animosity toward the opposing party quite seriously. John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal about a reporter’s surprise that a politician could put aside political differences to show human compassion to a former political rival.

Sen. Daschle tells a story about a reporter who was startled to see George McGovern attending the 1993 funeral of Pat Nixon and shaking the hand of President Nixon. When the reporter asked Mr. McGovern why he would pay his respects to the wife of a man who had used underhanded tactics to defeat him, the former Democratic presidential nominee replied simply, “You can’t keep on campaigning forever.”

There are some people who are unable to understand that there is a time to see people as people rather than as a political friends or enemies. It might not be until the time of their death, but that time will come eventually. Unfortunately, I do not think this reporter’s opinion is all that unusual as most people see those who disagree politically as irredeemable enemies. However, even the reporter of Daschele’s story will give up the campaign eventually, one way or the other.

Headline Space.com: Putting on the Pounds: Huge Star Can’t Stop Eating

Deroy Murdock writes in Friday’s National Review Online about who the prisoners are in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos. The pictures were taken in cell blocks 1-A and 1-B. Murdock asked Captain Mark Doggett of the Australian Army who serves as a Coalition Forces press officer about who these prisoners were and what types of crimes they are charged with. These are not common criminals, who are imprisoned elsewhere, but people charged with serious offenses against Coalition Forces.

“We wouldn’t be able to give specifics, but we can tell you that we have people in custody who have been involved in killing Americans and others from the Coalition forces. I really cannot think of a worse crime than that: Murder.”

The crimes these prisoners have committed do not mitigate or excuse the seriousness of the alleged offenses against them while in custody. What I thought was significant from the article was the complete lack of interest of the news media in who these people are.

Despite the global media inferno that has raged since CBS’s 60 Minutes II first broadcast the Abu Ghraib photos on April 28, the global media have been remarkably incurious about the identities of the prisoners in those pictures and their reasons for incarceration. Asked if he had spoken with other journalists along these lines, Captain Mark Doggett replies, “You are the sole person who has asked these questions.”

Why aren’t they interested in these facts? Is it possible that they think that telling the world these people are not model citizens could possibly undermine the outrage they are so obviously trying to create? Since the general press are not as interested in displaying and condemning far more outrageous abuses when the victims are Coalition forces or civilians, you must wonder what the motivation is to so overexpose the abuse of these prisoners.

This goes along with a minor point in Victor Davis Hanson’s Friday NRO article.

Much of the angst that sent senators to the capitol steps microphones derives from their own surprise and the sensationalism of the pictures — images that put these media-savvy legislators first to shame, then to the recognition that this is an election year in which bottled piety is at a premium. They know that there is little to be gained from reminding Americans that there are now thousands of brave soldiers fighting horrific enemies in a professional and highly successful manner. The last one to damn the fewest receives the least air time.

The media smells blood in the water, and they are in a frenzy. They are attempting to get the most possible mileage out of current crisis du jour in Iraq, and the facts don’t really interest them. Who, What, When, Where, Why are all beside the point, because we have Pictures that can be used to manipulate Emotions. And so for the last month, we have the feeding frenzy of all prison photos all the time.

Q.90. How is the word to be read and heard in order to become effective for salvation?

A. For the word to become effective for salvation, we must pay careful attention to it, prepare ourselves, and pray for understanding. We must also receive it with faith and love, treasure it in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

AP Photo:

Caption: “Hungarian fireman lieutenant Andras Samu gives a thumbs up sitting on his wooden bicycle which was made by his colleagues after his mountain bike got stolen in Hatvan, some 60 kms northeast of Budapest, May 15, 2004. (AP Photo/MTI/Sandor H. Szabo)”

I once read a very bad book (bad in both writing and eschatology) called Apocalapse Next that claimed (among numerous other silly things) that the Soviet Union (this was from the 1970′s) was building plywood tanks in an effort to evade radar detection. The Hungarians are now using the same advanced technology for bicycles.

Headline Reuters: Researchers: Exercise Lowers Employers’ Health Costs

Headline USA Today: U.S. tipped to Holocaust in ’42

U.S. intelligence officials learned within months of the U.S. entry into World War II that Nazi Germany planned mass killings to eliminate Jews, scholars reviewing newly declassified reports said Thursday.

But the U.S. government gave the information low priority in August 1942, the scholars concluded, not acknowledging that Germany had a plan to exterminate Jews until six months later.

“It was an intelligence failure,” said Richard Breitman, an American University Holocaust historian who studied the documents. “The early information was not assimilated or used correctly.”

Based on the strength of this new evidence, the Democrats are sure to increase their calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Why sensible people avoid the atomic wings at Quaker Steak and Lube

AFP Photo:

Caption: “Science of magic : Hulikal Nataraju, from the Miracle Research Centre displays a piece of burning camphor on his tongue during an event titled ‘Secrets of Miracles’ at the NITTE Institute of Technology at Gollahalli in the outskirts of Bangalore. (AFP/Indranil Mukherjee)”

Headline Reuters:Woman jailed for milking husband’s fake death

Headline AFP: Father of author of Iraq prison abuse report was Japanese POW in World War II