Yes, yes, yes

"My generation cares more about the fact that 30,000 kids died today of hunger, poverty, preventable disease than about gay marriage amendments in California," he told ABCNews.com. "We are pro life, but for us that definition is far broader than abortion. It includes poverty, AIDS, human trafficking and the war in Iraq."

But after that controversial Dec. 2 interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air," Cizik was asked to resign -- a "huge disappointment" and a "sad commentary on the current state of evangelicalism in America," according to LaTondresse.

More.

Stop Torture Now

Today is the 60th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some applaud this important document. Some decry it as a celebration of socialism (I would say such critics fail to have a global view of what it means to lack basic freedoms -- the freedom to believe, for one; it is hard for Americans to fathom true want of basic rights). But many recognize the inherent value, nonetheless, of this imperfect statement in its public pronouncement that all deserve dignity and freedom.

Among the human rights declared in the Declaration is one on my mind lately as we prepare to welcome a new administration in the White House and seek a better way of taking care of business, as it were. That is, ending torture. Article 5 reads: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Seems pretty obvious. Seems pretty "American."

You would think so, but you would be wrong.

A lead interrogator in Iraq wrote recently in the Washington Post about the horrors he saw in Iraq. Going by the pseudonym Matthew Alexander, he writes, "I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006. Instead, I was worried and exhausted. My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today."

He continues, "Torture and abuse are inconsistent with American principles. And on the pragmatic side, torture and abuse cost American lives. I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly recruiting fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq."

This writer's observations are consistant with that of other military personnel, as Tom Ricks publicized last year in his "Inbox" column in the Post.

I recently watched Rendition. "Oh, but that's just a movie," some may think. Yes and no. The United States has taken part in extraordinary rendition and inhumane interrogation tactics. Rendition helps the average citizen wrap his mind around what we have been doing. And it is beneath us. It is beneath any human who values the dignity of all persons, in fact.

Still think torture is justified and effective in some cases? Please read this. Want to do something? Go here.

Story of My Life

This song kills me. (Excuse the clips from now-defunct show Popular in the video below -- only one I could find of Abra Moore's 'Trip on Love.')

I used to think that the 'you' in the song would be directed so well at some males I have known. Now . . . I think it's more applicable to myself.

Ooh. Wow. That was revealing. Sorry.