What Caught My Eye Today

Torture - Widening an explosive debate on torture, President Barack Obama opened the possibility of prosecution for Bush-era lawyers who authorized brutal interrogation of terror suspects and suggested Congress might order a full investigation. Less than a week after declaring it was time for the nation to move on rather than "laying blame for the past," Obama found himself describing what might be done next to investigate what he called the loss of "our moral bearings." I'll give you three guesses for why dude had to reverse course, but you'll only need one. Obama, who severely criticized the harsh techniques during the campaign, is feeling pressure from his party's liberal wing to come down hard on the subject. At the same time Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, are insisting the methods helped protect the nation and are assailing Obama for revealing Justice Department memos detailing them. Big surprise there. What else would you expect from the guy nicknamed "Darth Vader"? I have to admit, I'm stumped on this one. I wholeheartedly support the President's desire to come clean on the whole torture deal so that we can start repaired our tarnish reputation. However, I'm not sure how far I would go in prosecution the alleged perpetrators of said torture. One could argue, that operatives were following orders that they were told were legitimate? Other than possessing some questionable morals, what can we accuse them of doing wrong. In that line of work, disobeying orders can land you in a whole world of trouble.

Iran - Guess who almost said something stupid again? A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused an uproar with a speech attacking Israel at a U.N. conference on racism, the U.N. said Ahmadinejad had actually dropped language from the speech that described the Holocaust as "ambiguous and dubious." Ahmadinejad may have decided to drop the Holocaust phrase that was in his original text to deliver his condemnation of Israel in a more palatable fashion for many countries. Yeah, I'm sure the whole world thinks much more of Ahmadinejad now that he's shown such remarkable restraint. Ahmadinejad's accusation that the West used the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians still provoked walkouts by delegates including every European Union country in attendance. Nope, I guess not. But others, including those from the Vatican, stayed because they said he stopped short of denying the Holocaust. Way to uphold that moral high ground, guys. The United States and eight other Western countries had already boycotted the event that started on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, because of concerns Muslim countries would drown out all other issues with calls to denounce Israel and restrict free speech when it comes to criticizing Islam. At the risk of stating the obvious, this conference wasn't exactly what the United Nations was hoping for. Here's a tip, U.N. chaps. Perhaps you should vet your speakers a bit more carefully. Seriously, what compelled you to give Ahmadinejad a speaking slot at a conference for promoting race relations? Any one could see that this was going to end badly.

Vatican - Carolin Kennedy, President Obama's top choice to serve as ambassador to the Holy See, has been summarily rejected by the Vatican. Goodness me. Why would they do that? Kennedy was deemed unacceptable because of her support for abortion rights. Yeah, that would do it. Officially, the Vatican says that it has not formally rejected any candidate because no nominee has been officially put forward. Since the U.S. formally established relations with the Vatican in 1984, the ambassadorial post has always been held by pro-life Catholics, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In Obama's defense, I'm pretty sure he isn't intentionally trying to offend the Vatican. The problem is that trying to find Americans in this day and age that pass muster with the Vatican is proving to be rather challenging. For some inexplicably reason, we keep evolving with the times, must to the chagrin of the Vatican.

Undergarments - Relax that moral compass. Ain't nothing risque about this next item...pity. Bra makers say there's been a boom in demand for bras with DD cups. The popularity of larger cups sizes is being fueled by a combination of obesity, breast implants, and recommendations from bra experts that women will look better if they wear more snug band sizes like 32 and 34 with wider cups. On the off chance that you were confused by the term "bra expert", you are probably familiar with its less formal synonym--"men".

Taxes - Admittedly, tax day has come and gone, but I did come across a couple of morsels of trivia to take the sting out of that tax bill (yeah right).

• Lobbyists spend $3 billion a year in Washington D.C. A study found that a single corporate tax break in 2004 enabled 800 companies to save $100 billion
  And we wonder why Washington is crawling with lobbyists. If I got that sort of return on my own investment, I'd get myself a lobbyist too.
• When the federal income tax was first established, in 1913, the tax code was 400 pages. Today the tax code is 70,320 pages.
  And I'm sure those lobbyists had nothing to do with that.

American Idol - You may have noticed the lack of attention that I've been giving to this year's competition. That's because the talent blows (with the possibly exception of Adam Lambert--this year's rocker dude). However, we still have the judges. Paula says her contract is up this season on "American Idol," and that no one can ever replace her. Show of hands please...Who would want to?