From The Nation to Huffington, NCR Contributors Share Analysis, Reporting and Commentary

NCR Today
May 16, 2011

At NCR, we play well with others. That means, for example, that our writers and contributors share their insights and analysis with different audiences -- meaning, if we’re not diligent in bringing it to your attention, that you might miss some of their best stuff.

To avoid that possibility, here are some recent highlights from NCR contributors and friends you may have missed:

Torture Effective? A Helpful Reminder of the Obvious from Stephen Carter

NCR Today
May 13, 2011

When it comes to torture: The means may be effective, says Yale’s Stephen Carter, but it doesn’t mean they are justified.

Carter’s argument is a helpful reminder that not everything we know to be morally wrong has zero utility in the “real world.” After all, if that apple really held the key to all knowledge (in addition to being tasty), it would be an interesting thing to get your hands on. The world, alas, would be an easier place if everything that was morally suspect didn’t work.

Of graduations past, today and tomorrow

May 12, 2011

It was, I clearly recall, a gorgeous spring afternoon in Washington the day I graduated from The Catholic University of America. My parents and in-laws joined the celebration. Dad treated us to dinner at Trader Vic’s, the kitschy Polynesian-themed restaurant housed in the basement of the Capital Hilton. It was exciting and fun.

Bush Catholic Seeks $200 Million from Karl Rove in RICO Suit

NCR Today
May 11, 2011

Last July, in this space, I wrote that “if you want to spend a strange afternoon, google ‘Scott Bloch’ and just see what pops up. Too weird for words.”

Don’t say you weren’t warned – and it’s getting stranger yet.

The Washington Post reports today that Bloch, former “Special Counsel of the United States” under George W. Bush, has filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit against Karl Rove and others seeking $200 million in damages. Even in a town where it takes a “billion here and a billion there and pretty soon we’re talking about real money,” that’s real money. Prison sentences of the kind Bloch recently received, it seems, do not make the heart grow fonder.