No rush to judgment?

I hope that our sage political leaders will not rush to judgment on the question of the Assad government's use vel non of chemical weapons or Sarin. I also hope our leaders will not push to get the U.S. into another war. (These wishes are not directed at Sen. John McCain, who seems to lack all prudence and judgment.)
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Human Computer

Haresh Pandya, Shakuntala Devi, ‘Human Computer’ Who Bested the Machines, Dies at 83 (April 23, 2013):

Shakuntala Devi, an Indian mathematical wizard known as “the human computer” for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations, died on Sunday in Bangalore, India. She was 83.

Ms. Devi demonstrated her mathematical gifts around the world, at colleges, in theaters and on radio and television. In 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating a Univac computer, which took 62 seconds.

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Then there are the people who can solve the puzzles created by Will Short...

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The Ideological and Intellectual Detritus of a Tragedy: premature judgments in investigations

There were two bomb explosions in Boston yesterday. Little if anything is known about the possible culprit or culprits. Nonetheless...

a commentator on a left-leaning public radio station in Boston said (s)he thought the most likely culprits were right-wing Minutemen
a commentator on a right-leaning radio station in New York City said (s)he thought the most likely culprits were radical Islamists
Both commentators are feckless idiots.
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New Web Site about Worldwide Persecution of Religion

Perhaps the following web site will help convince the U.S. State Department to at least mention the extensive persecution of Christians in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt: http://persecutionreport.org/

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What's My Line?

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Yoo and Addington Are Outlaws (in Russia)

I see that the Russian government retaliated against the U.S. government by barring (among others) the following two people from setting foot in Russia: "John Yoo, a former U.S. Justice Department official who wrote legal memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques; [and] David Addington, the chief of staff for former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney." Russia Bans 18 Americans After Similar US Move NYTimes (AP) (April 13, 2013). I suppose some wag will wonder whether the U.S. government might be induced to bar these two people from American soil as well. (Of course, I do not for a moment entertain such a thought. Expelling Addington and Yoo would be quite unAmerican. Isn't that right?)

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Who Cares about Christians in Egypt?

Tarek El-Tablawy & Salma El Wardany, Egypt Copts Blast Mursi at Memorial After Fatal Weekend Clashes Bloomberg News (April 7, 2013):

"Hundreds of grieving Coptic Christians packed inside a Cairo cathedral called for an end to Muslim Brotherhood rule after the worst sectarian clashes in months laid bare the polarization in the country.

"The anguish in the church today erupted ahead of funerals for at least four Christians killed in weekend fighting with Muslims in the Greater Cairo town of Khosous. The skirmishing was the bloodiest in a weekend of political violence as a leading youth organization took its opposition to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to the streets." 
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