Pun Salad

• With respect to the continuing uproar about whether the Pope should apologize for his recent comments about Islam, there's an interesting contrast between an article at Language Log from Eric Bakovic entitled "Apologize Already" and a WaPo op-ed column from Ann Applebaum entitled "Enough Apologies".

  To be fair, Bakovic is mainly ranting that the headlines he sees in his RSS reader often fail to match the details given in the actual articles. He seems content to merely assert that the Pope should give a "direct apology"; no need for any actual argument.

  Applebaum, on the other hand, is pretty convincing for the other side:

  … if stray comments by Western leaders -- not to mention Western films, books, cartoons, traditions and values -- are going to inspire regular violence, I don't feel that it's asking too much for the West to quit saying sorry and unite, occasionally, in its own defense. The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don't see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech, too.

  On the third hand, if you'd like to fantasize, and don't mind some really bad language, you can check out what Treacher suggests for His Holiness:

  In a televised statement this morning, Pope Benedict XVI lashed out at critics of his earlier comments on Muslims, referring to said critics as a "pack of crybaby snake-charmers" and recommending they perform various humanly impossible feats of flexibility and colonic accommodation.

• Another clash of opinion involves the junior half of New Hampshire's senatorial couple, John Sununu. Andrew Sullivan huzzahs Senator S. for coming out joining with Republican "dissidents" on the Geneva Convention issue.
  One word about Sununu: he really is one of the last Goldwater conservatives in the Senate. I'm not surprised by his vote on Geneva, but I'm heartened nonetheless. He's an under-reported Republican defender of individual liberty - a rarer and rarer species these days in the authoritarian Christianism of the GOP.

  Leave it to Andrew to drag his "Christianism" hobbyhorse into it. Meanwhile GraniteGrok is less than impressed:

  Great- he now joins the usual Republican trouble-makers that can always be counted upon to thwart the president at his ever[y] turn in his attempts to defend America against a new kind of enemy- McCain, Graham, Susan Collins, et al. Why does he do this? Don't we have enough Democrats representing the side of softness in the new world war? Sununu did the same thing during the Patriot Renewal- he held out to the end in order to dilute a necessary terror prevention tool asked for by the president. What, does he not trust President Bush?

  My impression is that, agree with him or not, Senator Sununu has principled reasons for not handing Dubya this particular blank check.

  Then again, there's Treacher.

  But check it out, the Bush regime doesn't want to tell you about the other torture techniques he's devised...

  • The Faux Shirt Stain: Interrogator points at suspect's chest: "Look, you've got something on your shirt." When suspect looks down, interrogator brings up index finger, tweaking suspect's nose. Interrogator laughs. This grievous affront, a loss of honor in the eyes of Allah, administers massive psychic trauma to suspect. Repeat as needed.

  There's more.

• Bryan Caplan gets off a pretty good libertarian inside joke:
  People thought I was crazy to to write - let alone try to publish - "The Economics of Szasz."

  Heh! Harrr, harrr, harrr!

Pun Salad is breaking its normal publication schedule to point you to a dandy video resource for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Both links via Dave, of course.)