Columnists

A recent Pew Research poll found that only 24 percent of Americans trust the government in Washington. This says a lot about US politics, but it doesn’t answer the question: which politicians can we trust? -more-

I, for one, applaud the release of the Senate Torture Report and urge those responsible be held accountable. Kudos to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, for getting the executive summary released to the public.

The Report is available online. The print version is available for purchase at GPO’s retail and online bookstore.

The Senate Torture Report found, among other things, that the CIA misled Congress, the Justice Department and President George W. Bush about the “effectiveness” of torture methods used, including waterboarding, shackling detainees in painful positions, prolonged sleep deprivation, rectal feeding and slamming detainees against walls. The report also found that those abuses did not help locate Osama bin Laden or thwart any terrorist plots, and were in fact counterproductive. -more-

For people with mental illness, thinking in terms of miracles can worsen an already difficult predicament. When someone has suffered from psychosis, it is a step forward to think in terms of cause and effect and not to see oneself as immune to the repercussions of mistakes. Pragmatism can be healing. It is valuable to think in terms of our actions and words as often but not always creating the results we obtain. It is also useful to refrain from blaming anyone, including oneself, if a bad circumstance that we did not cause creates hardship. -more-

Oh, Joy… Jocelyn Ferguson, that is… and Kim Brewer too, staffing the reception desk, welcoming people as we entered the North Berkeley Senior Center recently. These two are old old-timers. There are other volunteers of course. -more-