Slippery Slope

HAS HILLARY CLINTON been watching too many episodes of "24," or is she just determined to prove that she really is entirely without principles? Whichever it is, Clinton hit a new low last week, telling the New York Daily News that the president should have "some lawful authority" to use torture or other "severe" interrogation methods in a so-called ticking-bomb scenario.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), breaking from his party's Senate leadership, said Sunday that he would oppose any move to prohibit filibusters against judicial nominations. Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," McCain said a ban on filibusters for judicial nominations could spread to other legislative issues, fundamentally changing the Senate. "I think that there's a problem with a slippery slope," he said.

Podhoretz put it quite clearly " . . . That there is indeed a direct connection between the legalization of abortion and the legalization of infanticide." The easy abortion laws have put America on a "slippery slope" and in danger of accepting the ethics of Nazism. American law must retreat to safer ground. T.G. HAYES Santa Barbara

* "Margaret," Timothy McNeil's coming-of-age play, circa 1968, directed by "You Can Count On Me" star Mark Ruffalo, runs Jan. 19-Feb. 25 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6537 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. $15. (323) 856-4200, (323) 860-8835. * "A Slippery Slope" and "Morning, Noon & Night," monologuist Spalding Gray performs two of his latest solo shows, Thursday ("A Slippery Slope") and Friday ("Morning, Noon & Night") at the California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido.

Re "Some Jumping the Line on Organ Transplants," Oct. 24 Having received a transplant myself, I fully understand the desperation and suffering of those who wait for a miracle that may never come. Donated organs are a precious national resource and must be used equitably. What happens to the individual who was next on the list and now does not receive his or her gift of life? Are we willing to ensure that transplant occurs only for those who have the means to pay an online broker?

It is sad how the American public does not mind making decisions on false statistics and intelligence ("Fabricating a Statistic in the Immigration Debate," Golden State, May 24). State Sen. Tom McClintock's figures remind me how acceptable it has become to make up evidence to support an argument, like the Claremont McKenna College professor who vandalized her car to show how racism is still in our society or President Bush using weapons of mass destruction and invalidated connections between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

“The Daily Show” broadcast its last new episode of 2012 on Thursday night, and Jon Stewart closed the year by looking forward - specifically, to the two historic gay marriage cases going before the Supreme Court in 2013 . Stewart began with a little historical context, reminding viewers of the fact that it was President Bill Clinton who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, and and that states as politically divergent as...

Spalding Gray, the eternal monologuist, has a new story about himself, which he is calling "It's a Slippery Slope" and which he is calling a work-in-progress. The piece is already polished, though. At this point, its problems are both easily fixed and not fixable. As told to an audience at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall on Monday night, it was too long by 15 minutes. That's the easy part. What isn't fixable is Gray's subject, Gray himself.