It's gonna be a long day at the Mercury today, what with packing for the move and, well, some looming cruelty that involves this cutesy wheel...

So let's get serious. First question of the day: Did torture really, truly led us to Osama bin Laden? Now, even somewhat less reasonable people (like Senator John McCain, in a prominent Washington Post op-ed) are finally speaking up and saying, actually, definitively NO. HELL NO, in fact.

Interestingly, this all comes as the Pentagon weighs whether to allow family visits at America's very own political prison, Guantanamo. The Red Cross might have pay for 'em, because Republican leaders say they won't.

Osama bin Laden's diary shows him relentlessly plotting horrific revenge against the United States, that bastard he dated a couple of times in the 1980s, even as his BFFs all tell him to move on and that there are plenty of other mass-casualty targets in the sea.

President Obama wants to talk about the future of the new Middle East. Funny how the "new" one still looks just as repressive as the "old."

Massive earthquakes cripple a small Spanish town, forcing tens of thousands to flee and sleep outside as they brace for almost-as-frightening aftershocks.

The lowest-ranking Nazi war criminal ever tried, a 91-year-old retired auto worker, received a five-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting 28,000 deaths during the Holocaust—a sum that pretty much means it's dumb to rank Nazi war criminals.

Wisconsin Republicans, after kicking the organized-labor hornet's nest, are now scheming up a tougher voter ID law, mostly to keep angry, young, progressive Democrats away from the polls.

The FCC commissioner most exuberant over Comcast's purchase of NBC four months ago has a new job. With Comcast!

Jim Lehrer is relinquishing his anchor chair.

Hello, I'm an asshole. But, damn, if my kid doesn't look great!

And... finally. A chemical cloud spread over some Clackamas County neighborhoods last night, prompting a kindly "shelter in place" request from authorities. And I had nothing to do with it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I MEAN IT.