I marvel that I can participate in the conference, from home, in my kitchen. The conference begins with Professor Darius Rejali from Reed College, speaking on Torture and Crimimal Justice. He introduces himself by saying (and I am paraphrasing) that his uncle in Iran "never refrained from the use of torture" and thus he'd made a career of studying it, joking that his publisher referred to his 900 page book on the subject, Torture and Demcracy, as an object of torture. I'm riveted, a tear rolling down my face when I'm startled by the cats tearing into the kitchen with a bird. As Prof. Rejali delivers a comprehensive history of the subject, I witness my cats' expertise in the subject before intervening.