tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post6444326126196749314..comments2024-03-09T03:20:20.004-05:00Comments on Tenured Radical: This One's For You: What The Bush Administration Did For AmericaTenured Radicalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05703980598547163290noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-72877090904793370102009-05-03T10:34:00.000-05:002009-05-03T10:34:00.000-05:00From one of Andrew Sullivan's readers, a few days ...From one of Andrew Sullivan's readers, a few days ago:<br /><br /> First they tortured in ticking time bomb cases but I didn't mind because it was a clear and imminent danger.<br /><br /> Second they tortured "slow-fuse" high value detainees and I didn't mind, because you never know what might happen.<br /><br /> Third they tortured Iraqi and Afghan prisoners who weren't high value, but who might have had useful information, and I didn't mind, because they were acting in good faith.<br /><br /> Fourth they tortured prisoners to establish a link between Al Qaeda and Saddam, and I didn't mind, because surely there must have been such a connection.<br /><br /> Finally, they came to torture me, and nobody cared, because if I was being tortured, I obviously deserved to be tortured, and, as Peggy Noonan says, some things are just mysterious and it's best to just keep on walking.JackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-21952068353491504542009-04-30T21:29:00.000-05:002009-04-30T21:29:00.000-05:00Clearly, marriage and Christian Values are more im...Clearly, marriage and Christian Values are more important than Ir... oh crap....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-63383070182851693422009-04-27T20:55:00.000-05:002009-04-27T20:55:00.000-05:00TO (1:27 PM)--
All excellent points.
And if Chri...TO (1:27 PM)--<br /><br />All excellent points.<br /><br />And if Christopher Hitchens can get through waterboarding anyone can.<br /><br />He did an entire <I>Vanity Fair</I> article on it last year.<br /><br />This issue is going to be tough.<br /><br />Obama must not yield to the leftist fringe.<br /><br />He'd better not---and this country had better not---forget of what Islamic extremists are capable.<br /><br />Glossing over the horrors now that we know to be true is a fool's game.Debrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567454727276881424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-53555921179460427912009-04-27T13:27:00.000-05:002009-04-27T13:27:00.000-05:00Why no wrath for Nancy Pelosi who was fully briefe...Why no wrath for Nancy Pelosi who was fully briefed on the waterboarding and asked the CIA if they needed to do more.<br /><br />Bardiac, the working definition of torture for the US government is that it should "shock the conscience" which explains the references you refer to. Certainly making people cold or stand naked under bright lights doesn't shock my conscience. Waterboarding might shock my conscience except I've seen multiple reporters waterboarded live on television, so it no longer does.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-81771343040593259132009-04-25T12:47:00.000-05:002009-04-25T12:47:00.000-05:00Here is a passage from the encyclical Gaudium et S...Here is a passage from the encyclical Gaudium et Spes by Pope Paul VI, as pointed out today by Andrew Sullivan:<br /><br />Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.JackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-42777525326333358052009-04-24T19:54:00.000-05:002009-04-24T19:54:00.000-05:00..... the end (getting rid of Saddam Hussein, gett...<I>..... the end (getting rid of Saddam Hussein, getting rid of a troublesome pregnancy, "saving lives") never justifies the means (preemptive war, abortion, torture).</I>******************<br /><br />Sick.<br /><br /><br /><I>"The constitution is not a suicide pact" is a bumper-sticker slogan, not an argument.</I> ******************<br /><br /><br />It's pure unadulterated wit at its most magnificent.Debrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567454727276881424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-62560607240717276682009-04-24T18:17:00.000-05:002009-04-24T18:17:00.000-05:00Debra, I don't think that the torture saved lives ...Debra, I don't think that the torture saved lives -- but what I would say, in this case as in others, is that the end (getting rid of Saddam Hussein, getting rid of a troublesome pregnancy, "saving lives") never justifies the means (preemptive war, abortion, torture). Observing this principle will prevent all kinds of evil.<br /><br />"The constitution is not a suicide pact" is a bumper-sticker slogan, not an argument.JackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-83366260852757609972009-04-24T16:06:00.000-05:002009-04-24T16:06:00.000-05:00TO "Jack Daniels"--
I'm not necessarily against i...TO "Jack Daniels"--<br /><br />I'm not necessarily against it.<br /><br />Stuart Taylor outlines the most rational approach.<br /><br />Following the almighty "Constitution" should not be a suicide pact.Debrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567454727276881424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-88600929548354630242009-04-24T15:56:00.000-05:002009-04-24T15:56:00.000-05:00Debra, "Shepard Smith is a twit"--very intellectua...Debra, "Shepard Smith is a twit"--very intellectual argument. Shepard Smith showed much more courage saying what he did on the Fox channel than any of us are exhibiting by being against torture on this bloJackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-26847610164033086952009-04-24T15:47:00.000-05:002009-04-24T15:47:00.000-05:00"Flapping his lips"? Really????"Flapping his lips"? Really????winifrednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-15101783078358341382009-04-24T11:30:00.000-05:002009-04-24T11:30:00.000-05:00"If you want to see a conservative Fox News commen...<I>"If you want to see a conservative Fox News commenter speaking out on this, go over to today's Huffington Post and check out Shepard Smith."</I> ****************<br /><br />Ha!<br /><br />Like Frisco's Gavin Newsom, Shephard Smith is a twit.Debrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567454727276881424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-9782489977525856622009-04-24T11:27:00.000-05:002009-04-24T11:27:00.000-05:00I would suggest some of you read this offering fro...I would suggest some of you read <A HREF="http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/or_20090425_8738.php" REL="nofollow">this offering</A> from <I>National Journal</I>.<br /><br />Taylor lays it all out in realistic terms.<br /><br />He's short on flapping his lips in partisan rage.<br /><br />Questions need to be answered.<br /><br />Keep political posturing out of it.Debrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567454727276881424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-84483184165467108122009-04-23T08:33:00.000-05:002009-04-23T08:33:00.000-05:00Lindsay Graham, the mealy-mouth Senator and eterna...<I>Lindsay Graham, the mealy-mouth Senator and eternal Presidential hopeful from South Carolina, reminded us that he has opposed torture all along</I>LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!humannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-34960385253711735252009-04-23T08:27:00.000-05:002009-04-23T08:27:00.000-05:00I read one of the memos through last night, and ke...I read one of the memos through last night, and kept seeing references to the question of whether the tortures would be "shocking" to the conscience (which was about a court decision), and asserting that no, the tortures weren't shocking.<br /><br />Well, they're wrong. The tortures ARE shocking.<br /><br />I join you in the shame.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-11511159472886695852009-04-23T07:59:00.000-05:002009-04-23T07:59:00.000-05:00If you want to see a conservative Fox News comment...If you want to see a conservative Fox News commenter speaking out on this, go over to today's Huffington Post and check out Shepard Smith. Sample bit of dialog: "We are America!" he shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not fucking torture!!" (Doubt seriously that this part of the video made it on the air, but what he said on the air is forceful enough.) This video is amazing -- check it out.JackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-19974376738301103622009-04-23T07:03:00.000-05:002009-04-23T07:03:00.000-05:00Well, I think everyone involved should be called t...Well, I think everyone involved should be called to account and punished appropriately. I also think folks in Congress who were briefed on these activities and said nothing (e.g. Nancy Pelosi) should be included in the "everyone" mentioned above. I think part of what happened was due to the panic after 9/11 and that should be taken into account. But the torture and the disappearances and the expansion in domestic surveillance were inexcusable and unAmerican -- and so saith this conservative.<br /><br />I also wonder whether the CIA is really just a full-employment scheme for Ivy League clowns.JackDanielsBlackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17285871354441074406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36212542.post-24671966048813604832009-04-22T20:41:00.000-05:002009-04-22T20:41:00.000-05:00I feel compelled to say something, but
I don't eve...I feel compelled to say something, but<br />I don't even know what to say, other than that I agree wholeheartedly... and that I have had an email to you sitting in my drafts box for almost a week now. *blush*Valhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17431697581868115504noreply@blogger.com