Torture does not work.

So why would a government use it?  The following link is to a series of essays by Arthur Silber.  I believe we have been linked to them before.  If you haven’t checked them out, you should.

Well, before everyone gets all hot and bothered, do realize this statement doesn’t mean it happened yet. I think in these times we must keep objective when discussing these crazy ideas. Part of the perversion of the media is saying outrageous statements and testing how public reacts. Because Americans are so jaded (and many upon many are indifferent to politics)it is difficult to expect anyone to have a serious reaction to such kinds of torture being discussed as legitimate tactics.

It’s precisely this apathy which allows Bush to continue his horrible reign. Most people are too busy trying to work three jobs to support their kids while our economy spins out of control. Everything is planned. Don’t blame the American people.

^ hard time with this stuff.  I’m having a harder time with the lack of outrage (not you dude) from my fellow Americans.  We’re really losing it aren’t we?  I mean we’re really gone; Jackpine said we’ve crossed a line we likely won’t go back across and I think he’s right.  Damn, we’ve finally done it!

We do not torture. Only, maybe, if we have to. It only happens for “national security” reasons and we do not enjoy doing it. Well, maybe sometimes. But rest assured that only the “worst of the worst” get tortured. And, of course, we have to do it in secret and destroy any tapes of the “proceedings”. We also listen to your phone conversations and read your e-mails and bank records as we please.

What has happened to this country? One more terror attack and we’ll wake up in Nazi Germany anno 1938. What fun that will be. Sieg Heil!

As a libertarian, I’ve grown used to our bloated, gargantuan, imperial government grabbing more and more power with each succeeding election. But the sudden use of torture--and the bald-faced attempts to rationalize it--were the first developments in a long time that really shocked me.

That anyone, in America, has to go to the effort to EXPLAIN WHY TORTURE IS MORALLY WRONG, is in itself shocking.

That government operatives, schooled in the finest universities in the land, write book-length memos tortuously explaining what cruel and unusual punishments are allowable according to new standards pulled fresh from their noses, is shocking.

That democrats will not begin impeachment proceedings based on these revelations, is shocking. What else does one have to do to have illegal, immoral acts “rise to the level” of an impeachable offense? If torture is not an impeachable offense, what is?

Many decades ago, if such monstrous abuses came to light, scores of government workers--even if their connection were only tangential--would have resigned in shame and disgust. But not today--we’ve crossed the line into total imperial decadence.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid.

Um, if you’re eye gets poked out, wouldn’t that interfere with the bodily function of seeing?

Aren’t the eyes and nose considered ‘sense organs’?  Having one poked out would then constitute ‘organ failure’, wouldn’t it?

God Bless America...the land of the free and the home of the brave.