(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Right-wing theo-conservative Bush-humping regular The Straight Dope poster waterboards himself to find out what the big deal is about.

His conclusion? Absolutely, unambiguously, without a doubt, 100% is it torture, and after experiencing it for *seconds*, under his own control, he's perfectly willing to say that he'd rather have bamboo under his fingernails and his bones broken with hammers than experience it again.

Oddly enough, this appears to be the same reaction that every single person to have ever experienced anything like it has.

Comments

[elffin.livejournal.com]

I feel sorry for the fact that we are waiting out his Presidency; The next guy will almost certainly pardon him and anyone else who approved waterboarding across the board, and at that point we might as well drop any hope of seeing justice ever done.

[flemco.livejournal.com]

I don't care if it's my candidate: if the next President pardons Bush, I say we imprison BOTH of them.

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

There is also the quite realistic possibility that the next President could make people long for the good old days with Bush.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Which Democrat do you suspect of that? 'Cause as far as I can tell there isn't a Republican out there who can take the general.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Never underestimate the ignorance of the American Voter, the corruption and gerrymandering of the Electoral College System, or the hackability of the Electronic Voting Systems.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

While it would - unfortunately - be perfectly legal for the next President to do so, it is - fortunately - perfectly legal for the question to be raised in a debate.

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

The best is the people who are saying to the OP "Are you stupid? Why did you do that? It's dangerous! It could get you killed!" I'll admit to shooting fully blind here, but my guess is that these are the same people who defend it as "not really torture" in other threads.

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

We have a winnar!

[elffin.livejournal.com]

As I'm an American, I think it's more a case of "We have 301,139,947 - funcTheNumberOfGOPPoliticiansAndCronies(); Losers!" - Inconceivable that such a tripping-go-lightly phrase shouldn't rise to the top of the social conciousness, eh?

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Um, have you been watching the debates lately? Seen the parts where Romney has joked that maybe we aren't waterboarding enough?

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

That would worry me much more if I thought that Romney had a snowball's chance.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Well, if Kerry could win the nomination...

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

The nomination, maybe. The general? Oh hells no.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but it's not like Giuliani or Huckabee are particularly making any attempts to disagree with him.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

And neither of them are electable either, IMO.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, but when professionals do it, it's much safer.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Ganked and reposted: the more people know what this means, the less chance its supporters will get voted in. I hope.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

The next guy will almost certainly pardon him and anyone else who approved waterboarding across the board, and at that point we might as well drop any hope of seeing justice ever done.

What makes you think that the next President will attempt prosecutions of people on those grounds? Note that the Bush Administration didn't try to prosecute people from the Clinton Administration for their crimes: if a subsequent Democratic Administration tries to prosecute people from the last Administration, wouldn't they be leaving themselves open to prosecution next time the Republicans have the White House?

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Of course it's torture.

Though, sadly, I still think that maiming is worse. The reason is that, once the waterboarding is over, you're ok; once you've been maimed, you are facing years of even partial recovery.

(The reason I say "sadly" is because maiming is what the other side does).