Scott Shane went full Driftglass this morning, writing a report on the Big Dick's pro-torture appearance on Meet the Press (which the real Driftglass couldn't make himself watch, like me, and had to report out of the written-language coverage). He wasn't trying to be funny or anything, at least most of the time, but a few items really stood out for me as pretty grand in the guignol department.
Language, language
The purpose of torture, in contrast, is to break individuals down and make them obedient to your every whim, to say what you want them to say, even if it's false. What the CIA (ribbed, for your pleasure) did in its interrogation program is more analogous to the 17th-century persecution of witches ("Yes, inquisitor, I flew on my broomstick to the Sabbath and had intercourse with the devil, his penis is very cold"). Or the ISIS operatives, not when they behead their victims, but when they force them to make statements, "confessions", that they can relay to the rest of the world. Like, you know, when you got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to confess to the murder of Daniel Pearl, and the imaginary plot against Heathrow Airport (liked that one, didn't you, and gave it all the publicity you could).
And of course it's also a lie that there's no comparison. You just did, and who better suited? After all, how many people does Chuck Todd get to interview that have actually ordered both?
Rectum? Damn near...
Rectal hydration actually is a thing, which can be used as palliative care with patients close to death to provide them some comfort at the end stage, very carefully, if and only if no other method can be used, which means never, since subcutaneous injections of fluid will always work better.
The "rectal feeding" sounds like something invented by a small-child patient of Dr. Freud's, in that it could work only in dreams: there's physically no way for nutrition to get from the large intestine to anywhere the body can use it. It's like trying to give somebody an oral blood transfusion. Oh, sorry, Mr. Vice President, I guess that's what you guys call it when you bite somebody.
Speaking of vampires
The ends justify the means
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| Via TransmissionAtelier. |
“Torture is what the Al Qaeda terrorists did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11,” Mr. Cheney said in his latest interview defending the C.I.A. program. “There is no comparison between that and what we did with respect to enhanced interrogation.”No, that's not torture. It's bad, it's morally wrong, it's illegal in most states (not sure about Texas), it's premeditated murder, aggravated by being a hate crime. It's just that torture is something different. Like I'm really against burying people alive but I don't call it child rape. As Merriam-Webster put it, simplifying down a bit from the legal definitions,
the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to force someone to do or say somethingThe purpose of terrorists, Mr. Vice President is terror: hurting people to spread shock and awe throughout a community. It's not interested in what it does to the murdered individuals but what it does to the audience. What the Al Qa'eda terrorists did to the innocent workers in the World Trade Center to terrify the entire population of the West is most directly analogous to what US forces did to the innocent bombing victims of Iraq (because Rumsfeld felt they had better bombing targets) in 2003 to terrify the entire Muslim world ("suck on this").
The purpose of torture, in contrast, is to break individuals down and make them obedient to your every whim, to say what you want them to say, even if it's false. What the CIA (ribbed, for your pleasure) did in its interrogation program is more analogous to the 17th-century persecution of witches ("Yes, inquisitor, I flew on my broomstick to the Sabbath and had intercourse with the devil, his penis is very cold"). Or the ISIS operatives, not when they behead their victims, but when they force them to make statements, "confessions", that they can relay to the rest of the world. Like, you know, when you got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to confess to the murder of Daniel Pearl, and the imaginary plot against Heathrow Airport (liked that one, didn't you, and gave it all the publicity you could).
And of course it's also a lie that there's no comparison. You just did, and who better suited? After all, how many people does Chuck Todd get to interview that have actually ordered both?
Rectum? Damn near...
He even declined to criticize C.I.A. practices used on prisoners called “rectal feeding” and “rectal rehydration,” though he noted that “it was not one of the techniques approved” by the Justice Department. “I believe it was done for medical reasons,” he said. The Senate report suggests that it was largely used without medical orders to punish prisoners who refused water or food.I'm really disappointed with the authorities saying things like "there is no clinical indication" or "this treatment is not medically recommended". It isn't medically possible.
Rectal hydration actually is a thing, which can be used as palliative care with patients close to death to provide them some comfort at the end stage, very carefully, if and only if no other method can be used, which means never, since subcutaneous injections of fluid will always work better.
The "rectal feeding" sounds like something invented by a small-child patient of Dr. Freud's, in that it could work only in dreams: there's physically no way for nutrition to get from the large intestine to anywhere the body can use it. It's like trying to give somebody an oral blood transfusion. Oh, sorry, Mr. Vice President, I guess that's what you guys call it when you bite somebody.
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| Jormungand. Via Suntzuanime. |
At 73, nearly three years after a heart transplant, Mr. Cheney clearly feels his own legacy is at stake.I saw what you did there, Scott.
The ends justify the means
Asked again whether he was satisfied with a program that erroneously locked up detainees, he replied, “I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.”He really said that! He's not a man, he's a cartoon! I rest my case.
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| Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection (2012). |
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