Posted on 04/23/2009 10:15:32 AM PDT by steve-b
The assertion of total power through unchecked violence - outside the Constitution, beyond the reach of the law (apart from legal memos from hired hacks instructed to retroactively redefine torture into 'legality') - will be seen in retrospect as the key defining theory of Bush conservatism. It ended with torture. Why? Because reality may differ from ideology; and when it does, it is vital to create reality to support ideology. And so torture creates reality by coercing "facts" from broken bodies and minds.
This is how torture is always a fantastic temptation for those in power, even if they first use it out of what they think is necessity or good intentions: it provides a way for them to coerce reality into the shape they desire. This is also why it is so uniquely dangerous. Because it creates a closed circle of untruth, which is then used to justify more torture, which generates more "truth." This is the Imaginationland some of us have been so concerned about.
The Western anathema on torture began as a way to ensure the survival of truth.....
(Excerpt) Read more at andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com ...
If reporters are lining up to "try" it, then it ain't torture. I bet they don't line up for the ole ice pick in the knee cap.
The shortage of KY Jelly makes him quite irritable, also.
“And so torture creates reality by coercing “facts” from broken bodies and minds. “
Please show me the broken bodies and minds, oh wait, there aren’t any.
Keep this thought handy.
It will define the current administration to a tee.
Exactly. Someone pointed out in an earlier post that more reporters than terrorists have been water boarded.
3 were waterboarded.
You’ll have to dig deeper to find out how many were tortured (if any).
Sand in the KY Jelly makes him quite irritable, also also.
torture creates reality by coercing “facts” from broken bodies and minds.
It was libertarian27 and I posted a LOL to him.
Obama now has all the powers given to Bush....
The HIV is rotting this sissy’s brain.
A Gitmo detainee could be waterboarded in the morning, and in the afternoon start at second base for the terrorist intramural softball team. Liberal sissies like Sullivan and the rest of the Democrats have no clue what real torture is.
Harsh interogation used at a time of potential threat to American citizens is bad.. umkay?
But shooting three misguided teenagers on a boat who were a potential threat to an American Captain is ok.
(I’m just trying to implement ‘progressive’ logic at their level. I need a drink now. My head hurts.)
LOL - oh dude, that hurt I laughed so hard !!
First of all, Andy, you degenerate fool, water boarding is not torture. Second, you’re deviant mind is twisted beyond saving so shut the hell up trying to pretend being a conservative.
Start a chant: “Give me Bush/Cheney; go’way obozo!”
Thanks.
And thanks to libertarian27 for a memorable quote.
Tip o’ the hat to you both!
I’m being tortured just by reading this excerpt.
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