On yer plate today …

December 26th, 2007

An assortment of leftovers — well, not really; more like little bits and pieces I intended to offer you with your Christmas dinner but never got to. Besides — I like leftovers best.

For all my Artsy Bud’s out there … and for those who, like me, know every lyric to JC Superstar and can break into song and dance while strolling the box store at the very first notes of the score via piped-in Muzak, you’ll find a Huge Treat, from Welcome to Pottersville blog. You can sing along — if you don’t remember the songs, open the link anyhow, to see the pictures. Just FABulous fun! And the first article after that is an extension of Christmas reads and the perfect compliment to Jurrasic Pork’s brilliant post.

And for you Video Fans, a couple of “watch me’s” that smack political rather than holiday oriented… here in dial-up country, I can’t preview the second, so let me know what you think.

The last piece is rather remarkable — it’s a “must read” even if it’s not very appetizing. The cherry on this dubious dessert was the blogger who responded: Got video??? [See -- nothing's real unless you get it on tape!]

All in all, just a lite offering on the the after The Day. Dig in!

Jude

Dubya Bush Superstar
Jurrasic Pork, WelcomeToPottersville
Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Story: Death of a Torture Victim
RJ Eskow, Smirking Chimp
Dec 25 2007

The citizens of the homeland didn’t hear about it when he died, and many of them wouldn’t have cared. They should be grateful we’re occupying their country, some said. We’re building new roads and bringing them our civilization. And didn’t we let them elect their own representatives?

The Senators spoke fine words, but when push came to shove they yielded authority to their leader to do whatever he wanted. And so it came to pass that one more body was broken and one more life was taken.

You didn’t need to “profile” him to know he was suspicious - more suspicious than most of the prisoners that were seized and taken to that infamous prison.

His religion, his ethnicity, and his Middle Eastern name made him suspect from the start. Worse, he was an ardent follower of his desert religion, with its holy book full of blood crimes and beheadings. And he was an outspoken street speaker, part of a radical fringe that wanted the interlopers out of his country.

Then there was the matter of the one who turned him in to the authorities. A lot of the folks being carted off to prison had been caught the same way, with an unconformed denunciation from a neighbor, a family member, or a business rival.
Many of them had never been named at all. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And this guy looked suspicious, with his crazy desert clothing and his long fanatic’s beard. He didn’t just challenge the foreign occupiers, either. He denounced leaders in his own religion when he felt they had become too comfortable with those who wielded power.

Make no mistake: there were those among his people who would do bloody things, who would kill as many occupiers as they could. He wasn’t one of them. But the torturers weren’t very discriminating. They all look pretty much alike underneath a hood, anyway.

They seized him one night and took him to a secret prison, where they beat and tortured him. They posed him in humiliating positions. The only reason they didn’t videotape and photograph the ritualized pain was that there weren’t any cameras around.

But they made sure that lots of the locals saw him being tortured. They thought it would have a discouraging effect on the more militant ones.

He was innocent. He had no intention of hurting anyone. He was more concerned with the well-being of his fellow detainees than he was with himself. That’s the kind of guy he was.

There were others who were violent, who wanted to slaughter the invaders. But torturing him didn’t help the occupiers find the ones planning to kill. It never has. It only added converts to the rebellion.

The torturers didn’t know that, though. They hadn’t learned from those who had come before them. That’s the thing about torturers: they never learn.

Finally they killed him. It was a pre-emptive and public assassination. They assumed that he would be scorned, ridiculed, and then forgotten. But he wasn’t. His words may have been forgotten among the powerful, but some of the powerless whisper them still.

“Whatever you do to the least of these,” he said, “you do to Me.”

Olbermann’s Worst Person Awards: Stems Cells, O’Reilly, Romney
Youtube

Think 9/11 Was the First Conspiracy by the Government? Think Again
Check out this video from 1997 about the Oklahoma Muir Building bombing.
Timothy Gatto, LiberalPro
Tuesday, December 25, 2007

I waterboard!
Scylla, The Straight Dope blog
Dec 21, 07

So much talk of waterboarding, so much controversy. But what is it really? How bad? I wanted to write the definitive thread on waterboarding, settle the issue. Torture, or not?

To determine the answer, I knew I had to try it. I looked at my two small children. Surely, in the interests of science?…..

But alas, my wife had objections.

Perhaps her?

Sadly, she is proficient in Ju Jitsu, and I am unlikely to waterboard her.

That leaves me.

***

Seriously, I determined to give this a try, see how bad it was: Settle the debate authoritatively. Torture, or not?

I figure I would be a good test subject. I am incredibly fit and training for a 100 mile endurance run. The main thing about such an event is ability to tolerate pain. I am good at this. I am trained.

I also have experience with free-diving from my college days. I once held my breath for 4 minutes and two seconds. Once, while training as a lifeguard I swam laps without breathing until I passed out, so that I could know my limits.

To determine whether waterboarding is an acceptable interrogation technique or torture I must research it an then undergo it myself. Once I have done this, Elucidator Diogenes Tomndeb and all the rest of those liberal scum (no offense intended) must accept my now accept my now expert opinion.

So, here’s what I would do. First I would google waterboarding to understand the basic concepts than I would try it on myself. First, self inflicted and then, if necessary, inflicted by my wife.(she has no problem torturing me. We’ve been married almost 15 years.)

These are the results of my research and experience:

The goal of waterboarding is to simulate drowning without the actual drowning or inhalation into the lungs. In order to accomplish this the subject is forced to lie on an inclined plane with his head lower than his lungs and then water is dumped onto his/her face (always keeping the lungs above the “Water line.”) This simulates drowning and causes a panic.

There are some advanced techniques that make this more extreme, but that’s the basic concept.

Easy enough to duplicate. I have an inclined weight bench and a watering can. No problem. I lie on this and tilt the watercan to pour water on my mouth and nose. Water goes up my nose causing me to gag and choke and splutter, but after a try or two I’m able to suppress my reflex, relax breathe in shallowly and then expel rapidly (shooting out the water) and maintain my composure. This is not too bad. with my diving experience, you would never break me this way. I can’t beleive those AL Zarqawi guys were such pussies.

Back to researching the advanced techniques:

The first of these is wet rag in mouth. I try it. Ok, I can handle this too. It makes it a little bit more difficult to maintain control. I didn’t realize it, but the first time around I was selectively breathing through either mouth or nose, to help maintain control. The wet rag eliminates the mouth as an option. You have to really concentrate to maintain control, breathing very shallowly on the inhale and not allowing yourself to exhale until you have a good lungfull with which to expel the water in you nose throat and sinuses. Then, you have to inhale slowly but fast enough to pull in a lungful of air before your nose throat and sinuses fill up. Difficult, but doable with some self-control. I can see where this would get very unpleasant if you lost control, but still, not terrible, not torture, per se in my book. It wasn’t as bad as my vasectomy or last root canal, and not nearly so bad as the last OP I read by Liberal.

Next up is saran wrap. The idea is that you wrap saran wrap around the mouth in several layers, and poke a hole in the mouth area, and then waterboard away. I didn’t reall see how this was an improvement on the rag technique, and so far I would categorize waterboarding as simply unpleasant rather than torture, but I’ve come this far so I might as well go on.

Now, those of you who know me will know that I am both enamored of my own toughness and prone to hyperbole. The former, I feel that I am justifiably proud of. The latter may be a truth in many cases, but this is the simple fact:

It took me ten minutes to recover my senses once I tried this. I was shuddering in a corner, convinced I narrowly escaped killing myself.

Here’s what happened:

The water fills the hole in the saran wrap so that there is either water or vaccum in your mouth. The water pours into your sinuses and throat. You struggle to expel water periodically by building enough pressure in your lungs. With the saran wrap though each time I expelled water, I was able to draw in less air. Finally the lungs can no longer expel water and you begin to draw it up into your respiratory tract.

It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.

I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You [b]know[b] you are dead and it’s too late. Involuntary and total panic.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It would be like telling you not to blink while I stuck a hot needle in your eye.

At the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.

I never felt anything like it, and this was self-inflicted with a watering can, where I was in total control and never in any danger.

And I understood.

Waterboarding gets you to the point where you draw water up your respiratory tract triggering the drowning reflex. Once that happens, it’s all over. No question.

Some may go easy without a rag, some may need a rag, some may need saran wrap.

Once you are there it’s all over.

I didn’t allow anybody else to try it on me. Inconceivable. I know I only got the barest taste of what it’s about since I was in control, and not restrained and controlling the flow of water.

But there’s no chance. No chance at all.

So, is it torture?

I’ll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I’d take the fingers, no question.

It’s horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I’d prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I’d give up anything, say anything, do anything.

The Spanish Inquisition knew this. It was one of their favorite methods.

It’s torture. No question. Terrible terrible torture. To experience it and understand it and then do it to another human being is to leave the realm of sanity and humanity forever. No question in my mind.

Questions? Doubts?

P.S. Yes, I really did try it.

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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