Letters to the Editor
DurianJoe
Published Letters: 1508 Editor's Choice: 69
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Anonymous 12:12
[Read the article: We must ban secretive U.S. torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, perjury is a crime, but was Clinton's lie about the blowjob a crime that rose to the impeachable level of "high crimes and misdemeanor?" I would argue no.
I am not an expert on the Geneva Conventions nor other laws prohibiting the United States from torturing its prisoners, including the U.S. citizen named Jose Padilla, but I have little doubt that in torturing and murdering the many prisoners held by us in Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere (including within the United States), and by engaging in the "extraordinary rendition" of sending our prisoners overseas to be tortured, our government has surely committed impeachable offenses.
As for the alternatives to torture: ask the many civilain detectives and military interrogators who get information from their prisoners without engaging in torture. Ask also the value of information given by a man or woman who will say anything to get the agony to stop.
Even if torture were effective at eliciting good intelligence, which I understand it is surely not, ask yourself this: since when are we guided by the principle that the ends justify the means? If you agree with that, then you would agree that we should simply suspend all of our civil liberties and become a police state/dictatorship, for that will surely significantly reduce the crime rate. In fact, let us execute by boiling in oil all criminals, regardless of their crime. That would all but eliminate crime, would it not?
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Anonymous @ 1:25 pm, what makes you think you're immune from being tortured?
[Read the article: We must ban secretive U.S. torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you think that because you lead a nice, quiet law-abiding life that you are somehow immune from being tortured? Are you really that naive? Do you think it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to be falsely accused of a terrible crime like terrorism? Maybe you look like a terrorist. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors, you know. What on Earth makes you think that innocent people just like you are never arrested, disappeared, strapped down, and hideously tortured for hours and days on end? Do you think things like this only happen to other people? If you do, then you had better wake up. Nice people like you get cancer. Nice people like you fall off collapsing bridges. And nice people like you get arrrested of crimes you did not commit and tortured to death.
Torture is illegal under international and U.S. law. Among the international conventions the US has ratified that prohibit torture are the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention Against Torture.
For more information on the illegality of torture, of anyone by anyone, go here:
http://hrw.org/press/2001/11/TortureQandA.htm
You can also learn about the effectiveness of torture, or rather, its ineffectiveness.
For information on torture itself, and what its victims endure during and after torture, you can go here: http://www.tassc.org/index.php?sn=42
If you allow torture in this country, what makes you think that other countries won’t torture our soldiers, or our envoys, or our citizens? The more the U.S. condones torture, the more it loses its ability to protest when its own citizens are tortured overseas. We also lose the ability to protest torture of their own citizens by other countries. In other words, we lose our moral standing when we torture. Civilized nations do not torture. Rogue nations torture. Which nation do you want to live in, Anonymous?
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And one other thing, Anonymous.
[Read the article: We must ban secretive U.S. torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The more you scream, the more they'll torture you. The more you deny, the more they'll torture you. You'll confess eventually, to anything, even if you have to make it up over and over again.
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Mr. Blumenthal, do you really expect Hughes to care?
[Read the article: An open letter to Karen Hughes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]C'mon Mr. Blumenthal! Karen Hughes is just like George W. Bush, only somewhat smarter. She agrees with his policies on torture. She is part of the problem and will never, ever do anything to help anyone other than the small elite group of aristocrats who are fronted by that dimwit they installed in the White House.
You'll have to go elsewhere, I'm afraid; Karen Hughes doesn't give a damn about our country's reputation.
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Better yet, let's split up the country.
[Read the article: Let's abolish the Electoral College]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The "United States" really isn't all that United. There is a very deep and very wide political and cultural gap between the North and the South. The North is liberal and, to my mind, progressive, whereas the South is conservative and regressive. The midwest and West Coast can figure things out for themselves. Let's just call it quits and have an amicable divorce already.
Countries' maps get redrawn all the time. Why not here?
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Surprise: Unilever cares only about its profits
[Read the article: Selling (out) girls' self-esteem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is news? The same godawful corporation which peddles Dove soap crap also peddles Axe aftershave crap? Both the Dove commercials and the Axe commercials play to people's insecurities; Dove with women's self-consciousness, Axe with men's desire to get laid despite themselves. Unilever would sell swastikas to nazis and mezzuzahs to Jews if they thought they could get away with it.
For those who care, Unilever tortures animals in its product testing labs, so you shouldn't buy their crap anyway.
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Ann Coulter was hacked? Into how many pieces?
[Read the article: Another SCHIP family smeared]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh darn. Here I was, thinking like an old school 80's slasher film fan. The subhead, "Ann Coulter Hacked" got my hopes up, but then I saw that you were talking about computer hacking.
Where's Jason when you really need him?
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Wrong. It's a practical and moral SUCCESS.
[Read the article: Don't think of a sick child]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Messrs. Lakoff and Smith are looking at this issue from the wrong perspective.
If all a person cares about, above all else, is making money, then the profit-run healthcare system makes perfect sense.
If that same person's greed means that children will suffer and die, from the perspective of that person, it is not a moral failure, and morality has nothing whatsoever to do with the main issue, which is making money.
When you look at the world from a wealthy Republican perspective, all of this makes perfect sense.