Letters to the Editor
Baldie McEagle
Published Letters: 984 Editor's Choice: 3
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torture and empathy
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg's deeply "conflicted" thoughts on war and torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, it ought to be said that video game violence, movie violence, and porn are merely another way of converting violent behavior from "unspeakable" to "speakable." Art good and bad can do this. But exposure to bad movies can only lead to a taste for bad movies. Only exposure to violence can lead to a taste for violence. Better for a child to be beating virtual hookers than blowing up cats.
Similarly, only getting paid or otherwise encouraged to talk like an asshole can encourage one to talk like an asshole, if the urge isn't already there to begin with, and in Jonah's case I'd bet it started with potty training.
Second, there is a potential "nuance" to the APA situation. It's my understanding that one point of debate in the medical community regarding torture is that some doctors fear losing their role in certain settings, because suffering may increase in their absence. Whatever you may think of that argument, it seems clear that if no psychologist were willing to care for a torture victim in Guantanamo, then those people would probably get no professional psychological care at all. You can always change the venue or hire someone who majored in psychology to oversee the dirty work. That's what rendition is for.
For medical doctors, the choice may have been more clear. You can't have prisoners dying for no reason, and so every prison must have an MD. But even prison doctors need to deal with patients who are suffering abuse that no one, especially a ward of the state, should suffer. (I'm speaking of abuse at the hands of other prisoners.) And regular medical care is bad enough in prisons. Imagine the dilemma for psychologists, who as a profession had to work hard to become fixtures in the prison setting at all. Imagine going to work every day to deal with patients who are severely depressed, but who would be fine if they only weren't incarcerated. How would you keep your sense of mission? All you could do is bind the wounds inflicted by the torturer.
The key to a sustainable torture program, whether the torture works or not, is not to leave visible marks. And this obviously puts a prison or military intelligence psychologist in a tougher position than a medical doctor. If you don't know what went on in that room, and the prisoner comes out unmarked and no more depressed than he was before he went in, are you in any position to allege illegal actions? Is it any wonder some psychologists might want to avoid getting shut out of the room completely?
(Personally, I'd support policies of expulsion to be enforced on any member of a professional organization caught abetting torture, even purely psychological torture. But you can do no more than that, without clear laws against such activities.)
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er
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg's deeply "conflicted" thoughts on war and torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Scooter, please rewrite your essay to focus on the correct historical period. In colonial days, during which the punishments you describe were commonplace, there was no United States. You were assigned to write an essay on progress in humane punishment under the United States Constitution.
Do not forget to mention punishments inflicted on slaves, i.e., permanently and automatically guilty sub-humans.
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hats off to prunes
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg's deeply "conflicted" thoughts on war and torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Both your answers to poor scooter were FAR better than mine.
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@Valkyrie
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg's deeply "conflicted" thoughts on war and torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And your comment easily segues into an observation that a certain little boy named George was specifically not allowed by his parents to cry for his dead sibling. (This is a matter of record, not speculation.)
Draw your own conclusions about the Hangin' Governor from Texas.
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An observation
[Read the article: Ron Paul distortions and smears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Two topics seem to always draw the "enthusiasts" pro and anti: AIPAC and Ron Paul. It works every time. It's like throwing chum to sharks. They can't seem to help themselves.
I don't touch the AIPAC third rail (yes, I take the "anti-semite" position), but I will say this: it's very difficult to imagine Paul fucking up this country worse than you-know-who. First of all, he's got too many natural enemies in Washington. (Many of them are also my enemies. Many are probably not.)
He'd have a lot of trouble applying his more threatening principles over only 4 years. And he wouldn't last more than 4 years. In fact, I can easily imagine him making missteps (appointing people with certain ties, or with insufficient experience) that would limit his effectiveness even further. Wouldn't be the first time.
Second, even if he does nothing else, he's probably just the man to expose what has been done by this administration in secret for 7 years. Would Hillary throw open the vaults? No. Who else would? No one I can think of. I bet we'd learn a few things.
Third, he'd force people on both sides of the usual debates to actually think and defend themselves. Nothing is worse than an establishment that has no fear, and by this I mean to indicate establishment liberals as well as establishment "conservatives." We might actually begin to rethink some of the decades-old assumptions we all make. For example, does the way we fund public education make any sense?
I'd vote for Paul before I voted for Hillary. Better a principled nutjob than an unprincipled careerist.
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True astonishment:
[Read the article: Ron Paul distortions and smears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How arrogant and lazy some of the Anonymouses around here are.
Not to mention cowardly and incoherent. But hey, they're Anonymouses.
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Oh, and
[Read the article: Ron Paul distortions and smears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is there an Anonymous in the house? I need some of the funny numbers on my pay stub explained to me. I come from a planet where property and other taxes are unknown.
My people come in relative peace, however.