Reality Check For Torture Fans

As sophisticated as I may be politically, when it comes to the mastery of late twentieth century digital technology, I'm still a novice; so, please, bear with me.

The Daily Kos is one of the greatest sources of progressive opinion out there, and all those bloggers are digging up information on everything from plate tectonics and volcanism to torture. I recently found a blog that should make the torture apologists hang their heads in shame (of course, they won't.) I don't know how to put the link here, because the Kos sites confuse the hell out of me, but I'll give the full citation so my intrepid readers, if any, can find it. The title says it all, and you must read the entire piece. Everything that professional FBI and police interrogators have said about proper techniques of interrogation and the inefficacy of torture may have had its start with one man during World War Two.

"The Torture-Free True Story of the Best USMC Interrogator in WWII" by 8ackgr0und NO15e

None So Blind

Dwell on the past- lose an eye
Forget the past- lose both eyes
  Russian proverb

  On December ninth, the New York Times published an editorial by Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in which he called on President Obama to pardon the torturers from Bush and Cheney on down.
  Romero argues, correctly, I've come to believe, that only by granting formal pardons can we get recognition of the crimes that the Bush administration perpetrated. Without prosecutions there is, in effect, a 'tacit' pardon that leaves the door open for the future use of torture. The likelihood of torture being used in the future, especially after another attack, is quite high. Indeed, only John McCain, of all leading Republicans, has repudiated the use of torture. A victim of torture himself, McCain said that the torture policy "stained our national honor." As a combat veteran, unlike the chicken hawks of the Bush administration and Republican leadership, I think the senator has a grasp of the world that can't be gotten from fictional movies and television shows.
  The report is being derided by the right who seem to think that torture is not only right and effective, but isn't torture in the first place. After all, the Bush administration gave itself legal permission to use 'enhanced interrogation techniques' such as: sleep deprivation, stress positions, and waterboarding. We prosecuted Japanese and Germans as war criminals for using the same 'EIT's'. I guess I agree that enhanced interrogation techniques are not torture- torture has fewer syllables.
  Senator McCain realizes that the torture techniques "not only failed their purpose- to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies- but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world." He also, correctly, said that "This report strengthens self-government and, ultimately, I believe, America's security and stature in the world." That should shut the mouths of the apologists, but it won't.
  The ability to simply and forever mark the torturers as criminals is something that I don't believe the President will do. But he should. We must have the argument now, while we have the luxury of time; not after we are confronted with smoking ruins someday, after the inevitable attack. The American people have never shown a willingness to let contemplation interfere with grief and anger on a national scale. After Lincoln's assassination, Herman Melville wrote a poem, The Martyr, in which he said: " ...the people in their weeping/ Bare the iron hand;/ Beware the people weeping/ When they bare the iron hand." The punitive measures the south faced during reconstruction were certainly due to the shadow of blame for his death.
  I don't think that future presidents will necessarily let the criminality of torture stop them. We have already seen the self justification that the Bush administration used. A future President, so inclined, will justify his actions on our grief, and the bankrupt maxim that 'the ends justify the means'.
  The pathetic, heart-breaking reality of this country today is that we tortured. Part of the remedy- pardoning the criminals- is more pathetic and heart-breaking, but it is a start.


Postscript: The statute of limitations now shields some of the torturers. I believe that torture should be considered a war crime without a statute of limitations. Perhaps we can someday change the law before we replay this tragedy.

Notes

The proverb comes from memory. I am nearly positive that I encountered it reading Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. The possibility exists that I'm mistaken.

The editorial cited is from the December 9, 2014 New York Times editorial- Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured by Anthony D. Romero

All the McCain quotes are from the CNN Politics website article McCain makes passionate defense for torture report's release by Alexandra Jaffe 12/10/14

I encourage you to read the Melville poem The Martyr. Melville's emotions are palpable: the raw grief and anger that the country felt are fresh. He also correctly prophesied the harsh punishment the South would soon face. You may find this poem on the internet, or, more appropriately, check out a collection of his poetry from the library. It occurs to me that Project Gutenberg probably has them. I'm going there now.  

The Song of Wandering Aengus

 

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread:
And when white moths were on the wing;
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and tides are done
The silver apples of the moon
The golden apples of the sun.



William Butler Yeats

...I will find out where she has gone...

Yeah- He's Running

  Tonight, during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Senator Rand Paul referred to "Hillary's war in Libya."
  Considering the fact that he had just spoken of Bush's war in Iraq, not Cheney's or Powell's war, and that the Republicans have consistently criticized  President Obama for 'leading from behind' in Libya, it seems a bit strange. Unless he's planning to run against Clinton and is desperate for ammunition.
  He still has to maneuver around his state's law keeping him from running for two offices simultaneously.
  He's running.

Send in the Clowns

  In the coming months a whole bunch of people are going to finally admit that what they've been doing is running for President.
  I won't deal with the Dems yet, because the Reepubs are so much more fun.
  Rick Perry is under indictment, and faces trial.
  Chris Christie is being investigated by a grand jury.
  Rand Paul has announced that he is running for reelection to the Senate, and Kentucky law prohibits anyone from appearing twice on a ballot (say as a Senator and Presidential candidate.)
  Rob Portman is declining to run.
  There have been many Romney sightings- something that only happens when he wants to be President.
  And Jeb Bush is saying that he won't cater to the extremists in order to win the primary.
 
  Wow.
  The only thing better would be if some of last election's superstars try to squeeze into the car.

Quote of the Post

"The afternoon came down as imperceptibly as age comes to a happy man."

"There was an ache in his heart like the farewell to a dear woman; there was vague sorrow in him like the despair of Autumn."

"Time is more complex near the sea than in any other place, for in addition to the circling of the sun and the turning of the seasons, the waves beat out the passage of time on the rocks and the tides rise and fall as a great clepsydra."

John Steinbeck Tortilla Flats (all quotes)

I re-read this book last year just to find the last quote. I found the other two as well. Somehow I'd missed them the first time out. That's what is so wonderful about visiting old friends: they constantly surprise you. By the way: a clepsydra is a water clock. I had to look it up myself the first time through.

Quote of the Post

"You can never, unfortunately, make virtue as interesting as vice, for virtue is negative and vice is positive. The man who does not do certain things is the better citizen, but he has not the glamour of the man who does do them. It is sad but true."

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Last Resource, short story

The perfect explanation of tabloid journalism, I think.

" 'It would be well,' the Scotsman concluded, 'if those who express opinions on such subjects would bear in mind those simple rules of evidence laid down by Auguste Dupin. "Exclude the impossible," he remarks in one of Poe's immortal stories, "and whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth." ' "

Doyle, The Fate Of the Evangeline, short story

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will recognize this as his famous rule. This story was published in 1885, two years before the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published. I have yet to search Poe's stories for the quote, but I have never heard it attributed to anyone but Holmes (Doyle). I wonder, though, if perhaps Doyle was already thinking and writing about his soon to be iconic creation, and needed a source for the quote. As a fan of Poe, I look forward to the upcoming research.

Quote of the Post

"For all its fiery rhetoric and holy panoply, the second crusade turned quickly into an anarchic mess and, finally, an unmitigated disaster. It is an axiom of history- which it would reward contemporary politicians to consider- that few human endeavors prove as pointless as projects of religiously inspired military idealism unaccompanied by worldly understanding, strategic thoughtfulness, and common sense."

Thomas Cahill Mysteries of the Middle Ages

Astute readers will recognize this writer. He is on my recommended list for the series of books he calls 'The Hinges of History'. This quote is from one of the books in that series.

There are so many groups and nations to which this passage could be aimed, that I leave it to you to apply as needed.

Quote of the Post

If you bring forth what is within you
What you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you
What you do not bring forth will destroy you.

Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

RIP

Robin Williams died today, an apparent suicide.
The word is that he was suffering severe depression. If so, I sympathize.
I hope he's at peace.
He deserves it.

Quote of the Post

"A few lines glimpsed on a page may alter your whole trend of thought for the day, reverse the currents of the mind, change the profile of the city....The moment when one meets a book and knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that that book must be his- not necessarily now, but some time- is among the happiest excitements of the spirit....There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experience of great social import....We visit bookshops not so often to buy any one special book, but rather to rediscover, in the happier and more expressive words of others, our own encumbered soul."

Christopher Morley On Visiting Bookshops, essay, in Pipefuls

Have any of you felt that way, too? Until I read Morley, I thought I was alone in the universe. I've bought almost all my books used and there is nothing better than wandering the stacks and having something completely unexpected catch my eye. I felt all of the above when I laid eyes and hands on two amazing books in a museum gift shop: Complete Works of both DaVinci and Michelangelo. Huge format volumes, with a comparable price tag, by the great publishing house Taschen. As an artist, and reader, I have to have them- some time.

Notes on Quotes

Observant readers of these blogs may have noticed that I have a slight penchant for sharing interesting quotations. It is a predisposition that long predates blogging. In fact, I have many old journals loaded with gleanings from my reading. I have, occasionally, committed the more interesting ones to memory, squeezing them in amongst the poetry, Gettysburg Address, the first half of the Declaration of Independence, and all the Shakespeare that can be crammed into my thick Irish skull.

When I started putting quotes in here, it was only a matter of time before I decided to use a few from memory, and was faced with the very real problem of finding out if memory truly served. Whenever I've quoted the Bard I've easily looked up the needed lines to check proper phrasing and punctuation (who can ever remember that? ) Trying to find quotes from different writers, however, aint always so easy.Three times now, having failed to find the needed passages on the internet, I've re-read the novels in order to confirm the quotes. It wasn't the chore you might be thinking, as the novels were by Steinbeck, R.L.Stevenson and Arthur Conan Doyle. And, no, the Doyle was not a Sherlock Holmes, but one of his lesser known historical novels, Micah Clarke. It was that experience that occasions this piece.

Here's the quotation as I remembered it:

     Beware the zealot, for he will not only fight for his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice. He will also presume upon the consciences of others, thereby falling into the very error against which he fights.

Nice, huh? As relevant today as in the nineteenth century, when it was written. Also, not quite on the mark. Here is the actual quote:

     For the zealot is a man who not only defends his own right of worship, wherein he hath justice, but wishes to impose upon the consciences of others, by which he falls into the very error against which he fights.

Ok. Conan Doyle gives it a bit more poetry, perhaps, but the meaning is the same in both versions. I seem to have edited it down to its essence. Or, at least, I'd like to think so. My memory also tricked me in the setting of the story. I had remembered it as taking place during the English Civil War- Oliver Cromwell, and all that, you know. It turns out that I was close there as well. Micah Clarke is the story of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion which happened about a generation later.

A mind can be a minefield if you're not careful. As for me, it was no great effort to re-read those books. Re-discovering great writing is nearly as joyful as discovering it in the first place. I wish all of you happy hunting.

Quote of the Post

In the midst of moving, the writer is in a quandary over which books he can safely store, and which ones he must keep with him. For: "Suppose we want to look up a quote, in those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done?"
"Those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done." This guy was a kindred spirit. Is it any wonder that he coined a word for those who like to read in bed? (see earlier post for that word)
And who wrote it, you ask?
Yes, Morley.

Christopher Morley, Moving, essay in Pipefuls

Quote of the Post

" 'Lord!' he said, 'when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue- you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night- there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.' "

Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels

Get used to Morley quotes. As I find more of his books and re-read Parnassus and Haunted Bookshop, I will be sharing.

Beyond Flawed

     The "enterprise is flawed."
Alex Kosinski, Chief Judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on the death penalty.

   In the past weeks, three executions in this country have been 'botched'.
I say botched even though the prisoners did, eventually, die from the procedure. Eventually. The quick, painless death that meets the constitutional prohibition against 'cruel and unusual' punishment was denied these men.
   These executions have revived the arguments over the death penalty in the United States. Arguing the process of the death penalty; the procedures used, begs the bigger questions.
   My argument rests on two points.
   The first objection is moral and philosophical.
   One of the oldest stories in the Bible is that of Cain and Abel. After committing fratricide, one of the most heinous of crimes, Cain is not killed. Rather than striking him down, as we might imagine, God banishes Cain and forbids anyone else to harm him. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay", saith the Lord.    
   Vengeance is the prerogative of God, and God alone.
   Vengeance is the sole reason for the death penalty. None of the other justifications hold water.
   The death penalty will not revive a victim and will not right a wrong. In seeking, and applying, the ultimate punishment, we act out of hate and fear- which is what revenge truly is. Our calls for this type of harsh 'Justice' are based on our most primitive instincts. Our ancient ancestors, facing a daily struggle for survival, had, perhaps, good reason to act quickly to eliminate criminals from their midst. We face no such imperative. We have the means to imprison those who cannot live among us, and protect ourselves humanely.
   If we are to achieve anything approaching the Good Society, we must found that society, and its laws, on our best and highest ideals, not our basest.
   My second point is this:
   Can we, who are so flawed, create anything more perfect than ourselves? Every part of the criminal justice system depends on the subjective impressions and opinions of the police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and defense lawyers. We must always strive for perfection, but we must also recognize our limitations.
    While there are those among us who may claim to be able to envision a perfect system of justice, none may claim that we have achieved one. If there exists even the remotest possibility of an innocent paying the ultimate price we must eliminate that possibility and desist from the practice. No society is innocent of the spilling of innocent blood. The society which accepts that spilling is one destined to fall.
    The execution of prisoners is relic of ancient times. We cannot mature as a civilization until we have put away the childish fears of our primitive past.
  
  

  

Quote of the Post (and a definition)

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."

Christopher Morley, a final message to his friends.

Librocubicularist: One fond of reading in bed. Coined by Morley in The Haunted Bookshop.

I was pleased to find out that someone had gone to the trouble of coining a word for my third favorite thing to do in bed. I was also pleased to realize that I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it.

Quote of the Post

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if he exists, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr 1787
Quoted in Tolerant Libertarian's blog, If our Founding Fathers Were All Christians, Why Did They Say This? Daily Kos

I am doing more reading than writing these days. Can you tell?

Quote of the Post

"Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries."

Christopher Morley The Haunted Bookshop

Quotes of the Post

"And at the end, he learns the truth of Ernest Renan's bitter observation- that the only thing that can give one a sense of the infinite is the extent of human stupidity."

Thomas Wolfe, Gulliver, the story of a tall man (short story)

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' "

Isaac Asimov

Fooling Themselves- Again

Eric Cantor lost his primary in a surprise upset to his Tea- Bagger challenger. This came as a surprise to Cantor- and his pollster, who had predicted Cantor in the lead by over 30 points.

The biggest surprise, however, is that Cantor's pollster is the same idiot who projected that Mitt Romney would win key battleground states and the presidency in 2012. He was wrong then, too.

Self delusion is nothing new, people. Shakespeare wrote of the rebels in Henry IV Part II that they embraced "smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs." Wishful thinking and informational cherry-picking, in other words. So- nothing new.

Here is the difference. If someone lied to me, or was an unreliable source, I would never go back. Conservatives are so well trained, that when they are fed shit, they say "Thank you, sir, may I have another."

That is the only explanation for their rejection of facts and evidence in every realm of knowledge and experience.

Republicans were once a real political party.

Quotes of the Post

"The prime source of wisdom has been defined as continuous and penetrating inquiry.... For by doubting we come to inquire, and by inquiring we perceive the truth."

Peter Abelard 

Quoted in Thomas Cahill Mysteries of the Middle Ages


"Belief is the wound that knowledge heals."

Ursula K. LeGuin, The Telling

Quote of the Post

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Albert Einstein   Quoted in energyquotes.com

Ol' Al had it right on so many levels. Who can hear him now?

Antebellum Musings

Conservatives, especially the Tea Party, have always been enamored of violence.

Too many John Wayne movies I suppose.

The biggest problem with the constant use of the rhetoric of violence is that it allows for no dissent. When the opening lines of your argument vilify your opponent, you've pretty much painted yourself into a frustrating corner. How is it possible to negotiate and cooperate with those who, you claim, pose an existential threat to your way of life? It isn't.

This point of view pretty much defines the right wing in this country and the powers that be in the GOP.

The wing-nuts in politics are not alone. Right wing domestic terrorism is on the rise as well. Tonight, Rachel Maddow discussed this with her usual thoroughness, pointing out that not only does the right wing spin machine dismiss such facts, but forced the suppression of a Homeland Security report on the subject.

For many years I have been thinking that we will have another civil war in this country. I have long thought that in the next hundred years or so, a severe enough shock will set us off.

I still think that, but perhaps a hundred years is optimistic.

I titled this 'Antebellum' for a reason.