Torture: It's illegal, Stupid!

Liz Cheney appeared on "Morning Joe" to defend her father's advocacy for enhanced interrogation. She argued that waterboarding as used by the CIA was legal. She argued that Department of Justice lawyers were within the law when they defined the limits within which waterboarding is legal. She argued that the White House is withholding information that proves that waterboarding was effective and consequently justified. The host of the show, Joe Scarborough, accused the White House of cherry-picking government records to release only negative documents regarding enhanced interrogation and withholding documents that would show that these methods were effective.

Torture is illegal. Nothing else matters. Joe Scarborough should apologize on air for defending the use of torture – for justifying a war crime. I think MSNBC should fire Scarborough and any of its personnel who defend the use torture and the violation of our laws and treaties. I'm tired of the suggestion that any rational person would use any means to extract information from a detainee that might save American lives. That's not true. It is immoral. It is inhuman. IT IS ILLEGAL.

If torture is justified by the admissions of the tortured and if admissions under torture are true, then witches possessed by Satan are REAL. The witch hunt in early modern Europe executed about 60,000 women, men and children for being witches possessed by Satan. Torture was the primary method employed to get a confession.

If you believe that torturing detainees is justified by the results, then you must also believe that tens of thousands of witches, in league with Satan, existed in early modern Europe. Since the witch hunt could not have eliminated all witches and surely did not end Satan’s ability to possess people and create witches, then you must also believe that there are thousands of witches in America that are possessed by Satan and using supernatural powers to do his will.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney advised all patriotic Americans to watch their neighbors and report all unusual activity. They should also have advised us to watch for and report all “supernatural” activity. After all, a witch possessed by Satan is surely more dangerous than a terrorist serving Osama bin Laden.