{"id":956,"date":"2011-05-05T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T00:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/?p=956"},"modified":"2011-05-06T10:41:16","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T14:41:16","slug":"the-re-emergence-of-the-torturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/05\/the-re-emergence-of-the-torturers.html","title":{"rendered":"The re-emergence of the torturers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fetid mess of nihilism and sadism that masquerades as “conservative” morality is strutting with more than its usual vulgarity this week. \u00a0Adopting Karl Rove’s strategy of attacking your opponents strengths through incessant lying, they are saying torture helped us eliminate bin Laden. Along the way they expose themselves as moral cesspools, but are too hopped up on self-righteousness to notice. \u00a0Conor Friedersdorf over at the Atlantic gets it just about perfec<\/a>t.<\/p>\n

Someone once asked me during the initial torture debate – what about the so far and probably always imaginary ‘ticking time bomb’ scenario? \u00a0I answered that in such a case someone will torture the culprit anyway – but they should then be charged with committing a very serious crime. \u00a0Their defense will be there were extenuating circumstances or, better by far, they will ask for a pardon. I would pardon them in such a hypothetical case.<\/p>\n

The principle is too important to allow conservative and technocratic sociopaths the opportunity to nibble away at it. And now they are out in full force with their lies in an effort to justify their sadism.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

For those who are polcy wonks or who know someone who supported torture because “it worked,” here is a report from a long time military interrogator iwho conducted over 1300 interrogartions in Iraq. \u00a0He reports that torture actually slowed down catching bin Laden<\/a>. \u00a0I don’t think his testimony will matter to most on the right, for who sadism and tingles of self-righteousness count for more than getting accurate information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fetid mess of nihilism and sadism that masquerades as “conservative” morality is strutting with more than its usual vulgarity this week. \u00a0Adopting Karl Rove’s strategy of attacking your opponents strengths through incessant lying, they are saying torture helped us eliminate bin Laden. Along the way they expose themselves as moral cesspools, but are too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[2,30,31],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-current-events","tag-osama-bin-laden","tag-torture"],"yoast_head":"\nThe re-emergence of the torturers - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/05\/the-re-emergence-of-the-torturers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The re-emergence of the torturers - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The fetid mess of nihilism and sadism that masquerades as “conservative” morality is strutting with more than its usual vulgarity this week. \u00a0Adopting Karl Rove’s strategy of attacking your opponents strengths through incessant lying, they are saying torture helped us eliminate bin Laden. Along the way they expose themselves as moral cesspools, but are too…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/05\/the-re-emergence-of-the-torturers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-06T00:38:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-06T14:41:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The re-emergence of the torturers - A Pagan's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/05\/the-re-emergence-of-the-torturers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The re-emergence of the torturers - A Pagan's Blog","og_description":"The fetid mess of nihilism and sadism that masquerades as “conservative” morality is strutting with more than its usual vulgarity this week. \u00a0Adopting Karl Rove’s strategy of attacking your opponents strengths through incessant lying, they are saying torture helped us eliminate bin Laden. 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