>The advocacy of torture is such a common part of our intellectual
>culture now days that it seems it is no longer news, perhaps even on
>the left. (The interview was big news in Britain and on the Continent
>by the way. Clips of the interview were played over and over again in
>Germany and France along with the BBC World Service.) Has anyone read
>anything from the mainstream on the fact that we have a Supreme Court
>Justice _advocating_ war crimes? (Of course Scalia is just drawing his
>thought and phrasing from Judge Posner, who performed a cost-benefit
>analysis of torture and concluded, of course, that the benefits
>exceeded the costs. Outside of the legal weblogs I don't remember
>seeing or hearing much of a reaction to Posner either.)
True, it is common place now to hear torture advocated. But only by the very stupid and I suppose the most interesting implication of the fact that you hear it a lot more lately is that more stupid people (like this Scalia joker) are being promoted than would have been earlier.
Because of course any intelligent analysis of the cost/benefit of torture can only conclude that the costs far exceed the benefits. The only people who think otherwise are smug over-confident idiots who think that because they can get away with it without any immediate cost, there isn't any long-term cost. People who can't think past right now. Morons. Like Scalia and Bush.
The more thoughtful among the ruling class know better. So I guess it must be taken as an indication of the decay of the ruling class. A sign of their decline, that their mouthpieces are such arrogant in-bred dolts.
Those who the Gods wish to destroy and all that...
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas