Comments on: Same Old Song

by: felicity

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:45:12 +0000

SWAMI, speaking of Hitler reminds me of Goebbels reminds me of the Dershowitz(s) poisoning our public discourse - arrogant fools, yes, but not harmless fools.

In ‘42, Goebbels said, “We must win the war against the Jews. Should we lose it, then the harmless appearing Jewish good-fellows would exact on our people, women and children, a revenge for which history gives no precedent.” He went on to say, “The Jews are our destruction. Every Jew is a sworn enemy of the German people.”

It’s probably safe to say that Goebbels wrote apologies for the use of torture. Dershowitz should keep Goebbels in mind when he writes apologies for the use of torture.

by: Swami

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:22:43 +0000

Ah, the old ticking bomb scenerio..the ultimate justification!. Committing evil in the name of good. During the Inquisition it was a common practice to cut out the tongue of the accused heretic in order to prevent them from uttering blasphemies. It was considered as an act of mercy to reduce the penitent’s judgment before god.
It’s also the same sick thinking that allows modern day clowns like Dershowitz to justify torture. Once you cross the threshold of justification there is no crime that can’t be committed. After all, Hitler destroyed the Jews, the Gypsies, the Slavs, the mentally ill, and the homosexuals as an act of good for the betterment of mankind…just like Bush is authorizing torture for our benefit.

by: joanr16

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:42:50 +0000

Oh, I love that movie! “Emergency, emergency! Everybody to get from street!” Good old Alan Arkin.

by: Cernig

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:40:04 +0000

Thanks for the link, Maha.

Regards, C

by: Doug Hughes

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:34:34 +0000

Last night I watched an old movie and realized it had been bouncing around in my head for the last couple of years as the perfect parallel of the current outcry against ‘islamofiacists’. The movie - and if you saw it you will see the similarities - was the 1966 ‘The Russians are Coming’.

by: libarbarian

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:37:11 +0000

The kind of torture that President Clinton was talking about is not designed to secure confessions of past crimes, but rather to obtain real time, actionable intelligence deemed necessary to prevent an act of mass casualty terrorism.- Dershowitz

In this he is just flat-out wrong. The Gov’t has used torture and the threat of torture to extract confessions from innocent people.
Abdallah Higazy was in a NYC hotel on 9/11 and a airplane radio was found in his room. He was innocent but he confessed because the FBI threatemned to have his family tortured in Egypt if he did not*. He was released three days after confessing when an airline pilot, the previous occupant of Higazys room, showed up at the hotel asking for his radio back.

*From the, now since withdrawn, court documents [Abdallah] ” Higazy alleges that during the polygraph, Templeton told him that he should cooperate, and explained that if Higazy did not cooperate, the FBI would make his brother “live in scrutiny” and would “make sure that Egyptian security gives [his] family hell.” Templeton later admitted that he knew how the Egyptian security forces operated: “that they had a security service, that their laws are different than ours, that they are probably allowed to do things in that country where they don’t advise people of their rights, they don’t – yeah, probably about torture, sure.”

by: whig

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:49:08 +0000

Is Dershowitz really a sheep-fucker? Maybe he is a pig-fucker. We really shouldn’t presume.

by: WereBear

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:43:06 +0000

Well, part of it is that people regard intelligence as being seamless like an egg, when our brains are actually a bunch of compartments that can work well together.

For instance, I can write code and deconstruct Moby Dick, but my cooking is a kind of random lottery. Everyone has these differing levels of competence. Why some people constantly assume intelligence in one thing means intelligence in all things has always baffled me.

But that’s how we got here; a bunch of people thought enjoying a beer with someone implied the someone would make the right decisions about war and human rights…

by: joanr16

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:13:53 +0000

I’ve known for a long time that Alan Dershowitz is a sheep-bleeping idiot. I’m not even sure how he has held on to the “savant” reputation, since he takes positions purely for their inflammatory nature, rather than any intellectual merit. He’s kind of like Rush Limbaugh without the Viagra.