King of Pain - By Paul Krugman

[kpete]

King of Pain
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times

Monday 18 September 2006

.............................

Is torture a necessary evil in a post-9/11 world? No. People with actual knowledge of intelligence work tell us that reality isn't like TV dramas, in which the good guys have to torture the bad guy to find out where he planted the ticking time bomb.

What torture produces in practice is misinformation, as its victims, desperate to end the pain, tell interrogators whatever they want to hear. Thus Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi - who ABC News says was subjected to both the cold cell and water boarding - told his questioners that Saddam Hussein's regime had trained members of Al Qaeda in the use of biochemical weapons. This "confession" became a key part of the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq - but it was pure invention.

So why is the Bush administration so determined to torture people?

To show that it can.

read the rest at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091806L.shtml

[JHB]

1. I recall in a book about the rise of Al Queda...

...("The Age of Sacred Terror", it think), that the most effective means of interrogating the bombers of the east African embassies was parience, cultural unserstanding, and "a pot of tea". After all, the real and true fanatics won't crack under any circumstances, and for the less fanatical... if you present a face that doesn't act like the orge-ish, horned-devil enemy they expected, they start feeling stupid at looking at things so simplisticly... and then they'll tell quite a bit.

[Gregorian]

2. Tsk, tsk,. That kind of behavior will not fill your gas tank.

Besides, Republicans aren't sissies. They're manly! And manly Republicans waterboard. None of this girlie sensitive stuff for them. Honestly, I think it's all part of a plan. But the longer it goes on, the more it seems they're just really fucking dumb. That stupid saying about honey and vinegar comes to mind.

It's very hard to watch this, for those of us who have a handle on understanding how human beings work. I come from the viewpoint that we are all human. We all have nearly everything in common. AND that modern society is way way out of synch with the real world. But don't take my word for it, go sit next to an exhaust pipe. I don't know. It would be so much easier to admit if it weren't so comfortable. Wealth versus civility. Wealth versus civility. Hmm, I think we'll just keep waterboarding.

[elehhhhna]

3. Bush has two theme songs: King of Pain (Sting) and...

Hurt, by Trent Reznor.

"Hurt"

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything


What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here


What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

[warrens]

4. Taste the whip, now bleeeeeed for me

Venus in Furs, Velvets

[lfairban]

7. Unfortunately * isn't into self-abuse

n/t

[pacalo]

5. I liked the last paragraph...

Only now, five years after 9/11, has Mr. Bush finally found some things he wants us to sacrifice. And those things turn out to be our principles and our self-respect.

[EVDebs]

6. George Bush--King of Pain "there's a little black spot on the sun today.."

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/police/king+of+pain_20110054.html

""I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess Im always hoping that youll end this reign
But its my destiny to be the king of pain"

Well, at least in '08 the reign ends.