Sunday, August 16, 2009

hats off to dad

Last year I wrote a post about my father. It was, in part, about waterboarding. His retired police friends have a habit of sending mass emails about this or that. Last week they sent him an email that accused the Obama administration of arbitrarily denouncing waterboarding and taking away this effective interrogation tool. This is his response and it makes me proud:

The worst mistake we make as free thinking human beings is that of allowing others to lead us by the ears. Waterboarding is torture and its classification as such predates The Inquisition in the 13th century. It has been denounced for 700 years, give or take a hundred. Neither President Obama nor Nancy Pelosi had anything to do with the promulgation of this as torture, they are just not that old.

Waterboarding is an attractive interrogation technique because it causes great physical and mental suffering without leaving any marks on the body.

In the past when law enforcement authorities in the U.S. (Texas 1983) use[d] waterboarding, a sheriff and his deputies were convicted and sentenced to four (4) years in prison.

In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years in prison at hard labor.

We are the good guys, we do not torture even our enemies.

2 comments:

Dave E Crockett said...

OK, now I feel bad about wishing someone would waterboard the snotty Starbucks barista when I order a "large" latte and she corrects me by saying "do you mean a venti?"

Is that wrong?

Epiphenita said...

DEC, DEC, DEC. Never, EVER waterboard the snotty barista. Always use Berry Chai Infusion Tazo Tea...super-venti-sized.

Thank you for returning this discussion back to middle school level (like only you can)...the only place, incidentally, where such illogical claims can be excused based on utter lack of experience and general fucktardery.