Radio host Mancow had himself waterboarded on air the other day. His verdict? Watch the video below.
I claim no extra bravery. I’m mildly claustrophobic so I would probably freak out if I was waterboarded, but shouldn’t “torture” have a cringe factor? I mean… Saw, Hostel, and even Braveheart are more troublesome than watching this unless you have a specific water-related psychological issue. Should torture evoke a visceral response? I’m probably a bit more desensitized to some of this than others, but not so densitized that I wouldn’t cringe if someone were having their fingernails pulled, or their shins being rolled with an iron bar, etc.
And is the person undergoing the procedure the proper source for that determination? And can only those who have undergone the procedure be allowed to make the determination? The answer to both is obviously “No.”
Again… I didn’t undergo it, but I have to say this is not torture.
Print
Digg
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Facebook
Yahoo! Buzz
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
MSN Reporter
MySpace
Orkut
Ping.fm
Reddit
RSS
Slashdot
Technorati
Tumblr
Webnews.de
What a wimp. Total puss. Thats not torture thats your big brother dropping a waterballoon on you without you knowing it. Ever have that happen? I have. So I guess my big brother should be sent up on war crimes?
And is the person undergoing the procedure the proper source for that determination?
NO. Especially in a society that refers to long lines at Macy’s as torture and claims we are starving because it’s been an hour since we last ate.
Tracy that person is Mancow Mueller who is a huge radio shock jock in Chicago. He is also a Libertarian type and he has had a history of getting himself into trouble for being politically incorrect. He has also had a long standing feud with that jerk Howard Stern.
Even if you called it torture – which is very debatable since it doesn’t cause any permanent injury and is usually over with so quickly – so what? We have only used it a couple of times on some really bad people to save American lives. I can live with that.
[...] to Floyd over at Three Donia who notes that torture should have some kind of “cringe” facto…. He’s right. It needs to. Waterboarding doesn’t. I mean I am no braveheart and even [...]
100% not torture. The definition they are using to define this as torture is the psychological aspect, which is what Mancow reacted to, and not the physical definition of torture which defines torture as malicious bodily harm. It was the redefining of torture in 1947 (I believe) when the UN wrote the anti-torture ammendment that has opened this legal pandora’s box. By using the idea of psychological trauma you have created an abstract and completely undefinable concept that could make anything from walking in on your parents to eating at Arby’s torture.
If attorneys and courts manage to truly get this definition of torture to stick than soon any sort of punishment will be impossible. For the millions of people like myself who suffer from severe clausterphobia would imprisonment not be torture due to the obvious psychological trauma the confined space would cause? With that being the case should people like me not be able to be imprisoned regardless of their crime?
That’s an excellent point about claustrophobia, Brandon. I’ll have to remember that.
I would also point to the SCOTUS case Ashcraft v. Tennessee in 1944 which outlawed “excessive psychological coercion” in police interrogation as prototypical — equating it with the physical torture it outlawed in 1936 in Brown v. Mississippi. Judges and lawyers are not cut out for policy making — as a general rule — at least not in an adjudicatory setting.