If torture works…

Torture is a despicable practice. As a general rule I don’t believe that torture interrogation techniques work as well as one might think. Yes, torture victims will often sing like canaries. They’ll tell their torturers anything they want to hear. But too often it’s unreliable. It won’t necessarily lead to the truth. 

So I’m gratified that our newly confirmed Secretary of Defense, General Mad Dog Mattis, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, agree with me – torture doesn’t work and it’s against the law.  Americans don’t resort to torture. If the President ordered them to do it, they wouldn’t do it. That’s good.

But sadly, President Trump is still convinced that torture works. He has said repeatedly on the campaign trail, and recently since his inauguration, that he would employ waterboarding and worse on suspected terrorists if it were solely up to him. Fortunately, however, he also says that he’ll defer to General Mattis, CIA Director Pompeo, and the law.

Last Wednesday Trump said it again. He declared that torture works. And his administration intends to conduct a sweeping review of how America conducts the war on terror. He’s considering a resumption of previously banned interrogation methods and reopening CIA-run "black site" prisons outside the United States.  "We have to fight fire with fire," he said. But at the same time, he added that we want to do: "everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally."

Well then, perhaps President Trump ought to read the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution which plainly provides that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Perhaps he should consider the Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination?

Note that our Constitution does not provide any exceptions for suspected terrorists. As far as our founding fathers were concerned, torture is cruel and unusual punishment and the government may not force an accused to incriminate himself. 

But let’s suppose for the purpose of argument that the Bill of Rights is not applicable to torture interrogation techniques; that American law allows torture, and that torture works…

If torture works… then why should we limit the sickening and disgusting practice to interrogating terrorist suspects? Why not torture all criminal suspects to find out what they know? Let’s say the cops arrest a suspected bank robber and they want to know the identity of his accomplices. Why not just torture the suspect – water board him perhaps – to coerce the information out of him? Why not simply whisk all criminal suspects off to Gitmo or some other “black site” prison where they can be tortured at leisure?

If torture works… and torture is legal… why not allow parents to employ enhanced interrogation techniques – torture – on their children in order to find out what mischief they’ve been up to? Suppose, for example, that a parent suspects her kid is doing illegal drugs. Why not let her water board the lad in order to get to the truth of the matter? Why not bring back the rack? After all, we have to fight fire with fire, right?

If torture works… where does it end? 

Our heavenly Department of Indoctrination

Lovers of liberty know that the entire American nationwide system of compulsory government education is unconstitutional. Forcing parents and their children to participate by law in a lengthy compulsory government indoctrination scheme violates at a minimum the First, Fifth, Tenth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. 

The United States Constitution does not provide our government with any authority to dictate to individuals in matters of education, just as it enjoys no authority to dictate to individuals in matters of religion, or politics, or any other aspect of our precious private personal individual liberty.

The federal Department of Education should therefore never have come into existence in the first place, but now that it has, it and the cabinet Secretary position that goes with it should be abolished forthwith from existence.

Of course, we all know that is not going to happen anytime soon; and just to make matters even worse, the new President of the United States has appointed a new Secretary of Education who will, if confirmed by the Senate, not only carry on the constitutional abomination of compulsory government education, but will attempt the make the matter of religion in public schools compulsory as well. The main problem with schools is their secularization, she maintains.

Betsy DeVos, the lady whom President Trump has chosen to lead the Department of Education, openly compares her work in education reform to a biblical battleground with the intent to “advance God’s Kingdom.”  "Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God's kingdom," she says. She wants Christian prayers back in the public schools, and intends to implement public taxpayer funding of private religious schools.

In short, Betsy DeVos will seek to employ our federal government to force Christians and non-Christians alike; believers and non-believers alike, to pay the tab for all American children to be indoctrinated with her Christian beliefs in both public and private schools; and the doctrine of separation between church and state enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution may be damned.

"We could run away and just go back up in the hills and live very safely and very comfortably — or are we going to exist in the Shephelah and try to impact the view of the community around us with the ideas we believe are more powerful ideas of a better way to live one’s life and a more meaningful and a more rewarding way to live one’s life as a Christian,” declared her billionaire husband, Dick DeVos. "Our job is to figure out in the contemporary context — how do we get the pig bones out of our culture?"

The DeVoses candidly admit that they adhere to the Calvinist perspective of Christianity. They view it as the work of Christians to influence culture. They dream of turning the United States into a Christian theocracy subject to “biblical laws.” .That’s why, when Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the nation, turned down President Trump’s offer that he be appointed Secretary of Education, Trump offered the post to Betsy DeVos.

Now, of course, Betsy DeVos enjoys a fundamental constitutional right to her religious beliefs. No one argues that point; least of all me.  But she certainly does not enjoy the right to impose those beliefs upon all Americans as Secretary of the Department of Education. If that is truly her intention, then she is not qualified for that job and should not be confirmed.

The last thing America needs is a religious fanatic boss of our heavenly Department of Indoctrination.

Abortion extortion

What would you think of a law that allowed new home buyers to sue the builder when they change their mind about the design long after the house is built? Do you think that home builders would be willing to build houses under such circumstances? 

Obviously, such a law would encourage buyers to extort product and service providers for money damages without cause for simply doing what they contracted to do. You would think that’s ridiculous. You would think that’s unconstitutional.

Tell that to the Iowa Republican parasite politicians who are considering a law that would allow a woman who gets a legal abortion to sue the doctor who performed it if she experiences emotional distress later. They’re Hell bent on extorting physicians into not performing abortions. What doctor would continue performing legal abortions if they knew that the patient could sue them later for merely doing what he or she contracted to do?

The law would permit a woman to file a lawsuit against the medical providers at any point in her life. So 20 or 30 years after the fact a woman who changes her mind and alleges emotional distress could sue her doctor for cash money.

"What we're asking for is that individuals, doctors and clinics that make money off of women by giving them abortions are simply held accountable," declared the GOP religious parasite who introduced the bill. . "That's all this does. It protects women from people who would normally be trying to sell them something in a time when they are under the most stress that is kind of imaginable."

Accountable for what? The woman is the one who made the decision which is allegedly causing her mental anguish – not the medical provider. Surely she should be the only defendant in such a lawsuit. She should be suing herself. This law doesn’t protect a woman from anything. It would simply extort medical providers out of the practice of providing legal abortions.

"The bill's intent is clear: To demonize abortion providers, set up an adversarial relationship between provider and patient, shame women and block access to reproductive health care," declared a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

That’s an understatement.

This is nothing less than abortion extortion. 

Climate tyrant morons

Did you know that there are lots of people on this planet who wouldn’t hesitate to punish you severely for the “crime” of not agreeing with their opinions? When they can’t win a debate with reason, logic and facts, they demand that you be thrown in jail. It just shows us how insecure they are about their opinions. 

Perhaps the most famous example of this cultural phenomenon is the persecution of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei during the early 17^th century for the heresy of’ accepting the Copernican concept of heliocentrism thereby putting into question the traditional geocentric orthodox biblical understanding that Earth was at the center of the universe and that the Sun and all the stars revolved around it.

Today, radical Islamists kill people, including lots of other Muslims, who refuse to believe the Islamic religion exactly the same as they believe it. You can get your head lopped off in many parts of the Middle East if you question whether Muhammad is God’s prophet.

And then there are the radical global warming alarmists like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who laments the fact that there are no laws (yet) on the books to punish global warming skeptics. “I wish there were a law you could punish them with,” he decries. “I think its treason. Do I think the Koch Brothers are treasonous?  Yes I do.” Do I think they should be in jail? I think they should be enjoying three hots and a cot at The Hague with all the other war criminals,”

Kennedy is known for wanting his political opponents jailed. Of global warming skeptics he declares: “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors” He calls coal companies “criminal enterprises.” Their CEO’s “should be in jail… for all of eternity.”

 “Arrest Climate-Change Deniers – ‘Those denialists should face jail – Criminally negligent – It’s time to punish the climate-change liars,” says the Gawker global warmist website. In 2009, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accused Congressmen who voted against the climate cap-and-trade bill of “treason against the planet.” He has said that deniers should be executed.

“At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers,” queried the website, Talking Points Memo. “So when the right wing fucktards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events – how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn’t we start punishing them now?”

Global warming alarmists like Al Gore have been spewing this garbage for decades now. Yet none of their dire predictions involving total destruction of planet Earth because of man caused climate change have come true. Temperatures are not rising. Sea levels are not rising. Deserts are not expanding. Sea ice is not disappearing. Polar bears are doing just fine.  

Now, Kennedy says:  “I support the First Amendment which makes room for any citizen to, even knowingly; spew far more vile lies without legal consequence. I do, however, believe that corporations which deliberately, purposefully, maliciously and systematically sponsor climate lies should be given the death penalty. This can be accomplished through an existing legal proceeding known as charter revocation. State Attorneys General can invoke this remedy whenever corporations put their profit-making before the public welfare."

No they can’t, Mr. Kennedy. Corporations have First Amendment rights too. And don’t forget that truth is a defense. You are just another climate tyrant moron, sir. 

Russian to judgment

This ongoing Russian/U.S. election hacking “scandal” is the biggest international political uproar over nothing I’ve ever seen. We’re supposed to be shocked – shocked – that the Russians might have been engaged in activities that the United States and every other nation in the history of the planet has been doing routinely for thousands of years

The hypocrisy with this amusing situation is palpable. After all, when it comes to spying, hacking and meddling in the affairs of other people and countries, surely the United States is second to none. No nation does it better than us. 

We invented computers. We invented the Internet. We have all of sixteen separate intelligence agencies – spy agencies -- here. Every one of them has been spying, hacking and meddling constantly at least since the end of WWII.

We don’t simply spy, hack and meddle in foreign affairs. We don’t just try to influence their elections. That’s child’s play for the United States of America. Yes. Our own government has graduated from mere child’s play long ago. We’re now in the nasty habit of completely toppling other governments whenever we feel like it, for the purpose of installing regime change to our liking. We are the masters of espionage and political destruction.

So for our government to cry foul so stridently demanding punishment and sanctions against Russia for hacking the DNC’s and John Podesta’s emails; for threating to start WWIII over such nonsense is ridiculous. And that is assuming – Russian to judgment if you will – that they are the “culprits” who leaked the information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of sabotaging Clinton’s campaign and thereby helping Trump win the election.

I, for one, don’t think the Russians did what they’re accused of doing, but even if they did all of what our sixteen intelligence agencies insist they did, it amounts to absolutely nothing. All of the hacked information gathered and leaked was 100% true. No one is disputing the veracity of it. The Democrats were up to no good and they got caught. That’s the long and the short of it. Maybe the Russians did us all a big favor.

Any computer savvy individual could have hacked that information without leaving a trace. That’s because the information wasn’t the least bit secure. The password to Podesta’s email account, for example, was “PASSWORD.” How much hacking do you think was required to get into his account?

We know for certain now, ever since the Edward Snowden revelations, that our own American intelligence community was in possession of all the same information from its inception. They have all of my emails. They have all of your emails. They have everyone’s emails.

There is nothing electronically that we can do which escapes the attention of our own spooks. So why didn’t our own spy’s do what they’re accusing the Russians of doing? They surely had the motive, the means and the opportunity. There are plenty of spooks in our own intelligence community who wanted Clinton sabotaged and Trump to win.

And Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, insists that the Russians were not the source. Who do you believe – a pack of professional liars from Clapper to Comey, or Julian Assange, a proven truth teller; and a man of integrity?

Finally, think about this: why would the Russians want Donald Trump as president over Hillary Clinton? I can’t think of a single logical reason. I can think of lots of good reasons why our own spooks would want Trump though. After all, Trump is tough, smart, and competent. Clinton is sick, weak, stupid, pliable and lazy. Clinton could easily be blackmailed and manipulated by Putin. Nobody manipulates Trump.

I think thoughtful Americans should think this all over very carefully and in the end refrain from Russian to judgment 

Having none of it

James A. Haught writes an excellent and compelling article chronicling “The Long, Slow Death of Religion” in America. The institution is already on death’s door in most of the West and today Christianity is fading fast in the U.S.A. I also observed this phenomenon more than four years ago in my blog post: “The Power of None.”  

It’s a fact. The “Nones” are coming, I said. They are growing in numbers. Their power is on the rise. They are poised now as a political force to be reckoned with -- people with no religion at all -- the fastest growing philosophically oriented group in America. According to a Pew survey one in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion. They ignore faith.

In 1990 the number was just 10%. Four years ago that number had doubled to 20% of the entire American population and, as I observed then, that percentage was growing by leaps and bounds. Now Mr. Haught explains that the number has ballooned to 25%. Yes, now the nation’s largest faith category is no faith at all. Dozens of surveys find identical evidence: Fewer American adults, especially those under 30, attend church — or even belong to a church. 

Why?

The Internet has surely taken its heavy toll. More people today are exposed to a much wider array of rational cultural ideas and practices that undermine old-time beliefs. People are far more cynical today about traditional forms of authority. Young people simply no longer tolerate irrational hostility toward gays, transsexuals and women seeking abortions. The clergy child molestation scandals have shattered religion’s claims to moral superiority. Radical Islamic terrorism in all its irrational forms horrifies normal folks.

Haught brings up an even simpler explanation: In the world of today it is far less plausible to believe in invisible gods, devils, heavens, hells, angels, demons, virgin births, resurrections, miracles, messiahs, prophecies, faith-healings, visions, incarnations, divine visitations and other supernatural claims.  Magical thinking is suspect, ludicrous.  It’s not for intelligent, educated people. People have stopped believing miraculous church dogmas. It’s dishonest.

I remember well the power of religious based laws while growing up in 1950’s America. Few if any businesses were open on Sundays. Prayer was mandated in the public schools. Liquor could not be purchased on the Sabbath. Looking at nude pictures of girls in magazines or writing about sex was against the law. Being gay was a serious crime. Sharing a hotel room with your girlfriend was a crime. Birth control was a crime. Teenaged girls who got knocked up were disgraced along with their entire families. Evolution was not taught in public school.

Think of it. That’s all gone now.

We’re having none of it.