Kevin Drum
(source)
OK, here’s my view on ticking time bombs. It’s not original: Torture should always be illegal. But if you’re really, truly convinced that a nuke is about to go off in downtown Atlanta and the human filth in your possession can tell you where it is, then do your worst. I’ll cheer you on, the president will pardon you, and the nation will be grateful. OK? I wish everyone could just agree on this. It’s not as if it’s ever going to happen, after all, and if it does, well, the guy who saved Atlanta really would get a presidential pardon, wouldn’t he?
In the meantime, it would allow Charles Krauthammer to apply his allegedly vast IQ to less barbaric sophistries. And the rest of the pro-torture crowd would have to think up some real reasons for supporting the Spanish Inquisition. (My emphasis)
Or this one:
Jesse Ventura
(source)
You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders. Jesse Ventura, Minnesota governor.
A more rigorous but less amusing refutation of the “ticking bomb argument” is here.
It’s sad to see my former governor become a sort of crusader against the Bush administration’s use of torture, but openly admit he is willing to torture another human being.
well, that’s hyperbole I guess
I’m sure he would.
the point of posting that quote was to highlight the futility of torture (it can make people say anything), like the point of the first quote was to highlight the irrelevance of the ticking bomb situation
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