A torturous situation

Sit Ubu sit... good dog! WOOF!

Abu Grabe, Nam, Laos, KGB, CIA, Air America...

What do all these things have in common? They're all "torturous" in nature - and have some connection to torture. (Yes a cheap show to Air America... but I couldn't resist - sue me.) The big debate and polls show that torture is not the American way. In fact, the segment of women polled showed a 74% against torturing insurgents or terrorists, even if it could lead to information about a pending terrorist attack. Obviously these polled people haven't been personnaly affected by terrorism.

Let's get something straight before we start discussing torture. Torture can be described as listening to your boss ramble on about TPS reports or torture can ibe described as electrodes hooked to the testical and tooth fillings while 2,000 volts are issued. While I've never been tortured, I can see where pain could be so great, that the person being tortured would say anything to make it stop (a la McCain's arguement). However, I also believe there's a point where a good torture could reveal important information, and the lies and truth need to be sifted by good questioning and investigation.

What is torture - bamboo up the fingernails, painful foreign objects being applied to the body, starvation maybe to a point... but that's it. Stripping a prisioner naked for embarassment isn't torture, covering them in sheets isn't torture. Making them stand for long periods or kneel for long period to make them uncomfortable isn't torture. Yelling, threats, sounds, sights etc... are not torture. However, listeneing to a million different peoples position on what is and is not torture IS torture. Defining torture is like defining pornography. Other than a general statement - pornography definitation are left up to authorities of each community. Defining torture is probably the same - everyone has their own thoughts and it cannot be completely agreed upon. What can be agreed upon is if it (whatever IT is) should/would be applied under certain circumstances.

It seems like we Americans just haven't yet learned our lesson. Sept. 11th just wasn't enough - we'll need to get hit at least 5 or 10 more times with possibly hundreds of thousands of dead, injured or permenantly wounded for us to really get the message. For some reason we have such high tolerance, slow wit and short memories regarding people who want to kill us. Unless our mother, father, child, or spouse is killed by these terrorists, we really are ready to forgive - even if we have an opportunity to save someone elses mother, father, child, or spouse from getting killed.

Oh well... right? We're so numb that we just shrug it off... say something like... "Oh, wasn't that horrible, I feel sorry for them...... Hey anyone want a beer? Let's shoot some hoops!" and we go on our merry way, barely thinking of the horror, loss and implications these acts really have on us. Maybe Michael Moore is right - we really are the most stupid idiots alive! Cattle more like it. It took a strike in Peal Harbor to rally the U.S. to get involved in the biggest World War known to man and it took the greatest generation of Americans to save the world. Everyone's freedom today from the pigmies in Borneo to the pompous French artist to the fat-mouth Chavez in South America owes the U.S. an unimaginable debt that can never be repayed - their continued freedom. What will it take this generation? Ten Peal Harbors? A hundred? A thousand? How many deaths then... 10K? 50K? Maybe it'll take a million innocent people to be horribly purged from this life prematurely to get our ire up and take control.

Until then, we'll get to armchair debate on every 24 hour news channel, how low or high the presidents approval level is and poll people on issues like - "Would you support torture if the information taken would avoid another terrorist attack?"

What killed me is the women's view... 74% said no torture even if it did lead to averting another attack. Well then, I hope that some of that 74% of women have their family affected by the next one which inevitably will occur. Horrible huh? Insensitive prick! This jerk who blogs hopes that some of this 74% who were polled have their family killed! My GOD how un-Christian! How un-American! FOUL! FOUL!

Hey - sometimes you have to hit people over the head to get it - literally. Once their affected personally they may change their minds. Then again, they may not - which is sad. I'm afraid that before we as a nation finally understand what we're up against, and realized what it will take to control it - it'll be too late. We may be dragged into further wars, further separation before we get it. In the mean time - we'll continue to poll segments of the population. Referee the news magazine programs. Discuss it around the water cooler. Too bad. That's the way I feel about it - and I hope you idiots (yea them's fightin' words) one day get it - but until then here's how I really feel about that 74%.... gimme a beer would you?

Complication Overload

I just bought a new car recently, and it dawned on me that there are so many complications with the new technology. So I thought back to when I was a kid and asked myself - how many passwords did I have? My technology was the little football game that ran on 4 AA batteries - you know the one with the little dots? Otherwise I was outside playing.

So now I look at kids and they are totally dependent upon all technology. How many passwords do they need to keep straight? I myself have at least 12 separate passwords - don't forget the keywords, number combinations, addresses, etc.

So this new car has sattelite everything, wireless everything, enhanced everything. When is it that things were so complicated? We have to literally be technologists about everything - network engineers, electronic engineers, software engineers... then there so much more information on these little gadgets - we can get Al Jazeera and the BBC on sattelite TV, listen to Mongolian fire dancers on Sattelite radio, find out how to get to the friggin store by sattelite GPS. We've got the latest formulated and over-produced songs downloaded from the internet, every fart and whistle of all the Presidents men, overanalyzed and arm-chair quarterbacked by every 24 hour cable station, every minute of every day. American's on average are over-medicated (on average, each American takes 2 perscription drugs on a regular basis - we'll leave the illegal drugs out of the conversation for another time), we eat genetically engineered vegetables from genetically engineered seeds, hormone injected chickens and cows produce super-eggs and super-steaks and super-milk. We walk around like robots with iPods stuck in our ears and it seems we'll now be able to watch our favorite Tivo'd television program on our cell phones. How much more crap do we need for crying out loud?

So I hear myself say - well dude, what do you expect? You can't stop progress! I'm sure our parents of the 40's and 50's thought the same thing.



What I'm starting to gravitate to, however, are the simpler things and the simpler times. I think I'd like an iPod, but I'll probably forget it in a shirt pocket and put it through the washer (kinda like I did with my bluetooth headset that now turns on, but won't work with my phone any longer!) If I DID get an iPod, I'd probably only put my Old Time Radio programs on it. You know... Gracie & Allen, The Jack Benny Show, The Shadow... I'm yearning for the simpler times, the simpler life. I work too much and too long, have too much stuff, get too much information and I'm tired of it. I want LESS work, LESS information and I want to stop getting THINGS. I recently spent lots of money to have an 80 year old radio, I've started to listen to those golden era shows from the 1940's and have admittedly, been listening to some... Frank Sinatra from time to time. That DOESN'T mean that I'm not listening to good pop, heavy junk... I am, but it's just too much.

I've also been getting too much analysis, too much information, too much - I don't want to know some of the things on the news. I'm better off NOT knowing the inner workings of the White House, Capital Hill, my local Mayor or the inner workings of the Military. I guess I'm just ready to simplify and not looking forward to the next best and greatest gadget that needs yet another password and if stolen, could put me in the poor house.

I guess I'm just ready to switch off once in a whi..............