Elephants in Porcelain Shops

I'm breathless. The Republican primary debates in the US really makes our local right wing parties seem wonderful. They are coherent, realistic and humane. The most interesting thing in these videos is almost seeing the crowd that the candidates have to pander to. Check out the question marked "Do you believe every word in the Holy Bible?" Or the guy who asks the candidates what kind of guns they have. (McCain, knowing he has to answer, and probably hating every second of pandering to people like this sucks it up and says "I've used guns in Vietnam. I know how to use a gun. I don't currently own a gun." Poor guy.) It's like watching a horror movie, only real. When they say that the Christian fundamentalists have gotten control of the GOP, they weren't kidding. Also note what makes the crowd applaud.

And then, check out question 8. "What three federal programs would you cut?" Watch, as with one fell stroke, they cut away the dept. of Education, the Dept. of Energy and then go all one-upmanship on each other: "I'm gonna cut the Dept. of Education!" "Yeah, well I'm going to cut even MORE departments!" "Yeah, well, I'M GOING TO CUT THE IRS!" "WELL I'M GOING TO CUT EVERYTHING, EVEN MYSELF. LOOK, I'M SLASHING MY ARMS WITH A KNIFE. THE BLOOD! THE BLOOD! THE DARKNESS COMETH! COME, DARK ONE!" Or anyway, that's what it sounded like to me. These people are politically crazy. Cut the department of education, social security and the IRS? Seriously? You can say that at the top level of American politics and not get laughed out of office?

"so in other words, do we torture them, or just subject them to excruciatingly painful physical interrogation stress techniques?"

This is the funniest take I've seen on torture hypotheticals. Torture hypotheticals are crazy, unrealistic hypothetical scenarios meant to justify torture in "just these extreme cases". They usually go something like "we know that an atomic bomb is somewhere in New York City and for some odd reason, we can't scan for radiation, and we happen to know for sure that this one guy (named Mohammed) knows -for sure- where that bomb is, and how to disarm it, and we know that he'll only say it under torture, and besides we don't have time for anything else, because we know for sure that it will go off within the hour, and anyway..."

These things seem to be everywhere in American politics these days, so I wasn't really surprised when I saw bloggers quoting the following scenario from a question in the last presidential debate:

Here is the premise: Three shopping centers near major U.S. cities have been hit by suicide bombers. Hundreds are dead, thousands injured. A fourth attack has been averted when the attackers were captured off the Florida coast and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they are being questioned. U.S. intelligence believes that another larger attack is planned and could come at any time. First question to you, Senator McCain. How aggressively would you interrogate those being held at Guantanamo Bay for information about where the next attack might be?

The Slate piece I linked to above responds with some hypothetical scenarios they should use at the next debate:

Gentlemen, here's the scenario: As you are flying home from Moscow—having told the world you will never deal with terrorists—hijackers, posing as reporters, seize Air Force One. They vow to kill a hostage every half-hour, including your wife and daughter, until you release a murderous Russian general. I'll start with Senator Obama. Do you negotiate with the hijackers in the hope of saving lives, or do you flee into the bowels of the craft, then pick them off, one by one, with makeshift shanks and your bare hands?