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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: jimmy olsen on November 23, 2011, 06:48:09 PM

Title: Accountability For Torture
Post by: jimmy olsen on November 23, 2011, 06:48:09 PM
USA baby!  :homestar:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/11/accountability-for-torture.html
QuoteAccountability For Torture

by Andrew Sullivan
23 Nov 2011 12:27 PM

A strikingly honest report (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/22/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Bahrain.html?_r=1&hp) on Bahrain's suppression of democracy is met with this response by the Bahrainian autocrats:

    Bahrain's Sunni government promised "no immunity" for anyone suspected of abuses and said it would propose creating a permanent human rights watchdog commission. "All those who have broken the law or ignored lawful orders and instructions will be held accountable," said a government statement, which says the report acknowledges that the "systematic practice of mistreatment" ended shortly after martial law was repealed on June 1.

So a Middle East dictatorship has more democratic accountability for abuse of power, including torture, than the US under Obama. Indeed, war criminals were accorded star turns in the latest GOP presidential debate. This is the essence of a certain variety of American exceptionalism: because America is so inherently exceptional, it doesn't have to abide by the same rules as everyone else.
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: Siege on November 25, 2011, 11:59:05 AM
I want to torture you.

Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: Ideologue on November 25, 2011, 12:01:13 PM
QuoteThis is the essence of a certain variety of American exceptionalism: because America is so inherently exceptional, it doesn't have to abide by the same rules as everyone else.

Torture is still bad, but this is basically correct.
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: Razgovory on November 25, 2011, 02:28:12 PM
Quote from: Siege on November 25, 2011, 11:59:05 AM
I want to torture you.

I didn't know you were in S&M.  Or Tim for that matter.
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: HVC on November 25, 2011, 02:42:41 PM
how does one even go about depreciating torture :unsure:
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: Razgovory on November 25, 2011, 02:59:04 PM
Quote from: HVC on November 25, 2011, 02:42:41 PM
how does one even go about depreciating torture :unsure:

Write it off as a business expense maybe?
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: Eddie Teach on November 25, 2011, 03:12:14 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on November 25, 2011, 02:28:12 PM
Quote from: Siege on November 25, 2011, 11:59:05 AM
I want to torture you.

I didn't know you were in S&M.  Or Tim for that matter.

Well if you think about it, Tim does kind of look like a 12 year old Palestinian boy.  :hmm:
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: HVC on November 25, 2011, 03:19:28 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on November 25, 2011, 02:59:04 PM
Quote from: HVC on November 25, 2011, 02:42:41 PM
how does one even go about depreciating torture :unsure:

Write it off as a business expense maybe?
you'd have to capitalize the implements of torture. Don't want the IRS coming after your ass. As mobsters learned, you can do what you want, just don't piss off the tax man.
Title: Re: Accountability For Torture
Post by: dps on November 25, 2011, 04:09:09 PM
Quote from: HVC on November 25, 2011, 03:19:28 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on November 25, 2011, 02:59:04 PM
Quote from: HVC on November 25, 2011, 02:42:41 PM
how does one even go about depreciating torture :unsure:

Write it off as a business expense maybe?
you'd have to capitalize the implements of torture. Don't want the IRS coming after your ass. As mobsters learned, you can do what you want, just don't piss off the tax man.

Torture implements would have to be depreciated, but the salaries/wages of the torturers could be taken as expense, just like other labor costs.