Andrew Sullivan pycho-analyses Liz Cheney’s approval of torture

Andrew Sullivan has taken some time to consider why Liz Cheney would approve of the use of torture. For one thing, torture is (amazingly) not shameful to the far right; rather, it's red meat to them. Sullivan quotes Adam Serwer on this point:

For the GOP, torture is no longer a "necessary evil." It is a rally cry, a "values" issue like same-sex marriage or abortion. They don't "grudgingly" support torture, they applaud it. They celebrate it. Liz Cheney's unequivocal support for torture methods gleaned from communist China has people begging her to run for office.
And thus, Liz, is given a second reason to defend her father, who should be treated as the war criminal he is. Her first reason, of course, is family loyalty:
Family members are always, and understandably, the last defenders of the criminal. The Cheneys' natural inability to see Cheney in any reality-based perspective renders them psychologically able, even eager, to defend evil as a force for good in ways more forthright than others. Why this should be a plus for Cheney among the GOP rather than an obvious conflict of interest is part of the right's current derangement. They too cannot hold the concept of their own moral fallibility in their fearful, clenched minds.
Sullivan's entire post is well worth a read.

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Too Many Rooms, Too Few Doors

That poor guy who got tied to a tree in Kentucky was on my mind last week. Census takers have, in certain parts of the country, been lumped in with so-called "revenooers" (to use Snuffy Smith jargon) and generally threatened, shot at, occasionally killed by folks exercising their right to be separate. So they assume. Appalachia, the Ozarks, parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, Texas...a lot of pockets, populated by people who have, for many reasons, acquired a sense of identity apart from the mainstream, and who feel imposed upon if the gov'ment so much as notices their existence. They'd have a point if they truly did maintain a separate existence, but they don't, and hypocrisy is the least amendable vice to reason. At one time it was bootlegging, today it's drugs, either marijuana or meth. They don't seem to get it that if they contribute to the erosion of the public weal then they forfeit the "right" to be left alone. I really believe they don't understand this simple equation. Nor, in fact, do they care. But do I believe that poor man was killed over some disagreement over political hegemony? No. He knocked on the wrong door at the wrong time and asked the wrong question and some good ol' boys killed him. Scrawling "Fed" on his chest was probably an afterthought, and means about as much as had they written "Cop" or "Fag" or "Stranger." Whoever did it probably thought he was being cute. [more . . .]

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Excuse me . . . my mortality is showing: meditations on life and death

Have you ever wondered why so many Americans wear clothing when it's warm outside? Are they really covering up for sexual propriety—because of shame? Or could it be that they are wearing clothes to cover up their animal-ness-- their mortality? I'm intrigued by this issue, as you can tell from my previous writings, including my posts about "terror management theory," and nipples. This issue came to mind again recently when I found a website that allows you to completely undress people. The site has nothing to do with sex, I can assure you, but it has a powerful set of images that raise interesting questions about human nakedness. To get the full experience, go to the website and select an image of a fully clothed person. These are absolutely ordinary looking people, as you will see. Then click on the images of any of these men or women and watch their clothes disappear. If you are like me, when their clothing disappears, this will not cause you to any think sexual thoughts. If you are like me, you will find yourself thinking that these people looked more "attractive" with their clothes on. For me, the effect is dramatic and immediate, and it reminded me of a comment by Sigmund Freud (I wasn't able to dig out the quote), something to the effect that we are constantly and intensely attracted to the idea of sex (duh!), but that sex organs themselves often look rather strange to our eyes--sex organs are not necessarily sexy. I think the same thing can be said for our entire bodies. Nakedness isn’t the same thing as sexuality or else nudist colonies would tend to be orgies (which, from what I’ve read, they are not). Rather, sexual feelings are triggered by the way we use our bodies. We do many things that are sexual, and most of these things take some effort. Simply being naked is not an effective way to be sexy. In America, people constantly confound nudity with sexuality. I admit that the media presents us with many ravishing image of sexy naked people, but the sexiness of such images is not due to the mere nakedness. There’s always a lot more going on than mere nakedness. Consider also, that when people actually mate, they often bring the lights down low, further hiding their bodies. Then why do Westerners cover up with clothing to be "proper"? I suspect that anxiety about death (not so much anxiety about sex) contributes to our widespread practice of hiding those naturally furry parts of our bodies—those parts associated with critically "animal" functions relating to reproduction and excretion of body wastes. [More . . .]

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More Quotes

I periodically post my most recently collected quotes (over the past 3 months). I just love collecting quotes, because there's a novel in every sentence--it's high-impact reading. I collect these from many sources, though more than a few of the following were presented to me by The Quotations Page, which I use as my homepage. Enjoy! "I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." Booker T. Washington "If you cut yourself in half and both sides lived, which side would be you?" Anonymous on Reddit.com “Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that” George Carlin "If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it. " Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799) "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster, "To the Vanishing Point" "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." George Orwell “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison, on asked how it felt to fail 10,000 times before he figured out the light bulb. "It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste." Evelyn Waugh (1903 - 1966)

Complexity is the problem. Moving it from hardware to software, or vice versa, doesn’t help. Simplicity is the only answer. There was a product many years ago called the Canon Cat. It was a simple, dedicated word processor; done very nicely in Forth. Didn’t succeed commercially. But then, most products don’t. I despair. Technology, and our very civilization, will get more and more complex until it collapses. There is no opposing pressure to limit this growth. No environmental group saying: Count the parts in a hybrid car to judge its efficiency or reliability or maintainability.
-Charles Moore, who is a pioneer software developer. The 'Forth' language he invented is still in use today, particularly by NASA "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair "We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth." Thomas Friedman "Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him." Paul Eldridge

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