Comments on: Christopher Hitchens gets waterboarded

By: force10

force10 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:58:37 +0000

if you think this is bad, you should check out http://www.current.com/kajwaterboarded. Hitchens only lasted 2 minutes but this guy lasted 24!

By: Cloned Poster

Cloned Poster — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:06:09 +0000

snark alert/ what if he was gin-boarded/close snark

His VF article and actions deserves merit. But he’s obviously in a cul-de-sac regarding left (definitely)/right (now) views now, I wonder what moves (has he power?) he makes now.

By: mike power

mike power — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:45:21 +0000

Not sure what opinions you expected him to change after a bit of waterboarding but I suspect, as a polemicist, he was more interested in changing the opinions of others on the subject of torture, which he may well do and for which I for one am prepared to give him credit.

By: a very public sociologist

a very public sociologist — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:30:14 +0000

Hmmm, I doubt it will have changed his opinions any. Shame. He used to be such an asset.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:29:03 +0000

By which I don’t mean that I think Hitchins is being a wuss, lest I be misunderstood – I mean that waterboarding, which I already think is torture, mut be much worse than I thought.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:14:45 +0000

Bloody hell, I’m fully of the opinion that waterboarding is torture, and I asn’t expecting him to cave quite that quickly. In fact, I thought they were just warming up and hadn’t started yet properly.

By: RickB

RickB — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:46:20 +0000

A far better account without the ego- Waterboarding is Torture… Period RickB's latest blog post... Heinz, You Gutless Wankers

By: Dunc

Dunc — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:34:51 +0000

Anybody remember the Mythbusters episode where they tested Chinese Water Torture? They figured, “hey, it’s only dripping water and you can get out at any time, how bad can it be?” Turns out the answer is “pretty fucking bad, actually.”

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:18:01 +0000

I agree with John. This helps nail the myth that waterboarding is something, somehow, less than torture. And, if nothing else, it means we can strike the ’simulated’ part of the ’simulated drowning’ euphemism.

By: john b

john b — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:12:19 +0000

No - doing it consensually establishes a minimum threshold of nastiness. If Hitch had said "yeah, that was fine" then it'd mean nothing; the fact that even consensual partial drowning is unspeakably horrible means that doing it forcibly must be at least as bad... john b's latest blog post... Police officers only cause the same number of accidents and fires as everyday people