I am in utter awe of the brilliant reframing of 'waterboarding' by the Kenosha Kid:
Waterboarding = Partial Drowning Interrogation
Fucking brilliant.
More like this
Waterboarding. This is the topic for debate in our modern world. We go on and on about progress in civilization, yet we're talking about torture. Here are three recent views on the subject: This Modern World, The Onion, and Doonesbury. It's the torture satire trifecta.
Someone was willing to try waterboarding on himself — he was in complete control, but he still found it a terrifying experience.
What's the big deal about putting a few bad guys into "stressful" positions (assuming you know for sure they really are bad guys)? You call that torture?
Apparently the Bush Administration's survey of the legal literature of torture missed something.
From Antemedius:
Now, this is the sort of re-framing I can get behind and I am not referring to the lead photo. One commenter comes up with a great term: "Freedom Dunking."
Actually, "water torture" is the accepted, non-euphemistic term for this technique.
During the Spanish Inquisition and the Witch Hunts in northern Europe, it was known euphemisticallly as "the water cure." Later, the French ecclesiastical courts of the 17th c. called it "the extraordinary question." I've no idea how Pol Pot referred to it, but I've no doubt it sounded innocuous enough.
"Waterboarding," whatever you call it, has a history as old and horrific as the rack, the iron maiden, and the Catherine wheel. A truly effective frame would place it securely in the world of medieval horrors where it belongs.
I would have expected -- Democratic Baptism.