From Our Ever-Bulging "Give Me an Effin' Break!" File

The totalitarian/Maoist Khmer Rouge once widely, and abusively, used a method of waterboarding on political dissidents in Cambodia. Vice President Cheney apparently has no problem with using waterboarding on captured terrorists for the purpose of extracting information about terrorist plots. Therefore, in Mark Shea's "I don't have to define the meaning of torture; I know it when I see it!" world, Cheney and the Khmer Rouge are basically indistinguishable insofar as sanctioning evil is concerned.

Now, in order for the above syllogism to have any sort of merit, one has to accept that waterboarding is torture, and that torture is intrinsically immoral. The former proposition is a close call, but I am inclined to believe that, by itself, waterboarding is not torture. This article in FrontPageMagazine.com makes a strong case for my belief.

With respect to whether torture is intrinsically immoral, at least as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the answer is that it is not, and no amount of documented misleading rants and false proclamations by people like Mark Shea changes this fact.

In light of all this, one is left to conclude that Mark Shea thinks Cheney=Khmer Rouge because both involve human beings who breathe air. Preposterous to anyone not suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Update (10/27/06): VP Cheney denies he expressed support for waterboarding by agreeing with a radio interviewer that it was a "no brainer" to allow captured terrorists to be dunked in water for purposes of extracting information. I believe Cheney, and here's why: First, waterboarding doesn't involve dunking anyone, so it's entirely possible Cheney thought the radio interviewer was talking about something else. Second, and more significantly, Cheney isn't stupid, and given the high level of controversy over waterboarding, I can't imagine Cheney would throw fuel on the fire by coming out in a radio interview this close to Election Day and saying he supports the practice. Thus, unless there is hard proof that he is lying about not supporting waterboarding (BDS induced cynicism falls well short of this) Cheney should be given the benefit of the doubt.