There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain…

…under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.

Continuing the outrage on the ‘Torture with Impunity’ Bill. I wish I had more Australian outrage to post, hopefully I will in coming days.

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

Blogposts:

We are now officially living in a dictatorship

The time for complacency is over

Balkinization 1 and Balkinization 2

How The Abu Ghraib Photos Made Torture OK

An Obituary for America

Thunder on the Mountain: The Murderers of Democracy

On Moral Cowardice

A sampling of foreign newspapers:

Helsingin Sanomat – International Edition – Foreign

Watching America1 and Watching America2