I just had a random thought.

Police officers all have to be tased before they are issued a taser gun, right? (Proof HERE and HERE and HERE)

This serves quote a few purposes. First, it shows the police officers how a taser can take the wind right out of your sails (IE: how much it friggin’ hurts!) and it also shows them how a taser affects a human body.

Is being tased survivable? Oh yes. As a matter of fact, you get back to “normal” very rapidly as soon as the current stops.

Is it justified to get tased for prolonged periods? Day and night? Ask someone who has been tased that question. My money is on “hell no”.

Can a taser kill you? Yes. It definitely can. (HERE and HERE and HERE)

So why not waterboard every “interrogator” that’s still over at the “still-not-closed-for-two-years” Guantánamo Bay so they can see how waterboarding affects a human body and if it’s justifiable to waterboard someone for prolonged periods? It works for tasers. Why not for waterboarding?

I bet if every politician who still approves waterboarding got just a 30 second dip, they would very quickly get on their high horse and make it a point to outlaw this form of torture. I bet if everyone who says waterboarding is OK actually got waterboarded themselves, the talk show/blog brigade would be focusing on nothing but outlawing this form of torture.

So how do you get waterboarding back into the spotlight? Maybe I should set up a “traveling waterboard” show and offer $1,000 for every five seconds on the board to anyone’s favorite charity if they take the dip? Show up with the show at carnivals, malls, WalMarts and Sunday-morning church parking lots for starters!

Ah, but wait… if an individual waterboards someone, they will be prosecuted for “domestic assault, false imprisonment, and making terrorist threats” (HERE and HERE).

A letter from Damon Swank from Torrance, Calif in the 11/23 edition of the Wall Street Journal makes a perfect closing point…

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Is America Becoming Ruthless, Imperial?

“The Verdict on Holder” (Review & Outlook, Nov. 19) illustrates the decay of American principles of freedom and justice.

In better times, our nation comforted itself with the warm blanket of moral superiority. We disparaged whose nations conducting “show trials” and “kangaroo courts” which incarcerated prisoners without charges, trials and verdicts. In our view, such nations were morally and ethically primitive beasts.

How the tide has changed. It now suits American convenience to confine prisoners indefinitely without charges. We now seek that forum and those rules of evidence that will maximize the likelihood that defendants will be found guilty of all charges and will receive the punishment the government seeks. In the unlikely event of an acquittal, nothing will change. The condemned will remain imprisoned.

We have forfeited the moral high ground. Many nations now consider America to embody the ruthless, amoral traditions of torture and imperial conduct we formerly deplored. Ethically adrift, seeking results without regard to methods, we are morphing ourselves into pariahs.”