Satan, Thy Name is Antonin

Antonin Scalia, the ideological leader of the Conservatives on the Supreme Court, weighs in with his opinion on torture:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is joining the debate over the Senate's torture report by saying it's hard to rule out the use of extreme measures to extract information...Scalia told a Swiss broadcast network that American and European liberals who say such tactics may never be used are being self-righteous."

Justice Scalia, just what is it about the phrase "cruel and unusual punishment" don't you understand?  Did your fine Constitutional education stop with the second amendment?  Or maybe you are reasoning that if we torture lots of prisoners, it won't be "unusual" any more, and so then it will be just fine if it's cruel.

Of course, there are some Conservatives who argue that what we do to people who haven't been charged with a crime is not "punishment," and therefore anything goes.  After all, the Constitution doesn't say a word about cruel and unusual interrogation- that's okay as long as we don't know if they are guilty or not. 

 This could apply to any of us, naturally, but who cares as long as, so far, it's only foreign Muslims that have been the victims, right?  Guys like the great Justice Antonin Scalia would never stand still if, just to pick a far-fetched example, American police started gunning down random people in the street without a concern that they would be expected to justify their actions.

Well, this is how a country becomes an abomination to the world.  And no "responsible" person will state the obvious: a nation which allows a person like this to make its laws is lost.