On Terror-steria
mass hysteria
n. A socially contagious frenzy of irrational behavior in a group of people as a reaction to an event.

The Suntan Menace — The Cunning Realist writes about another incident in our friendly skies where an innocent m…

He expects all other countries to abide by not only ratified treaties, but also whatever he tells them he thinks they should do. On the flip side, he writes nearly a thousand “signing statements” reinterpreting or bypassing the will of the Congress, and ignores whichever treaties or international laws he feels are in his way.

Removing Bush/Cheney from office will go a long way towards returning America to the democracy it once was under Clinton. The incalculable damage he is directly responsible for at home and abroad will take decades to even mitigate, much less fix.

Who remembers the ICC – the International Criminal Court – these days? Who remembers the history of the US’s involvement in the formation and participation in the Court?

But while the “rogue state” question might be over the top, it still raises the interesting point of “what separates us from those states we have condemned in the past?” And also asks the related question, “what kind of country does this make us?”

Worth thinking about, anyway.

This article is not much different. I’m a huge opponent of torture but find this kind of argument to be much more harmful than helpful. The U.S. a rogue state? Please. That kind of talk just confuses the reality and makes it easier for the pro-torture knuckleheads to paint all torture opponents as American-bashing moonbats.

Torture is a serious, serious issue and it’s disgusting that this administration would even try to defend its use … BUT we can make that point without resorting to intelectually dishonest debates about whether we are or are not a rogue state.