Torture and Humanity

Never mind the stupid comparisons of Gitmo to Saddam Hussein or worse yet to the Nazis or Stalin - the comparison I've had stuck in my head for a few days now is between the US and the French.

One of the things people have complained about regarding our treatment of prisoners at Gitmo is that on occasion we had turned up the air conditioning too high on some of the prisoners. Yup - that's torture in some people's eyes.

I can't help but recall that in August of 2003 - close to 15,000 people died in France during a heat wave. Many of the people who died were the elderly who were left to fend for themselves in the cities while their adult children went on holiday. At the time I mentioned that the temperatures that caused so much devastation in France would be considered just "average" summertime temperatures in much of Texas (George Bush's Texas if you will) and yet only the occasional death is recorded from heat in Texas (not thousands upon thousands).

In general then, I think we can say that we treat the prisoners at Gitmo better then the French treat their elderly parents. Yet it is the US that is failing some sort of "global test"? Please.

I think Congressmen and Senators who argue against school vouchers should be forced by law to send their children to public schools. Likewise, I would like to see prisoners from Gitmo be placed under house arrest in the homes of people like Senator Dick Durbin. Let's see how that dose of reality would work for his rhetoric.

Some people think our treatment of the prisoners at Gitmo is some sort of crime. I think the crime is that it is now almost 4 years since 9/11 and pilots still don't have the right to carry guns in the cockpit. You won't see any stories about that on CNN though.