Comments on: Times Torture

By: c7f54cf5045d

c7f54cf5045d — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:09:17 +0000

c7f54cf5045d…

c7f54cf5045def5cee25…

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:15:28 +0000

In an interview, Kiriakou said he did not witness Abu Zubaida’s waterboarding but was part of the interrogation team that questioned him in a hospital in Pakistan for weeks after his capture in that country in the spring of 2002.

Sorry, but “evidence” obtained through hearsay, like “evidence” obtained through torture is inherently not credible.

I’ll put more faith in the FBI.

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:03:31 +0000

Note, as I said, that he was ex-CIA and regretted the wateboarding, even though it was effective. It seems that he has no ax to grind in his statement about the results.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:35:56 +0000

Ahh yes the CIA always tells the truth. /snark>

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:18:29 +0000

Zero proof? Not from what I heard, but we don’t have top security clearance, do we? Maybe we could accept the word of a ex-CIA officer who used waterboarding and later regretted it.
Waterboarding Recounted
Ex-CIA Officer Says It ‘Probably Saved Lives’ but Is Torture

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:30:15 +0000

There’s the rub. There’s zero proof that being waterboarded has saved one American life. If you’re being waterboarded you’ll say anything to get it to stop.

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:06:27 +0000

I’m willing if waterboarding me is going to save thousands of American lives. I’m telling the truth.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:28:06 +0000

I promise that I wasnâ€™t.

Willing to get waterboarded to prove that?

By: Woody

Woody — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:26:42 +0000

I’m partial to Leon Redbone.

By: Rob Grocholski

Rob Grocholski — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:12:07 +0000

I think I screwed that up, should be “… compared to the act of singing “

By: Rob Grocholski

Rob Grocholski — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:04:43 +0000

Alright jc, I just wanted to be sure that you weren’t suggesting that Bragg’s recorded rendition (a representation) wasn’t being compared to the song — wouldn’t that be to reify the material product over the act of singing it? My humble little thought regarding the Internationale is that what made that song so special is when it was actually sung by anyone. Didn’t some critic of socialism once remark that when the proletariat sung this song that — regardless of key or tone — there was some higher quality achieved by those singing (…their heads and hearts beat with ’solidarity’ …forgive me, I tried to find the actual quote, no luck..) Point being: it’s the praxis, more than the song itself.

By: bunkerbuster

bunkerbuster — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:01:13 +0000

Jim R writes: “Bunker, You and Costelloâ€™s lyrics are showing your age. Still fighting the man. Sinatraâ€™s show his age too. He was the man. ”

Thanks Jim R. for demonstrating my original point: for wingnuts politics isn’t about principle. It’s about position and no different from the decision to root for this or that football team or listen to this or that music.

Again, anyone who doesn’t love Elvis Costello’s every word is obviously a callow Islamolibtardcommiefreak who hates his mother and will sell out his country for a song…

By: jcummings

jcummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:21:59 +0000

No. I’m talking about how some songs can be improved (I referred also to the Troggs) and some can’t. In the case of hte Internationale, Bragg rewrote the lyrics (but kept the song itself) to fit with more current times.

By: Rob Grocholski

Rob Grocholski — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:08:09 +0000

“Braggâ€™s Internationale improves on the original”

So, doesn’t asserting Bragg improved on the original Internationale lead to aesthetic blasphemy? Or is this somehow not a statement of personal preference?

By: jcummings

jcummings — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:14:41 +0000

Bragg’s Internationale improves on the original.

By: jcummings

jcummings — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:13:25 +0000

Apples and oranges.

I’m a Jimi Hendrix fan, and he certainly did good covers of Dylan (LARS and Watchtower) you can’t quantify it as beter or worse. These are such great songs that if performed competently and uniquely, compliment the original version. Dylan himself preferred the Grateful Dead doing his songs to his own versions. Whatever the case, it is the songs themselves that are great. Subjective preference is second to objective canonical quality.

Hendrix did improve on the Troggs. In terms of his blues covers, it is almost aesthetically blasphemous to state that his =versions are better as opposed to stating a personal preference.

By: evets

evets — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:50:30 +0000

Everything was better in the hands of Hendrix.

By: Rob Grocholski

Rob Grocholski — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:41:08 +0000

Richard, those folks you list aren’t phonies. They’re well talented. Frank and Tony too. I was mostly ’seconding’ BB’s point on Costello’s genius.

Covering others work…I’ll even agree that sometimes a song covered by another is vastly improved over the author’s version.
Dylan’s “Watchtower” is much better in the hands of Hendrix…

By: Woody

Woody — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:48:35 +0000

I promise that I wasn’t.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:22:14 +0000

Also, I wasnâ€™t being sarcastic

Spare me your bs.

My Way is dreadful, but what would you expect from Paul Anka?