Authorities say a West Virginia man tortured and enslaved his wife for much of the past decade, forcing her to endure two pregnancies and deliveries in shackles. Of course, torture is only against the law if you do it on a freelance basis, not as an official of the government.
Freelance Torturers
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I was reading an e-bulletin board about buying software about four years ago, and a German wrote, ‘Don’t buy US software, they torture people.’ The American posters pointed out that the US has NEVER tortured ANYONE, and the American posters were right if you will obey US law. Under US law, NOTHING the US government does to its officially designated enemies can EVER be called ‘torture.’ And the law is the law, so every law abiding citizen knows that the US has never tortured anyone.
And Orwell thought they’d ruined the English language back in the ’46.
Let’s not forget that slavery is only wrong when practiced by the free-lance individual. When it’s the government, it’s conscription (for those of us unfortunate to still have it in our countries) or mandatory civil service, as some “progressives” pine for.
Obvious solution to this problem – a better legal curriculum in the primary schools of West Virginia (unlike the blasted-to-smithereens coal-bearing mountain tops, they still have primary schools, right ?) and a dedicated free-to-use hotline to the Administration’s (whatever Administration it happens to be) hot-shot torture lawyers….
Henri
@ Henri –
According to reports, the man is “… originally from the former Czechoslovakia”; it isn’t likely that the “legal curriculum in the primary schools of West Virginia” share any blame.
Sadly, the woman is now defending her husband with claims of “accidents”!