The Torture Tortilla

Torture is like a bad tortilla. It looks okay, until you unwrap it and see all the crap, pain and wicked sickness inside.

I use a tortilla wrap here to describe the image in the public mind of what torture is, an illusion actually, which hides the sickness and inhumanity, the abusement of people hidden away in places known and unknown -- that which hides the reality of torture.

That torture is wrapped in a tortilla is what makes me able to reluctantly comprehend the appalling degree of acceptance of the use of torture by the American people.

Many other things are wrapped in tortillas. Perhaps this explains why so many people accept the most outrageous things as long as they are done in the name of Liberty, Freedom and Democracy.

Such wrapping doesn't happen by accident. The tortilla is generated in the public mind through spin, mis- and dis-information, psy-ops -- all working through main stream media with its passive if not active cooperation.

Maybe you think I’m laying it on a bit thick, but have you ever heard of VNRs? This acronym stands for Video Ready News, “news” programs produced by private and government agencies which promote an agenda for the company or government agent paying for the video’s production. The problem is that many (=most) stations, poorly staffed with reporters and strapped for funds, show these videos as actual news items. It is common knowledge how ordinary obnoxious advertising affects the world view of the public mind – how do you think our common vision of reality is perverted by adverts presented as real news?

Well maybe it doesn’t affect us at all. But how is it that I suddenly find myself trapped in a world where three people who have been held prisoner and exposed to torture for over four years kill themselves and a real US admiral says that their suicide was “…warfare waged against us”.

Pardon me, dear hearts, but I feel reality stripping gears and wonder if I’ve somehow been transferred to the Third Galaxy...

Sometimes the only defense against bullshit is snark, sarcasm and satire.

Jonathan Schwarz posted a shot on This Modern World that blew my boat out of the water so cleanly I feel no need to end today’s blog with a trifle from my unemployed angel from the Third Galaxy.

I quote: But this doesn’t exhaust the asymmetric tactics they’ve adopted. Reliable sources indicate our terrorist foes are also using these even more appalling methods to attack us:

1. Crying

2. Begging for Mercy

3. Getting Tuberculosis

4. Forcing Us To Torture Them

5. Not Being A Terrorist

6. Being Four Years Old