Comic 247: Don't Tase Me Bro


I've seen a lot of descriptions and demonstrations of the "enhanced interrogation" technique of Waterboarding, and from what I can tell, you don't so much experience pain as much as you mostly "just" fear for your life for the few seconds you can stand it until you "break". I'll definitely allow for the possibility that there IS actually pain involved, and that you can suffer severe lasting psychological effects, but it seems to me that, at least with the way our government's reportedly practiced it, it's specifically designed to be as effective and efficient as possible while causing the MINIMUM amount of pain. No matter how you feel about it, it's not like the CIA are sadists.

This isn't a defense of waterboarding, but rather an excuse for me to link to the Medieval Torture Museum in San Gimignano, Italy, which was one of the most haunting experiences of my life. THIS was how to inflict intentional pain. Elaine and I visited for our 2nd anniversary (we did other less macabre things in Tuscany too), and we both paid for admission, but Elaine had barely entered the first room when she said, "Uh, I'll wait for you outside". I'm glad she did. This illustrated online tour does a good job describing the nasty devices they used in the Medieval times... it's nothing compared to standing face to face with an Iron Maiden like I had the "pleasure" of doing, but if you have any sort of imagination, that link will freak you the hell out.

How many of you knew that the Iron Maiden was an old torture device and not just a metal band? Ok now how many of you knew that Uday Hussein used to put underperforming Iraqi athletes in one as recently as like 10 years ago?