New Movie "The Hangover" Contains Taser Torture Porn Scene

It's chilling in the same way the OLC memos were chilling --- the use of modern, bureaucratic, "medical" language to couch unspeakable, barbaric cruelty. Her piece shows how fully we've accepted over the past three decades the concept that unruly teenagers can be ritually tortured to force them to conform. We think nothing of it --- just last week, after all, it was revealed that they commonly shock 14 to 18 year old boys with 50,000 volts of electricity at that Florida prison.

If you add in the random tasering of citizens all over the country and the horrors of our prison system (including the exaltation of its famous sadists like Sheriff Joe Arpaio)it's pretty clear that we are awash in torture, often using it against people who have been convicted of nothing more than being unwilling or unable to conform to authority.

I'm sure the usual cynics will harangue me for being a silly old fool as usual for not recognizing what a torturing society this is long before now. And I would have to admit there's a kernel of truth in the fact that this is not something I probably wanted to know. However, this current debate has made it impossible to ignore any longer: the United States of America tortures its own children. It tortures prisoners. It tortures average citizens whom any policeman believes is failing to smartly comply with his orders and it tortures suspected terrorists. We just call it (in true Orwellian fashion) "Tough Love."

Torture, in fact, is one of our defining features. The only really surprising thing, considering its ubiquity, is that the number of people who openly support it isn't larger. I suppose that's some sort of comfort