This week on 60 Minutes, Leslie Stahl got up close and personal with Justice Anthony Scalia. Frankly, I prefer the smudgy chalk drawings on the 5:30 news. He seems less …um…fallible that way. Brainier. In the flesh, kinda scary. Anyway, when asked how “torture” did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, the strict constructionist judge responded glibly, “Who says torture is punishment?” Really? That’s the sort of thinking that goes on under those black robes? Who says torture is punishment? What is it? Foreplay? Of course, he is right, you know. Punishment implies someone has been charged and convicted of a crime. And we know that isn’t happening at Gitmo. Torture isn’t punishment at all. Torture is simply a useful means to get innocent people experiencing unholy pain to confess to unimaginable crimes they never really committed. Just please stop the pain. I’ll confess to it all. Technically, not punishment. For, I suppose, true punishment necessarily implies justice. And in George Bush’s America, it’s not so much that Justice is blind. It’s just that we’ve gouged out her eyes to make sure she looks the other way.
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