We're having a lot of debates that reveal something distressing: a whole bunch of people don't know right from wrong.
Of course, many things are debatable, and reasonable people can disagree about them. But some things are obvious. And it's distressing and puzzling that there isn't near universal agreement on them.
- Torture is wrong.
How hard is that to understand? It doesn't matter WHO does it. It doesn't matter WHAT party they are from. Or what country. It doesn't matter how bad the people being tortured are. It doesn't matter how "effective" it is. It is wrong.
Who cares whether or not torture is "effective"? We can make the country safer by keeping the people under house arrest under mandatory curfew after dark. But that would be wrong! Can we agree on THAT?
In fact, the "arguments" I'm making here seem, to me, to be superfluous. You don't need an argument because it's as simple as this: torture is wrong.
What do we do in America in such a situation? Well, we investigate and find out what happened. Then, we charge those for whom a grand jury finds "probable cause" and we don't charge others. And we have trials and free those found innocent and punish those found guilty.
Am I saying anything controversial here?
- You don't strip search search on a 13 year old girl under suspicion of having ibuprofen. (a lawyer actually argued that a body cavity search would have been legal, too but only if someone properly trained in how to do it performed the search. He did no object to it based on moral grounds.)
Again, isn't this obvious? Yet, this is such a controversial issue that the Supreme Court of the United States is hearing arguments about it right now. Am I the only person who finds this astounding?
This is insane! Even crazier, some of the Justices see merit in the case for doing the strip search. What is going on? How about a terse statement from the Court:
"What's wrong with you? Of course it's wrong. You can't do it. We have unalienable rights. And there's also a 4th amendment. But most of all, it's wrong on the face of it. Don't waste our time!"
Yes, we can argue about many, many things. And we should. That's a big part of our form of government. But...you know...some things are obvious.
Aren't they?