There's some heated debates going on in the comments of some recommended diaries by Keith Olbermann and Meteor Blades re: Sean Hannity's dare to be Water boarded.
There seems to be some confusion as to the morality of this act. Many people are arguing that since Torture is illegal, and Water Boarding is torture, this act would be illegal and immoral. While I don't agree with some of the more savage comments that have been made with regard to wanting to see Mr. Hannity suffer, it must be pointed out that voluntarily being water boarded is very different from an interrogator forcing that technique on a detainee in order to obtain withheld information.
Allow me to make a comparison which some may find a stretch but which I believe to be apt. Suppose it were discovered that a woman had taken a whip to her forcibly restrained husband and beat him savagely for days on end, refusing to release his restraints and feeding him only enough to sustain him. Highly illegal! Kidnapping, abuse (perhaps even torture?). This would be a horrible tragedy and the woman would rightfully be punished with jail time.
Now, suppose a man were to request that his significant other restrain him and whip him. This type of Masochistic practice (Commonly referred to as S&M) goes on all the time and it is not considered illegal nor are participants punished. Many of us would find it brutal, perhaps even repulsive. However there is a key difference in our minds between this act and the one described above: Consent.
Sean Hannity has given more than his consent, he has DARED them to just try and penetrate his manly manliness which will prove that these detainees were just babies (likewise our soldiers who suffered similar treatment in the past and called it torture are apparently liars in Hannity's mind). His faux machismo knows no bounds! Will it hurt him? Most definitely. Would it make any who participated in it immoral? Most definitely not.
It would not be a pretty thing to see, I would certainly not want to view it nor would I take any pleasure in seeing a man, even one as loathsome as Sean Hannity, suffering in such a way. But we must put our deep liberal compassion for everyone and everything aside for a moment and realize that our arrogance about our values is attempting to override someone's free will (Mr. Hannity's) to consent to whatever he would like even for a reason as ridiculous as proving an absurd and unsubstantiated argument.
While he will likely not step up to the plate and will weedle out of it, I think it's safe to say that if he did, it would not be torturing or cruel or evil to take him up on it.