Waterboarding

Posted on by Mike 6 Comments

There has been a flurry of talk radio comments, blog posts, and news discussions regarding the practice of waterboarding for the purpose of gaining information from captured terrorists. Many say that this is a horrible torture that should be banned by any nation that claims to be humane and decent.

Folks, waterboarding is no big deal. U.S. military students going through Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evation (SERE) School are routinely waterboarded. I was waterboarded during my prison camp training and, believe me, though it’s scarry, it’s not dangerous.

The practice is to place a person “upside-down” on a board that’s inclined about 20-30 degrees from horizontal. Then a wet cloth, in my case, my tee shirt, is stretched over the subject’s face. Then water is poured onto the cloth. The subject can still breathe, but the subject’s mind fools the subject into thinking that he’s drowning. Thinking you are drowning makes it scary; breathing makes it not dangerous.

I wouldn’t volunteer to do it again, but I wouldn’t withhold the practice just because it seems scary or because some incorrectly claim it’s inhumane. I say prevent the next attack on the U.S. homeland.

Good Friends

Posted on by Mike 2 Comments


Mark, Laura, and Olivia Waltz

Yesterday we had a great day. Turns out our good friends from way, way, back, Mark Waltz, Pastor of Connections at Granger Community Church and his lovely and lively bride, Laura, were on a roat trip for Wired Churches. One of their stops was to Church @ The Springs in Ocala, FL, just 18 miles north of us.

We met for lunch and coffee and catching up. When I say, “good friends,” I really mean it. For 20 years we’ve had a connection that’s rare. Though after the first few years of our friendship, we have lived hundreds of miles from each other, every time we meet, it seems like we’ve been neighbors all along. So when we found out that Mark and Laura were going to be nearby, we knew we’d have to do whatever it took to see them. Fortunately, they had a four hour break in their schedule.

The visit could only have been improved by the presence of their beautiful, funny, and personable daughter, Olivia, who remained at home in Indiana. We missed you Liv. We love you Mark and Laura.

NIE Hand-wringing

Posted on by Mike 1 Comment

Just a followup on my previous post on the same subject. Here is a quote from the Key Judgments of the National Intellingence Estimate. The bold and underline emphases are mine.

We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.

  • The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.

Those who claimed “Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat” (New York Times) and “Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight” (Washington Post) by citing selected sentences from the classified document (portions of which are now unclassified) just got it wrong. That was not the assessment at all.

One also has to wonder why, when both Republicans and Democrats in congress had this report since April, the “selected sentences” were leaked in late September. Is there an election coming?

Can one also ask why the full quote didn’t appear on the front pages or lead stories of the mainstream media like the excerpt did? Hmmm?

They Strike Again

Posted on by Mike 3 Comments

My friends from the left are all a tither about the leaked National Intelligence Estimate cited in the NY Times which reportedly claims that the Iraq war is inflaming Islamic terrorism. They’ve renewed their “impeach Bush!” cries.

I particularly like Michelle Malkin’s response:

Michelle Malkin: About that National Intelligence Estimate
If our intelligence agencies are laboring under the moonbat illusion that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn’t really start bubbling until the year 2003, we are really in deep, deep doo-doo. Have they not been paying attention over the last year? All it takes is a few cartoons or a dropped Koran or a defiant apostate or a Muslim woman in a bikini or a papal speech quotation to set off The Religion of Perpetual Outrage. Someone order up some copies of Legacy of Jihad and Islamic Imperialism stat.

Only in California

Posted on by Mike 1 Comment

The Villages Daily Sun, Wednesday, September 20, 2006.

Santa Rosa, Calif.

One-time JonBenet Ramsey murder susptect John Mark Karr was offered a plea deal Tuesday on child pornography charges that would free him on probation.

Assistant District Attorney Joann Risse said prosecutors would waive three of the five child pornography charges against him if he pleaded guilty on two remaining charges.

Karr, 41, would get credit for time served and would be placed on probation for three years.

Maybe this kind of stuff happens in other states, but I can’t help thinking that, in light of the outcomes of the O.J., Robert Blake, and Michael Jackson trials, prosecutors in California are just a little gun-shy about taking criminals before its citizens. I know; I know. Karr is not a pop icon…or is he out there on the coast?