This Week in the Mercury
Ethics
Friday, November 6, 2009
Geek / Puppy / Ethics Animal Cruelty: Okay When Star Wars is Involved
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:35 PM
Okay, so this guy dressed up his miniature pinscher as an AT-AT from Star Wars—which actually is the least cruel part of this video. The worst part is having an owner who not only enjoys humiliating you, but makes it insurmountably worse by ordering you to march around while he hums the Imperial March song. There's not a lake of fire in Hell deep enough for you, pal.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Food / Ethics Shark Fin Trouble
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 4:13 PM
There are times when the ethics of eating engage in uncomfortable frottage with my restaurant reviews. While these regrettable instance are few and far between, I occasionally find myself between what a restaurant wants to serve and what my readers want to protest.
I consider it my job to eat food and foist my opinion on a dubious public. I do not consider it my job to make ethical judgments about what is on the menu. That's your job as a consumer. You're the one with the power to move your money and affect the change you'd like to see.
That being said, there are some instances when it becomes my job to provide you with information about what you might be eating. This week I received a letter from a reader who took me to task for being so cavalier in my mention of shark-fin soup on the menu at Ocean City.
Shark meat is not often eaten due to the huge amount of urea in its flesh. However, the collagen in the dorsal fin is used as a thickening agent in certain traditional Asian dishes, making the fin the only useful part of the animal for certain cuisine. When harvested, the fins are cut from living wild-caught sharks, which are then thrown back in the water to die.
In deference to the letter-writer, I decided to call up the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose Seafood Watch program provides information about the sustainability (or lack thereof) of eating various species. I got in touch with the Aquarium's Communication Director Ken Peterson who noted that shark has always been on Seafood Watch's "avoid" list.
"The problem is that sharks are so long lived and reproduce so slowly," Peterson told me. "The amount that are finned leads to a decline in population."
"Because they are top predators, what you wind up doing is not only affecting the sharks but also an entire ecosystem." he said.
Peterson explained that the shark fin industry removes up to 100 million sharks per year from the Ocean's ecosystem. He noted that there are a lot of international treaties and restrictions regarding the finning of sharks, and that it's illegal to transport shark fins in the United States, save for one enourmous loophole:
"Currently, vessels are allowed to transport fins as long as the sharks have not been finned on the vessel itself," Peterson explained.
Which means one vessel can fin the sharks as long as those fins are transported to another vessel in order to bring them to US ports. However, there is legislation in the Senate to close that loophole.
Consider yourself informed.
Ethics Gore Vidal on Roman Polanski
Posted by Eli Sanders on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:54 PM
Via The Atlantic:
I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Religion / Ethics At First It Was Hard To Feel Sorry For Them
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Thomas and Amanda Stansel were having trouble conceiving so they opted to undergo fertility treatments. Hospitals, doctors, hormone shots, sperm injected directly into Mrs. Stansel's uterus. And Mrs. Stansel wound up pregnant—with six fetuses. Their doctors urged them to "reduce," or selectively abort, some of the fetuses or risk losing them all. It was hard to feel sorry for them when I read this...
The Stansels rejected Dr. Grunert’s advice and, since then, their vision of a family has collapsed into excruciating loss: the deaths of four children after their premature births on Aug. 4, including one who died late Sunday night. The two other infants remain in neonatal intensive care, their futures uncertain.“I feel like we bonded with all of them, the short time they were here,” Mr. Stansel said. “We were able to hold them before they passed away.”
And it was really hard to feel sorry for them when I flipped the paper over and saw the picture of the Stansels that was under the fold: they're posing with the casket containing the remains of three of their children—and they couldn't look more pleased with themselves. And then I read the rest of the story and I wanted to kill the Stansels with my bare hands...
When Dr. Grunert discovered that Mrs. Stansel was carrying multiple fetuses, he handicapped her odds of delivering six healthy infants at practically zero. Eliminating some of the fetuses would give the others the best chance for survival....For the Stansels, the decision was influenced by their membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church generally opposes abortion. After learning that Mrs. Stansel was carrying sextuplets, the Stansels decided to meet with church elders and consult with a reduction specialist.
“It just never felt right,” Mr. Stansel said. “We prayed many nights. A lot of sleepless nights. Originally we thought we might do the reduction. We chose to carry all six and, we believe, let God do what he’s going to do.”
What? If you were gonna let God do what He's going to do, you shouldn't have sought out fertility treatments. Here's what God was gonna do: God was gonna make you infertile. God did that, actually, and then you thwarted God's plan for you—that you be infertile—and availed yourselves of the latest medical technologies and sought the help fertility specialists. Then you ignored the advice of your doctors and refused to reduce the number of fetuses you were carrying and now four premature infants have died in great pain and two more will very likely die—but, hey, you'll get another smug, self-satisfied, just-letting-God-do-what-he's-gonna-do photo op out of it, so it's not a total loss. And it's all material for the blog you're writing about "your journey," and there'll probably be a book deal in it for you when it's all over ("Thom & Amanda Minus 6").
Mrs. Stansel delivered the sextuplets on Aug. 4, about 14 weeks premature. The babies were born so early that no medical care would have been rendered unless the parents requested it.Dr. Jarriel, the neonatologist, said the survival rate of babies at the stage they were born was about 60 percent to 65 percent. If they survived, the Stansels were told, there was a 100 percent chance that they would have problems. But the couple asked the hospital for the most extraordinary measures to save them.
“We wanted to do all we could for them, to save them,” Mr. Stansel said.
“Give them that chance,” Mrs. Stansel added. “That’s the doctors giving their statistics. God doesn’t work in statistics.”
Four of their six babies are now dead. So it looks like God does work in statistics after all—if He didn't, Mrs. Stansel, then the world would be an entirely random/miraculous place and we wouldn't be able to make any predictions about anything and there wouldn't be stats about anything. Jesus.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Ethics Which Child Do You Choose?
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Here's the deal: Imagine for a moment that you can only parent one child for the rest of your life. And this child must be one of the kids in either of the following two videos. CHOOSE!!
The 9-year-old Peruvian girl who performs a creepily sexual shot-by-shot remake of Britney Spears' "Toxic"?
Or this kid who's like Eddie Van Halen… mmm… except on the accordion.
One of them is gonna be your kid. CHOOSE!!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Ethics 5-year-old Kills Gator, Vows to Kill Again
Posted by Dave "the Intern" Bow on Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Hey, remember a couple of weeks ago when that cheerleader, Arianne, killed an alligator and everyone was impressed by her ability to fit into two societal categories at once? Well hold onto your hats, because she's got competition!
Another alligator has been charged with the crimes of being big and existing. It was sentenced to be shot in the face by a 5-year-old boy. Little Simon Hughes demonstrated the motor skills to pull a trigger and was rewarded with an 800 lb., 12-foot alligator body. That almost doubles the weight of Arianne's! Check out this CNN video of Simon being adorable and terrifying.
Does our nation have room in its heart for more than one unlikely gator hunter? Clearly nobody has heard the story of my first birthday where I popped out of my mom's fallopian tube only to land on the neck of the a plesiosaur that I strangled to death. Where's my CNN fluff piece??!
- You're welcome, Nation History Museum of South Kensington
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Ethics In-Line Skaters? YOU ARE EXCUSED.
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Though this story happened in Connecticut, it pissed me off all the way over here in Portland. From the AP…
A Connecticut in-line skater faces assault and other charges after a confrontation over whether a 4-year-old on a tricycle had the right to be on a bike path. Stamford police charged 43-year-old Chris Karamon with third-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and other crimes.Police said Karamon shouted and cursed at the boy's parents on the path in Cove Island Park. Police said he later skated into the boy's father, who was shielding his children, and threw a helmet and water bottle at him.
Police Lt. Sean Cooney said the path is for use by everyone, not just skaters.
WOW! It's just that… I never knew how much I despise in-line skaters until this moment. That's why I'm proposing a Mercury Road Trip™ to Connecticut to kill this guy. Who's with me?
(Note to sexy girls: Your in-line skating is still allowed. So is regular four-wheeled skating. And any castmember from the film Xanadu.)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Ethics / SEX Looking at Naked Ladies Makes You Gay
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 2:01 PM
"And one of the things that he said to me, that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark. He said, 'all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.... And if you, if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to go out and get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants.” You know, that’s a, that’s a good comment. It’s a good point and it’s a good thing to teach young people."
We should teach boys that pornography—even pictures of naked ladies—and masturbation—which 99.999999% of them engage in—will turn them gay. Because masturbation turns them "inward." Because, hey, every time you touch your own cock, every time you give yourself an orgasm, you've just... um, what? Desensitizing yourself to sucking off strangers in toilets?
These comments—which are everywhere today—were offered up at a panel on masculinity at this weekend's Value Voters Summit in Washington D.C. And not by some lunatic in the audience who got ahold of a mic and was quickly laughed out of the room, but by Michael Schwartz, chief of staff for Sen. Tom Coburn. What is there to say besides... these people are, well, first and foremost: these people are nuts. And they're absolutely terrified of human sexuality. They're afraid of women having control of their own reproductive systems, they're afraid of pornography, they're afraid of masturbation, of birth control, of homosexuality. And since they refuse to accept that homosexuality isn't a choice—for reasons political as well as religious—they have to look for environmental causes, for accidents and incidents, for trapdoors that normal, red-blooded 'merican men can fall through and into the homosexuality lifestyle.
Or they have to pretend that that's what they're doing. I don't believe that Schwartz actually believes what he said and I don't think that his audience really believes it either. The real key to Schwartz's real meaning came in a comment he made a bit earlier, in an observation about 11-year-old boys:
"They speak badly about homosexuality. And that’s because they don’t want to be that way. They don’t want to fall into it."
So lie to them about it—tell them pornography, which we don't like, and masturbation, which we don't like, will lead to homosexuality, which we detest. Doesn't matter if it's not true. Exploit their fears of homosexuality to keep them away from porn and keep them from masturbating—away from pleasure—and further stigmatize homosexuals in the eyes of straight boys and further terrify and isolate gay boys. Hey, we already lie to them about the harms of premarital sex, the effectiveness of birth control, the protections that condoms provide, the emotional consequences of abortion, and the existential threat that gay marriage supposedly poses to "opposite-marriage." What's one more lie?
What's most amazing about this particular lie is how easily disproved it is. If pornography and masturbation makes you gay... how come all men aren't gay?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Ethics Arianne, the Gator Slayer
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 10:22 AM
According to Florida Today, Satellite Beach's Arianne Prevost killed the shit out of a 450 lb., 11 foot alligator while on a gator hunt.
It was a total archery kill," guide Peter Deeks said, adding Prevost shot the gator several times with a crossbow and finished it with a broadhead. Prevost is having the meat harvested and the gator half-mounted.
Now, I'm sorry, but this is just WRONG. There is no indication that this alligator was doing anything other than living out a long peaceful life, and for this admittedly gorgeous woman to come along and repeatedly pump multiple arrows into this thrashing humongous beast is just… just…
GodDAMMIT, erection! STAY DOWN!!
Arrow tips to Buzzfeed.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Ethics Neologisms "R" Us
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 10:51 AM
ULABY: And it's not just movies rethinking retard as an easy laugh. A few months ago, popular sex advice columnist Dan Savage renounced his use of the word.Mr. DAN SAVAGE (Sex Columnist): You know, I just sat down to write the column, and I'd used the word retard in a column recently, and I was sorting through the mail and there was a handful of letters taking me to task. And I thought, all right, I won't use it anymore. I'll use a new word. I hope you like this one better.
ULABY: The new word was leotard. As in, you are totally leotarded.
Mr. SAVAGE: It was just me being a jerk, frankly. You know, I've heard people now use "the R word" in reference to retard, and it just seems so pansy-assed, if I may use that phrase.
I'm also annoyed when I hear people say "the F word." I realize that everyone wants to feel equally oppressed these days, but "retard" and "faggot" simply aren't insults on a par with "nigger," A.K.A. "the N word." And I wouldn't say that I've renounced the use of the word retard, NPR, but rather embraced "tard" as a suffix and singled dancers out for abuse.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Ethics Strong Enough for a Man, but pH-Balanced to Totally Dissolve Yo Brainz!
Posted by Lindy West on Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 11:44 AM
- Hippie sham? Or ALZHEIMER'S DEATH PASTE!?
Okay, so, you know how the whole world won't shut up about how this stuff that I rub on my armpits every day is a total murderer? And I'm slowly murdering myself to death in the name of vanity, when, instead, I could daintily brush a sprig of lavender (OR A MAGICKAL CRYSTAL) 'gainst the offending region and be just as non-stinky*, with the added bonus of never, EVER being allegedly starved to death by my ne'er-do-well children because they're tired of my Alzheimer's-induced feces consumption?
I resisted for years (I LOVE CHEMICALS), but three days ago I made the switch to hippie deodorant. And you know what? Thanks for nothing, Sir Thomas, King of All Maine! The only difference between me without greasy baking soda loaf rubbed under my arm and me with greasy baking soda loaf rubbed under my arm is a certain HINT OF UNDERARM BAKING SODA GREASINESS. I smell a sham. Sham! (Also, an armpit!)
So even though science seems to say that antiperspirant is not a serial killer (and rapist!), how come everyone else in armpit-monitoring society says it is? Is it because people love screaming? What is a lady to do? What is the answer to this quandary!? I just want someone to tell me what I should rub on my armpit (and don't say "come"—I know how you people work).
*Incidentally, my natural bouquet is something approaching Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (with a hint of rainbow!) and needs no chemical cover-up but, in fact, is currently the object of a heated bidding war between several Korean industrial air freshener corporations (I thank you kindly for the Pepperidge Farm Cornucopious Country Meat Basket™, Mr. Kim**, but all the summer sausage in the world won't change my mind). But it's the principle of the thing, you know.
**Incidentally, as founder and CEO of Kim & Sons' Original Industrial Air Freshener and Summer Sausage Emporium, Mr. Kim does produce all the summer sausage in the world.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Politics / Ethics Oh, Obama… How Could You??
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 9:41 AM
You know, I was TOTALLY against all those anti-health reform/"death panel" nuts—that is until I saw this shocking video of President Obama outside a town hall meeting WHIPPING AN OLD PERSON AND A FETUS!! (I mean, can't we just deny them health care and let them die naturally?)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Film / Ethics Every Movie Theater Should Have to Do This. It Should Be a Goddamn Law.
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 1:05 PM
- Photo by Mark G. Power
- Photo by Mark G. Power
It's been said before, but I'll say it again: All hail the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
Via Jim Emerson's Scanners blog. (Thanks for the heads up, Ted!)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Ethics This Is Why We Shouldn't Let the Humans and the Sea Mammals Breed
Posted by Lindy West on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Headline of the year:
Manatee man arrested in attempt to punish stepson with cat feces
Thanks for everything, Google alert for "feces."
Friday, August 14, 2009
Food / Ethics Call Any Vegetable: Try Vegan Week Begins Tomorrow
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Call any vegetable, pick up your phone
Think of a vegetable, lonely at home
Call any vegetable, and the chances are good,
That a vegetable will respond to you.
-Frank Zappa, “Call Any Vegetable,” from Kill Ugly Radio
During a long interview with the delightful vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, I remember her characterizing my job as, “making a living off the blood of the innocents.” She wasn’t being uncivil, in fact she wore a wry kind of smile as she said it, but the phrase has stuck with me.
Maybe I do make my living off the blood of the innocents, but I do not begrudge vegans for attempting to repair my seeming moral shortcomings by removing themselves from a meat-based food system. You know what? I love livestock. I love livestock enough that I might even consider not eating it. However, I also love the way livestock tastes, and as yet, the scales are weighed more heavily towards “eating.” Barbaric? Probably.
The fact is, I’ve considered going vegan, and I might make that choice someday. But for now, both my livelihood and diet preferences are stronger than any subconscious guilt I might have about eating a chicken.
I know, however, there are plenty of people out there who are on the fence. They’ve come to the conclusion that their morality is not aligned with their diet and would like to go vegan. Try Vegan PDX would like those people to know that there are people who will help them make the transition.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Food / Events / Ethics Everything Joel Salatin Does is Illegal
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 8:39 PM
- Joel Salatin
The problems associated with the way we’ve chosen to feed our population include food borne pathogens from robust strains of antibiotic resistant pathogens, diabetes, obesity, water pollution, increased green house gasses, and a general disconnect between ourselves and real food. We wander the grocery store, reaching for whatever processed corn product we feel most suits our appetite. The source of our meals is more often the factory than the farm.
Still, we idealize the pastoral. We imagine the farmer on his beat-up tractor, or smiling happily as he feeds his livestock, or walking through his golden fields of waving grain. But anymore, the small farm is rarity. We may not see it in Portland, where we can find a farmers market ever single day of the week for most of the year. We may take it for granted that we’ve been able to develop a regional system of small farms supported by a healthy community. This is truly an agricultural Shangri-la. The majority of America is not so lucky.
Enter Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms. Salatin is an outspoken agriculture revolutionary with designs to redeem our food system. His farm has become a symbol for a new way of growing food. Well, not actually a new way. Salatin has discovered that the best way to farm the land and feed the community is to do exactly what nature has been doing for millions of years. His remarkable agricultural philosophy has been featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma, and most recently the foodie horror film, Food, Inc. An author himself, Salatin also has a large body of work with several titles under his belt, including Everything I Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front and Holy Cows & Hog Heaven: the Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food. He speaks Thursday, August 13th, in a benefit for the Hollywood Farmers Market, at the Friendship Masonic Center [5626 NE Alameda], 7 pm. Tickets are $25 available by calling 709-7403 or by emailing tickets@hollywoodfarmersmarket.org. I spoke with Salatin yesterday about his farm, the future of food, and how we can help change the system.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Ethics Introducing the New NIKE GUN SAFE!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Are you sick of trying to remember complicated lock combinations, or twisting cumbersome handles to get quick access to your loaded revolver? Are you tired of your idiot child NOT knowing where the bathroom is? Then by all means, store your weapons in the new Nike Gun Safe. Now getting your gun out of the top of your closet is easier than ever—so easy in fact, even your idiot child can do it! (That is, if she doesn't accidentally pee on it first, because she's too stupid to find the bathroom! HA! HAHAHAHAHA!!) Order now and also receive a horrifying clown.
Hat tips to Everything is Terrible!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Food / Ethics Oscar Meyer Rolls in His Grave
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 12:15 PM
I’ve been a smoker for a very long time. Even after a public announcement that I was quitting last January, I’ve once again started puffing. My habit is less than before, to be sure, but I’m still reaching for the pack. Strangely, in all those years of smoking, the label on the side of that cigarette pack explaining the health risks involved in the activity have barely given me pause.
So, at least from my perspective, this sounds more than a little misguided (from the LA Times):
"Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."That's the label that a vegan advocacy group wants a New Jersey court to order Oscar Mayer, Hebrew National and other food companies to slap on hot dog packages.
My guess is that it would accomplish little more than pissing people off. I know it pisses me off. How about you?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ethics For the Love of God, Erika… DO NOT MARRY THIS MAN!!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Though billed as "The Best Marriage Proposal in World History," trust me when I say IT IS NOT. In fact, you will be hard pressed to EVER see a more anus-cringing display of horrible, affected narcissism than on display in this video. I don't want to ruin the jaw-dropping fun, but let's just say it involves Disneyland, musical theater… and I'm sorry… a poor, unsuspecting girl named Erika who apparently has no idea that she will be condemned to a miserable. frustrated life of being this guy's beard.
Again… WOW.
Should I thank you, Videogum? I'm really not sure.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Ethics Corey Feldman Dresses Up Like Jacko at Memorial! YESSS!!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 3:07 PM
OH BOY! Look who put on his Michael Jackson costume at Michael Jackson's memorial today at the Staples Center: COREY FREAKING FELDMAN, guys!
Corey Feldman showed up at Michael Jackson's public memorial Tuesday at L.A.'s Staples Center dressed as the King of Pop.He arrived at 10:19 a.m. dressed as the singer from his Dangerous era - wearing all black, a military-style jacket, a black fedora and sunglasses. He also had strands of his hair hanging in front of his face - a 'do Jackson famously sported.
Feldman used a Kleenex to wipe tears from under his sunglasses.
But here's my favorite line from this story…
John Mayer gave him a puzzled look.
This time? I'm with you, John.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Ethics Saddest YouTube Video Ever
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Far too much information.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Drunk / Ethics Some Pedophiles Really Have Low Standards
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 11:47 AM
It's a sad, but true fact that the standards of modern pedophiles are sinking lower and lower. Thanks to the average child's increased awareness of sexual predators, perverts are now forced to choose really ugly ones to molest. As proof, check out this PSA from the '80s, in which a series of creepy dad types use their bizarre electrical powers to bone a child who looks kind of like the kid from Mask. Sadly, this will be the closest thing the kid will ever have to a positive sexual experience.
Hat tips to Everything is Terrible!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ethics / TV Jon & Kate Plus 8, Divided by Dehydration
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:37 AM
I've gotten a poop ton of questions lately regarding the TLC show Jon & Kate Plus 8—in particular, "What is Kate's freaking problem??" In short, Kate is a businesswoman; her kids are the commodity. And her husband is a commodity, too, in that it's wildly entertaining to watch her emasculate him on a weekly basis. HOWEVER! In order for these commodities to remain viable, Kate has to watch the bottom line. For example, giving kids water. DUDE… WATER'S EXPENSIVE. So don't be too hard on Kate after seeing her deny her crying dehydrated child water, because… c'mon! The interview was about to start!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Ethics Why One Should Never Drink Milk from the Bottle
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 1:33 PM
The following video features a) one of the truly great pranks, and b) two ridiculously terrible douchebags. They are so douchey in fact, that it almost ruins the majesty of the prank. That's why you should hang around until the end to see the prank repeated in glorious slo-mo, where as an extra bonus, you don't have to hear a word these douchebags are saying.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Food / Ethics Of Cookies and Torture
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Fri, May 29, 2009 at 1:20 PM
It took more questioning, and some interrogators' sleight of hand, before the Yemeni gave up a wealth of information about al-Qaeda — including the identities of seven of the 9/11 bombers — but the cookies were the turning point. "After that, he could no longer think of us as evil Americans," Soufan says. "Now he was thinking of us as human beings."
The article in Time magazine about how some intelligence professionals feel torture is over-rated in intelligence gathering, hinged on the simple act of giving a diabetic man some sugar-free cookies.
Apparently that was enough to get Abu Jandal to stop ranting about Americans and give up a little information. Well, it was the cookies and the smarts of some resourceful agents.
But the question for me is whether or not this is an anomaly. Did this man just really like cookies? Or is there something in receiving tasty comforting sustenance that just leads a person to relax and open up?
I’m thinking of every cop show that I’ve seen where the lead detective opens the interrogation room and ushers the suspect inside with a wide smile while saying something along the lines of, “Have a seat Strangler Pete. Can we get you coffee? Something to eat?”
Or how about this NSFW (language) clip from the Wire wherein Bunk uses a McDonald’s meal during an interrogation to great effect:
But these examples are straight fiction. The cookie story is not. The whole thing got me wondering… Is there any meal that could make me give up information? Is there any food that has such power over me that I’d sing like a canary just for a taste? I guess it would depend on the circumstances. Hunger can make anything look good after awhile.
What about you Blogtownies? What food could make you snitch?
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