Tuesday digest

- A sickening reminder of what modern Iran is all about, here.

- The Guardian has reported what interrogation techniques the CIA wishes to use, here.

They include induced hypothermia; forcing suspects to stand for prolonged periods; sleep deprivation; a technique called "the attention grab" where a suspect's shirt is forcefully seized; the "attention slap" or open hand slapping that hurts but does not lead to physical damage; the "belly slap"; and sound and light manipulation.

None of these are nice things, but I can think of a lot worse things that most people would like to do to terrorists - and that terrorists would like to do to most people, for that matter.

- On that, I have to say that I respect John McCain's military service, but some are calling his proposals naive, others suicidal, while of course there are those who are fawning over the guy. I am on the fence about "torture" but the more I hear from McCain, the grandstanding, pissing-inside-the-tent, self-promoting jerk that he is, the less likely I will be months from now. The guy's main argument is that if the US doesn't treat captives according to the Geneva Conventions, then the enemy won't do the same for American prisoners of war. Pfft. As if this band of medievalists ever would. McCain knows that. He's just using this issue as a political soapbox to further stick his finger in the President's eye.

John McCain is as dishonest and selfish as they come.