An ugly turn toward torture

By TOM TEEPEN
First published: Friday, October 28, 2005

Something has apparently agitated our nation's nasty gene, and we're off on a toot demanding free range for some of our ugliest impulses. Take two as examples:

The vice president of the United States is pushing Congress to adopt prisoner torture as avowed U.S. policy, and there's an effort afoot in the House to expand the number of, as capital punishment lingo puts it, "death-eligible" crimes and give prosecutors a second whack if the trial jury won't approve execution.

The inspiration for such resorts to extremism is presumably again 9/11, which has come to serve as the all-embracing excuse for giving up any of our civilized ways that one or another politician can defame as pattycake.