Fun with Torture! (The Word, Not the Unspeakable Acts)

President Bush, when asked any question about interagation methods, says "we don't torture." He says it a reflexive, robotic, almost tourettes-like way. If pressed, he gets a little, well, wacky.

The lingustics of torture are terrifyingly fascinating. Last September, Andrew Sullivan looked at evolving definitions used by the Bush Adminstrations. It's a good overview.

Of all the words in the vocabulary of politics in the young 21st century, tortured increasingly has the most tortured definiation. Which is sad and scary, because well all, every one of us, knows exactly what it means.

And our country is doing it.