GOP Pol Calls for Torture of American Citizens

Last updated on: December 29, 2014 at 10:17 pm by Mark Shea

GOP Pol Calls for Torture of American Citizens 2014-12-29T22:17:19-07:00 Mark Shea

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I mentioned a couple of days ago that a GOP Caesar would surely soon start thinking longingly about using torture against citizens for domestic crimes, just as the GOP already is orgasmically in love with the manliness of using it against foreigners and even tries to liken it to the saving power of the sacraments.

Turns out I was wrong. A GOP pol (and not the last one, have no doubt) has already tweeted longingly about torturing American citizens.

And none of this perfumed “enhanced interrogation” euphemism so beloved by Catholics trying to avoid the plain language of the Catechism either. This guy is too ignorant or contemptuous of the Church’s teaching (yeah, he’s a Catholic) to have figured out he needs to play the word games perfected by torture apologists of St. Blogs in the struggle to advocate for mortal sin while maintaining plausible deniability:

State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Carmel), a potential 2014 congressional candidate, said on “Fox and Friends” Monday morning that torture is necessary in this and other cases of terrorism to save lives. “If getting that information, including torture, would save one innocent life, including what we’ve seen children, would you use torture?” Ball said. “I would be first in line.”

After Tsarnaev was captured on Friday night, Ball drew criticism when he tweeted, “Who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?”

So, scum bag #2 in custody. Who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?

— Greg Ball (@ball4ny) April 20, 2013

Ball, the chairman of the state Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee and an Air Force veteran, said he was voicing an opinion that many other Americans share. He described terrorists as playing by a “different set of rules” in a statement Sunday, and said, “playing paddy cake with mass murdering killers is not effective in my opinion.” He reiterated that point Monday on Fox News.

Note several things. First, note the venue on which he makes these remarks: FOX, a network designed and built to feed and reinforce GOP unit cohesion and the GOP consensus. Second, note that Hannity treats him with kid gloves. Third, note that despite the veneer, Ball is all about torture as vengeance, not intel. Fourth, note that the rights of citizens proceed, for Ball, not from the hand of God, but from the opinion of the state. Fifth, note that he regards basic civil rights as “playing paddy cake” and not as the bare minimum of human decency. And sixth, note that this total contempt for the elementary rule of law is a campaign bragging point–because he knows the Tea Party zealot wing of the GOP base has, if anything, only doubled down on their zeal for this, not regretted it one iota. Most ardent “conservatives”, he knows, *long* to make America a torture state. It’s ruthless, efficient, and manly. And he’s not wrong in this perception. According to polls, the more one identifies as a conservative Catholic or Evangelical, the more one loves torture.

The instant the Bourbon GOP regains power, torture will be back. It remembers everything and learns nothing. And conservative Catholics will, if history is any indication, provide the philosophical and theological rationales for spitting on the Church’s teaching and supporting this filth. Catholics for a Free Choice should open a branch office for conservative Catholic torture zealots. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.

Oh. And did you hear the huge outcry from conservative Catholics for the bishops to excommunicate him along with Pelosi for giving scandal and openly dissenting from Church teaching on a matter of mortal sin? Yeah. Me neither. The cafeteria is wide open.

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