Well, it's happened.

Here. I was kind of wondering when it would. I'm sure it happens all over the world all the time, but this is the most public retort I've seen so far. Basically there was a time where we could've kept to the moral highroad and still had somewhat of a straight face, you know "America, the leader of human rights, huzzaaah." But now, it's the "somewhat higher road" where parties have to start arguing over relative numbers. "You had lots and lots of torture, and we only had 10% more torture compared to last year, so ha!" Then there's "collateral damage." I'm not going to get into that much here, but it's amazing how willing some people are to accept it. The hypocrisy is astounding.

What's the point of this rant? I think I'm just annoyed with the morons who make these grand decisions stateside and think there will be no consequences. "Let's lock up these people indefinitely!" In my opinion, in order to remain "good" and "better", a country has to stick to the highground morally and legally. These people think that we can dip down, curb some civil rights, torture a little bit on the side, bomb anything that moves, and everything will be OK. Maybe more lives will be saved (ours), but now we have more bullshit comparisons coming up (which are just the beginning of potentially crappy, long-term international effects), and sadly, they're gaining credibility. Hopefully it gets no further than the "gaining" stage. I should also note that, regarding blacks, compared to some other modernized countries, we're not the worst. Japan, as far as I know, still hasn't reinstated citizenship/suffrage to Korean war-slaves they brought over from World War 2. Basically, once the San Francisco treaty was signed, it was, "Get the fuck out."

But anyway I'll end my rambling with the Ben Franklin quote that's becoming cliche:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."