The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life

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Comparing 24 to Life

By W. James Antle, III on 8.25.09 @ 1:23PM

I understand what Jonah Goldberg is getting at here -- that despite the controversies about torture allegations, popular culture suggests that most Americans don't instinctively mind rough stuff being done to bad guys. But there are some important qualifications here. In a TV show or movie, the audience "knows" to a moral certainty that the person being dealt with harshly is guilty. And the audience usually "knows" that the torture is preventing some forseeable evil. Neither of those things are always known in the real world.

Comments

Tim| 8.25.09 @ 4:10PM

"Neither of those things are always known in the real world. "

But sometimes they are known.

Fred| 8.25.09 @ 4:56PM

As they were known in the actual cases being talked about. Antle III's qualifications are about as useful as his statements usually are.

Pingback| 8.25.09 @ 5:36PM

Anurag’s Blog » The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…| More to Love Season 1 Episode 5 Online … Ads By Google Search The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life Comparing 24 to Life . By W. Originally posted here: The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life This entry is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Prev/Next Posts…

Pingback| 8.25.09 @ 5:54PM

Sax And Violins In Movies, Part 428 « Around The Sphere links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…by the way). In short, I believe in making distinctions based upon the facts and circumstances as best I can. If there’s a better way to do it, let me know. Some bloggers are arguing against Jonah. James Antle in The American Spectator: I understand what Jonah Goldberg is getting at here — that despite the controversies about torture allegations, popular culture suggests that most Americans don’t…

MattSwartz| 8.25.09 @ 11:59PM

As they were known in the actual cases being talked about. Antle III's qualifications are about as useful as his statements usually are.

That is inaccurate.

It is positively certain that not every person tortured by the US and their surrogates was engaged in terrorism.

It is unlikely that a majority were so engaged, either. What that means is that America, the birthplace of the world's greatest Constitution, ignored all of it's best principles to torture innocent people because some of it's employees were scared.

Pingback| 8.26.09 @ 6:38AM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life [s links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Philip Klein amspec American Spectator 106 Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/ZyCEb info http://bit.ly/nNTZX info 2 tweets Tweet The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Comparing 24 to Life spectator.org/blog/2009/08/25/comparing-24-to-life – view page – cached I understand what Jonah Goldberg is getting at here -- that despite the controversies about…