spEak You’re bRanes

11 Responses to “Pop Quiz”

1. on 22 Dec 2007 at 3:14 pm   Nelson
   
   

   Can I ask the audience?

2. on 22 Dec 2007 at 8:09 pm   eeeeeek
   
   

   I think we should make him spend a week with a social worker.

3. on 22 Dec 2007 at 9:43 pm   Dornouse
   
   

   Stop watching 24?

4. on 23 Dec 2007 at 1:45 am   Dave
   
   

   I’d say “my, isn’t this an implausible a set of circumstances”. A commentator on the Unspeak blog pointed out these alternative scenarios, from an article in Reason magazine:
   

   Let’s say you’ve caught a suspect and you’re sure he’s a terrorist, and you’re sure there’s a nuclear bomb somewhere in Manhattan, and you’re sure he knows where it is, and you’re sure this particular terrorist has been trained to resist torture just long enough that you could never get the true location of the bomb out of him in time.

   ‘But you’re also sure this particular terrorist is a pervert! And he tells you that if you’ll rape your own child in front of him, he’ll tell you exactly where the bomb is and how to disarm it.

   ‘And you’re sure that he will, because your intelligence is that good in exactly that way.” [LOL! If you’ll pardon the expression]

   ‘Wow! Fascinating hypothetical, huh? And it’s only slightly more far-fetched than the more familiar ticking time bomb scenario, in which you must torture the suspect to save all those innocent people. Both versions have to be laid out awfully precisely.

   …

   Here’s another poser: Suppose you’re an innocent suspect whom your captors are convinced is a terrorist. They don’t believe your protestations, so they decide to torture you into a confession. The more you protest your innocence, the more frustrated they get that you won’t “crack.” What do you say to get them to stop? How do you get them not to decide they need to hurt you even more?

5. on 23 Dec 2007 at 7:36 pm   Hugh Floppy Haired Fop
   
   

   If they told me there was a nuclear bomb about to go off in New York, I would rush home to watch it on the telly. On such a historic occasion, it would be a embarassing to admit that you spent it in a darked torture dungeon with terrorists.

6. on 23 Dec 2007 at 11:40 pm   6000
   
   

   Why does no-one suggest asking Mr Bin Laden politely if he’d reveal the whereabouts of your family?

   Apparently, he’s a lovely guy. I’m sure he’d oblige.

7. on 26 Dec 2007 at 7:30 am   john cramer
   
   

   The trouble with torture is that is contageous. Soon everyone can justify it.
   Already American police are getting rather free with their taser torture.

8. on 01 Jan 2008 at 5:42 pm   phil
   
   

   well it’s hardly the time to start reciting Ray Davis lyrics

9. on 09 Jan 2008 at 11:30 pm   westie
   
   

   Michelle - what do you mean
   “torture is never justified”

   do the words X Factor or
   Strictly Come Dancing
   ring any bells???? Huh?
   so you wouldn’t pull the fingernails out of Simon Cowell or dearest Dannii given half a chance ?? thought so.

10. on 05 Feb 2008 at 1:04 pm   AitchJay
    
    

    “He knows the whereabouts of your family and has organised their death.”

    Um, ring them and tell them to go somewhere else..?

    Oh - they were meant to have been kidnapped - I get it now..

11. on 04 Jul 2008 at 8:47 pm   James (different James)
    
    

    “Torture is NEVER justified…………..

    Michelle, Greenport, NY ”

    Michelle, you are in a room with Osama Bin Laden, you know 100% it’s him, the real deal. He knows the whereabouts of your family and has organised their death.

    What cha gonna do?

    View Pointer

    Hand him in for the reward then flog my story to every paper and tv station that I can. Sod the family, I’ll have billions.

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