Reply #13: I think Bush has made lying cool.

[undeterred]

It feels like we are in an era when everyone lies and thinks nothing of it- it isn't a big deal unless you get caught and punished for it, but that hardly ever happens. It would be hard to prove, but it doesn't seem like as much of a stretch to say that Bush has made lying more acceptable.

It would be a longer walk to say that about torture, but I do worry about the youngest generation. Growing up, the only time I ever heard of torture was that it was something that other countries might do to American prisoners, things too horrible to imagine. I knew that Amnesty International was a group fighting against it. I never saw images of what it entailed.

During the past 6 years I have seen and heard more about what torture is, who is doing it, and what it entails than ever before. Honestly, I could have lived the rest of my life without knowing what "waterboarding" is. So I wonder- are teenagers, who have may have no adult guidance or common sense for processing what they see, being exposed to things they simply can't handle? Do they think its cool to do horrible things and videotape it?