Does anybody in America believe that putting someone naked in a coffin like box

[Winterblues]

and putting insects in the box with them is not unusual punishment. If it was considered usual I think there would be records of us doing it to other prisoners. How can someone say it is not unusual? I can understand them saying putting a caterpillar on someone is not torture but they can not say it isn't unusual.. There is a stipulation on cruel and unusual punishment and playing on a person's fear of insects is definitely cruel and unusual.

[Ian David]

1. We just have to start doing it to everyone as part of The Confirmation process for public office.

Then, it won't be unusual anymore.

[MineralMan]

3. I think it should be required for all Republicans as a condition

of their voter registration.

[dem629]

2. What kind of caterpillar was it?

[Ian David]

4. THIS ONE...

[MineralMan]

5. Oooh! Pretty! A Spicebush Swallowtail.

Lovely.

[dem629]

6. It always reminds me of a yellow cartoon dinosaur. The head, especially.

[MineralMan]

11. Yeah. The fake eyes are most cool...scare off those

birdies.

I raised a Cecropia moth caterpillar from an egg once. I found a cluster of eggs on a bush in my yard and took a couple to raise in a jar. It was spectacular in the last instar.

I have a 16"x20" photo of it...all flurorescent blue and green and red.

[Uncle Joe]

7. They would falsely have you believe the insect is the torture, taking focus

away from the intense fear created by that scenario. The magnification of fear is the torture.

The prisoner doesn't know if the insect was poisonous, the prisoner may be claustrophobic, even if the prisoner knows the insect isn't poisonous, they may have a phobia against insects.

Thus enclosing some people in a coffin like box with an insect could lead to cardiac arrest.

At the very least that is torture, with the possibility of becoming murder.

Thanks for the thread, Winterblues.

[mikelgb]

9. Yes and it sounds like they were personalizing the torture to fit the victim

choosing his 'irrational" fear of insects and using it against him

like forced fear factor

[Uncle Joe]

13. Yes, I believe they were personalizing it and there may be some psychologists and doctors in trouble

over this issue.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3837360

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041703690.html?hpid=topnews

<snip>

"The role of health professionals as described in the documents has prompted a renewed outcry from ethicists who say the conduct of psychologists and supervising physicians violated basic standards of their professions.

<snip>

Their names are among the few details censored in the long-concealed Bush administration memos released Thursday, but the documents show a steady stream of psychologists, physicians and other health officials who both kept detainees alive and actively participated in designing the interrogation program and monitoring its implementation. Their presence also enabled the government to argue that the interrogations did not include torture."

<snip>

[ejpoeta]

8. i have an idea!!! anyone who wants to be a us rep or senator must first

put themselves through some of these non torturous things. Along with getting signatures and whatever other hoops they must jump through, they must endure some of this stuff themselves.

[Stevenmarc]

10. Well it was good TV when they did it on Fear Factor

[Common Sense Party]

15. Then they had to eat the bugs.

[Uncle Joe]

16. They volunteered, were doing it for money and or "fame," that's not torture. n/t

[backtoblue]

12. One of the greatest fears throughout history was being buried alive

To "wake up" in a coffin is a horrifying nightmare. It is emotional, physical, and psychological torture all bundled up into one tiny little box.

[n2doc]

14. The bigger problem is that there are significant numbers of us who think it wasn't "enough"

There are about 20% of "Americans" who would support summarily publicly torturing others to death so long as a: they aren't White, and b: A Republican says they are a Terrorist. No other evidence or trial required. And point "a" might be waived so long as the Republican reassured them that the person being killed was a "liberal".

These are the people that need to be shamed back under the rocks they came from.

[AllentownJake]

19. Yep and those are the same people

who are worried that Obama is going to take their guns and round them up. They believe that because that is what they would like to do to the people they disagree with and assume the President is the same as them.

[damntexdem]

17. Only if it's a termite, and the box is wooden.

Hey, we all know that it was torture -- why debate it with the Rethugs?

[jmg257]

18. Where is this stipulation - that covers bugs (unusual), but not other torture? n/t