But it is a big deal

I am still kinda in shock, trying to get my head around not just the glib dismissal of torture by this president in an interview on ABC last Friday. Torture was pre-authorized like a god-damned elective medical procedure, before the legal opinions were fixed to fit the policy.

"So?" doesn't shock me, not coming from this criminal gang. The collective yawn from the American people, on the other hand, breaks my fucking heart.

The Kansas City Star editorial board writes: "It's shameful that the United States has become, under the Bush administration, a country that tortures prisoners. This is a dark stain on our country's honor and ideals.

"And it was disturbing, although not surprising, to learn this week that top White House officials, from Vice President Dick Cheney on down, were deeply involved in shaping and approving a torture policy -- including giving assent to specific harsh techniques such as waterboarding, according to Associated Press. . . .

"ABC News, which broke the story Wednesday, reported that some of the principals understood the moral swamp into which they were wading.

"'Why are we talking about this in the White House?' Ashcroft is quoted as saying at one meeting. 'History will not judge this kindly.'

"Nor will history judge the American people kindly if we look the other way."

I agree with the Star's Editorial Board.

This is a big deal. This is a huge deal. It cuts to the heart of what defines America.

It was not so long ago that I lived every single day of my life on the front lines of the Cold War, frequently I lived atop hundreds of megatons of instant death and destruction, and sent my husband to work on those doomsday machines every singe day.

We won that one, and the reason we won was we had the more attractive guiding principles. We didn't torture. We didn't send people to gulags. We didn't rig elections. We didn't pledge fealty to authoritarianism in a quest to quiet our irrational fears.

In short, we were just flat out better people. Or at least we fancied ourselves as such, and we thought the white hats looked quite fetching.

I want to be proud again.

I want to be right again. Not me personally. I have been all along, and I have the archives to prove it.

I mean I want America to be right again, as in morally correct.