Your daily Blogging Tory stupid.

Mike McGuire: Your one-stop shop for pure retardness:

"In an ABC News interview aired Monday, retired agent John Kiriakou, who led a CIA team that captured and interrogated al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, said using the "waterboarding" technique was necessary and yielded crucial information.

"Kiriakou said the method broke Zubaydah - one of the first top al-Qaeda suspects captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks - in less than 35 seconds, according to ABC."

Wow, that do sound impressive, don't it? Sadly, though, there's reality:

One example out of many comes in Ron Suskind's gripping narrative of what the White House has celebrated as one of the war's major victories: the capture of Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in March 2002. Described as al-Qaeda's chief of operations even after U.S. and Pakistani forces kicked down his door in Faisalabad, the Saudi-born jihadist was the first al-Qaeda detainee to be shipped to a secret prison abroad. Suskind shatters the official story line here.

Abu Zubaydah, his captors discovered, turned out to be mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be. CIA and FBI analysts, poring over a diary he kept for more than a decade, found entries "in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3" -- a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. All three recorded in numbing detail "what people ate, or wore, or trifling things they said." Dan Coleman, then the FBI's top al-Qaeda analyst, told a senior bureau official, "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality."

Abu Zubaydah also appeared to know nothing about terrorist operations; rather, he was al-Qaeda's go-to guy for minor logistics -- travel for wives and children and the like. That judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind writes. And yet somehow, in a speech delivered two weeks later, President Bush portrayed Abu Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States." And over the months to come, under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.

Blogging Tory Mike McGuire -- when you need a break from Dr. Roy stupid, but don't really want to leave the neighbourhood.

ARGUING WITH CHILDREN. In a previous comments section, Ti-Guy had it exactly right -- debating with Canada's wingnuts is exactly like arguing with children. Consider their common lament that they just can't have a civil discourse with us progressives because ... well, just insert any of a number of lame-ass reasons here. In the end, the accusation is that we proggies just aren't capable of discussing the issues on their merits.

But here's BT Mike McGuire, with his definition of rhetorical success:

UPDATE: My day has been made. Anytime I can drive a moonbat this crazy, it's a good day.

And doesn't that just say everything that needs to be said? There's absolutely no interest in discussion, or facts, or evidence. Instead, the goal is to simply drive your opponent to aggravated distraction, because that's what's important.

Now do you understand why trying to hold a conversation with these people is an utter waste of time? Because you can meticulously and rigourously shred their evidence, and the best you can expect in return is "Wow, you folks sure get upset easy, har har!" or "Thanks for the links." or, my personal favourite, "Yeah, but Wanda Watkins!".

The word "pathetic" doesn't begin to do them justice. They are not to be engaged. They are to be mocked. That's all they're good for.