Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for June 27, 2013
Transcript:
Enjoy this Classic Tom the Dancing Bug Every Thursday Panels from the annals of the Tom the Dancing Bug archive Check back every Friday for a fresh, brand new Tom the Dancing Bug! Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling OUTLAW TORTURE?! What if we capture a terrorist who knows where a TICKING NUCLEAR TIME BOMB is! Shouldn't we be allowed to TORTURE him to get him to talk? Dick Cheney's philosophical THOUGHT-EXPERIMENT LEGISLATION Man #1: There's a bomb hidden in Times Square, and this baby SWALLOWED instructions on how to defuse it! Man #2: Damn those legislators who shortsightedly outlawed ripping open live babies! Man: A terrorist cut the brakes on this trolley! Man #2: Do we switch the tracks to avoid hitting FIVE people, but thereby hitting ONE?! Man #3: We can't! It's illegal for unauthorized personnel to touch the controls! Man #1: This monkey has been randomly hitting keys for an infinite number of years! Now it's blogging the current U.S. nuclear launch codes! We must stop it! Man #2: No! Animal rights nuts have made shooting monkeys illegal!
jnik23260 over 11 years ago
But it was legal for Cheney to shoot his hunting partner!
pumaman over 11 years ago
And the only way to possibly stop the monkey is to shoot it. Obviously!
briannomi Premium Member over 11 years ago
Not sure the point Ruben is making in this strip. Is it a (somewhat lame) way of saying that it is always wrong to torture terrorists?
wonderer over 11 years ago
briannomi, the point as i see it is that torture doesnt work. the terr’ist can just tell you anything till the ticking time bomb blows up. the arguments tricky dick cheney makes is just as false, (and lame), as the other arguments presented here.
By-jiminy over 11 years ago
I’m not sure what his point is, but it might be that wholesale legalization of atrocities in anticipation of highly implausible and at most extremely rare events is silly.
The way I see it, even in any of those scenarios there’s no reason to legalize it. If a nuclear bomb was about to go off and I could stop it by killing someone I wouldn’t let some law stop me. If it’s really that urgent, and you’re really sure it’s necessary, break the law. If it’s not important enough to risk breaking a law, it’s not important enough to torture or kill someone. All legalizing torture does is enable it in non-urgent situations — exactly when it should be forbidden.
Fourcrows over 11 years ago
Not sure if you’re serious or not, but FYI – Thursday’s are for “Classic TTDB” – this was written when Cheney was in power. Tune in tomorrow for something more up to date.
jpozenel over 11 years ago
How times have changed!
Malcolm Hall over 11 years ago
I think Barack and Eric are turning into a pretty good comedy duo.
Ushindi over 11 years ago
In answer to your question, I would choose Biden, or ANYONE else, besides Darth Cheney.I sincerely hope that Cheney never again becomes visible in American politics.
braindead Premium Member over 11 years ago
Copyright is 2005.-Not that that matters, since Republicans/Fox “news” viewers continue to deny that Bush or Cheney ever did anything wrong, especially those things that have lasting consequences.
King_Shark over 11 years ago
Ather: like…unplugging the computer, for instance?
jpgillam over 11 years ago
briannomi, the cartoon lampoons policies based on hypothetical, “what if” scenarios that are highly unlikely, especially when such policies conflict with more common, everyday practicalities. For example, it’s good policy to disallow unauthorized people from controlling trolley cars, even though one could conceivably imagine a scenario when that rule would cause a problem.