Our Anti-Western Framers

Eugene Volokh, while often one of the best conservative bloggers, has always teetered precariously over the shark tank of wingnuttery, and now he’s dived right in. (Admittedly, Jim Henley accurately saw this a long time ago.) Needless to say, fellow fake libertarian Glenn Reynolds is now in favor of torture after he was against it. (I particularly enjoy the InstaSadist’s claim that people who oppose torturing people to death are simply “squeamish.” Damn James Madison and the equally squeamish states that ratified the 8th Amendment for writing anti-Western values into our Constitution!) As Roy notes, Volokh–who has always supported torture–has at least been consistent, although in this context this is hardly a virtue. Aside from the odious ethics of the argument, Volokh of course simply assumes that a rational criminal justice system can co-exist with openly sadistic punishments, that such punishments can easily be cabined to particularly bad crimes committed by plainly guilty people, etc. I had to read the original post again twice to make sure it was Volokh rather than one of his more wingnutty co-bloggers, but I’m afraid that between this and Jacob Levy leaving, this is one more reactionary blog I see no need to read in the future.