Well, I suppose I can say in public what I told Larisa in private, after learning that she will interview new nemesis Alan Dershowitz: There's almost no point to the exercise. What could one ask? Dershowitz is one of those characters who would argue ad nauseum against the blueness of the sky, if doing so were in his interest.
Wait. I know what I'd do: Come armed with a bunch of research into Israeli torture. He would deny, deny, deny, of course -- but eventually he would find himself defending the idea of torture in a non-"ticking time bomb" situation.
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You mean you're not conversant in the ways of Talmudic give-and-take-back? Do you know about the guy who dropped his buttered slice of bread and broke Murphy's Law when it landed buttered side up? He went to his rabbi to find out how it could have happened. His rabbi couldn't answer, he said he'd consult the other rabbis and get back to him next week. Next week, he says to the guy that the rabbis consulted the Talmud and also the Mishna, and they concluded that he buttered the wrong side of the bread.
So, a genuine ticking mainspring time-bomb, as distinct from a genuine quartz digital silent time-bomb, would be Swiss made if it's a genuine threat, and Switzerland remains neutral in every bellicose situation.
Anyway, about pop culture again: In Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, General Ripper asks Group Captain Mandrake if he was ever tortured. Yes, he says, by the Japanese, rather unpleasant, and they really didn't want to find anything out. Ripper says that the US Army is going to torture him to get the recall code from him, and he doesn't think he can stand up to it. "Well, nobody ever does," Mandrake says. And you know the rest. Okay, GE College Bowl contestants, here's your toss-up: When you saw that movie, did you believe that dialogue? Here's your bonus: How many points will the AFI deduct from the movie's value now?
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