Jay Bybee on the torture memos he helped write:
He said he was “proud of our opinions” at the Office of Legal Counsel, too, calling them “well researched” and “very carefully written.”
Still, he said the controversy surrounding his tenure there had been difficult.
“I have regrets because of the notoriety that this has brought me,” he said. “It has imposed enormous pressures on me both professionally and personally. It has had an impact on my family. And I regret that, as a result of my government service, that that kind of attention has been visited on me and on my family.”
Glenn Greenwald on Jay Bybee:
Just think about that. The so-called "government service" Jay Bybee did caused countless detainees to be subjected to systematized, medieval torture techniques designed to permanently break their mind and spirit. Innocent men spent years wasting away in a cage, with no due process of any kind, subjected to horrific and life-destroying abuse because of what Bybee authorized. For that work, he was rewarded with a life tenured, permanently-well-paying job as a federal appellate judge. But the only victim he recognizes in all of this is himself, and the only "regret" he has is the self-pitying objection that the dark, ugly and destructive work he did caused him to be subjected to some criticisms.
David Brooks on Mel Gibson:
Let us enter, you and I, into the moral universe of the modern narcissist.
The narcissistic person is marked by a grandiose self-image, a constant need for admiration, and a general lack of empathy for others. He is the keeper of a sacred flame, which is the flame he holds to celebrate himself.
I think that about nails it.
