Rush Limbaugh asserts that the reported torture Iraqi captives by US soldiers and mercenaries is "is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?"

There are a number of superbly executed fallacies here. The first is in the phrase "what happens at a Skull and Bones initiation;" eight words does all of this:

1. hide the reported rapes, sexual abuse, deaths in custody, and other crimes by focusing on a narrow set of reported crimes
2. gloss over the contextual difference: the difference between
   • physical and psychological abuse by cultural peers, with a known duration, within a known social order in which death is rare
   • physical and psychological abuse by foreign soldiers conducted in a prison on indefinitely jailed prisoners without due process or clear legal protections, in the context of an active war where death is frequent
3. link the Iraqi prisonors with Skull and Bones alumni, including George Bush and John Kerry, which:
   • diminishes the extremity of the victims' situation by associating them with free, safe people
   • hints at blaming the victims, because it's just an initiation, not prison torture

I won't go on. If you are still listening to and deriving enjoyment from this radio entertainer, I have to ask you: why? Do you like him because his smooth lies help you dissociate yourself from any lingering liberal/pinko/pc guilt? I can see how his version of the world is much more comfortable for Americans to live in, but it's not the real world. I don't claim a monopoly on truth, but surely this is beyond the pale.