On the normalization of torture

As more timely bloggers than I have pointer out, Supreme Court Justice said the other day:

...it would be absurd to say that you can’t stick something under the fingernails, smack them in the face. It would be absurd to say that you couldn’t do that.

I just want to point out the complete moral turpitude of what Scalia is saying. He's not even bothering to participate in the legal sophistry so popular among Republicans these days that waterboarding isn't torture. He's flat-out saying that the US can torture detainees. He's talking about putting splinters under people's fingernails, for crying out loud.

That's where this issue has brought us. It used to be that the United States could claim to be a moral authority in the world. Now a member of the highest court in the land is claiming the US has the legal authority to torture captives and it barely even makes the news.