Nov 19/05  In NEWSWEEK's Nov 21/05 Torture Issue, Senator John McCain, in his essay regarding his opposition to torture, said in part:

       "What I do mourn is what we lose when by official policy or official neglect we allow, confuse or encourage our soldiers to forget that best sense of ourselves, that which is our greatest strength--that we are different and better than our enemies, that we fight for an idea, not a tribe, not a land, not a king, not a twisted interpretation of an ancient religion, but for an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights."

       Of course, to be a wee politically incorrect, we Americans are not all born equal with inalienable rights;  some of us are white, some black, some yellow, some stupid, some smart, some rich, some poor; for instance most of us will never enjoy the great health benefit and pension perks enjoyed by Senators.

      But you get the picture, folks. The Senator, a very decent man, unlike Bush/Cheney, is someone who has bravely served his country in combat, who has been tortured and has retained his sense of honor, and who merely by his example and his words sincerely wants us to seek a much higher level of morality than the devious administration crowd, which appears to sink lower and lower into the muck every time I look.

       So thank you, Senator McCain.  And are you listening Mr. Cheney, you of the dark side believing in torture, approved of in this regard by your President, in spite of the increasing distance between you?