Comparison and Contrast: Privacy and Violation of Human Rights

Full piece posted on ePluribus Media 2.0.

As is often the case in hotly contested discussion, claims of invalid comparisons are often made alongside calls to compare “apples to apples” instead of “apples to ice buckets” or some other such mis-matched scale.

In order to help further along the discussion of why rendition, torture and individual rights to privacy, decency and proper representation in a court of law matters no matter the reason, I present two current stories after the fold that both concern the abuse of a man and a tortured penis.

Make the jump…

Here are the two stories:

Tattooed privates prove not so private:

PHOENIX – A surgeon faces a disciplinary hearing for snapping a photo of a patient’s tattooed genitals during an operation and showing it around to other doctors.

[…snip…]

“Patient privacy is a serious matter, and photographing someone in this manner without a good reason is something we will investigate down to the last detail,” said Dr. Joseph Sirven…

The patient/victim stated “The longer I sit here the angrier I get.”

Now compare it to this article, Lawyer: CIA Has Photos of Outsourced Torture of Gitmo Suspect:

A lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspect allegedly tortured in Morocco when his interrogation was outsourced by the U.S. says the CIA was present and has photographs of the physical abuse of his client.

Binyam Mohamed, a 27-year-old Ethiopian was sliced in the chest and penis by interrogators during the 18 months he was held in Morocco in 2002 and 2003, according to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith of Reprieve, a British human rights group.

So…don’t ~both~ men deserve to have their days in court? Do the crimes and offenses committed against one man compare in any way to those committed against the other, or can you justify either circumstance and let the perpetrators off scott-free?

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There’s a little more to this piece over on ePluribus Media, so please go read the whole thing over there. I thought the comparison and contrast cases alone were plenty — perhaps too much? — for folks to get a good taste of feel for flavor of sense of the interesting subtleties and subtexts of hypocrisy and arrogance at the expense of basic humanity in our world today. My apologies if this unsettled anyone’s tummy before breakfast.

Happy Holidays to all.

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Note: This same piece is also posted over on DailyKos; the full piece alone resides on ePluribus Media. The sole difference between this version and the one on dKos is the inclusion over there of a particularly appropriate example of holiday gift-giving using a wide stance…

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11 comments

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    • GreyHawk on December 20, 2007 at 14:49
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  1. I probably wouldn’t get a tattoo on my genitals which means I have the soul of a suburbanite. However, surgeons tend to be assholes so that doesn’t surprise me, and the guy deserves discipline and the patient some retribution.

    The other gentleman deserves a gabillion dollars in compensation which he won’t get and an apology which he won’t get.

  2. Keeping subjects like this continuously “in the news” has the added benefit of lowering world and American opinions of America.

    Just look back at the most recent years and recall the many things in the news, promoted by “news” over and over again.  Most/all have a theme destructive to the image of America or American traditions.

    The priest pedophile scandals, Janet Jackson’s breast, torture, spying,tazers,Katrina, immigration.

    Passion about these issues filters down to two “sides” who argue and fight about it, never resolving anything.

    Some asshole at Carslyle actually bought the Magna Carter.  If we even valued such a thing as a species we would not have allowed this.

    And what will he do with it?  Most likely sacrifice it to the giant Owl satute at Bohemian Grove next summer.

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