News Item -Some Un-PC Comments on torture

[Art Johnson]

A friend sent me the following tid bit;

T. Bechtol, part-time City Councilman from Pensacola, Florida, was asked on a local live radio talk show the other day just what he thought of the allegations of   torture of the Iraqi prisoners.

His reply prompted his ejection from the studio, but to thunderous applause from the audience. He had said: "If hooking up an Iraqi prisoner's scrotum to a car's   battery cables will save one American G.I.'s life, then I have just two things to say:      

"Red is positive   &   Black is negative."

 

[NavyGrunt]

I laughed when I read that. But i have a problem with the logic. One could argue that those photos of torture have cost American G.I's their lives.

 

[Blindspot]

Couldn't you be arrested up here for saying something so un-pc?

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

I remember reading on another forum an interview with a people sharp shooter and was asked by the reporter what he felt about shooting the suspect.  He replied that he felt a slight recoil.

 

[HollywoodHitman]

CFL.........Thats the funniest thing I have heard all day! He's not lying though, is he!? War is hell. :threat:

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

I believe it was a report from one of the southern states.  I also belive it was real.

 

[Scott]

I remember reading on another forum an interview with a people sharp shooter and was asked by the reporter what he felt about shooting the suspect. He replied that he felt a slight recoil.

Black Humour. Often misunderstood but so important. The "older hands" in the fire service alwasy told me that if the general public could listen in on some of our conversations that there would be a huge uproar and demand to have us all fired and committed.

It's a defence mechanism, a way to purge. I hate using all of the psychobabble terms but I do think that it's a very important thing. Some think that those of us who are exposed to grim situations shouldn't talk about it or should just talk to the "professionals". What I have always stated is that there is no way in hell I am going to open up to some fella who buried his nose in the books, got a degree and now feels qualified to dispense advice about things he has no understanding about. I know that this sounds like a very harsh and inflammatory statement, I wish I could tailor it so it will not offend people here, but that's the way it is. Whenever I have felt the need to talk to someone it has always been one of the guys that I have shared the experience(s) with. The person I talk to may not have been there beside me when whatever happened but they have been in similar situations and can relate. They also know firsthand the stresses involved completely with the job, the risks, etc. Unless one has been there they can not relate, IMHO.

When I was on OP Persistence, we were housed in a fire hall (the irony) We had the head shrinkers sitting us down to talk twice a day at lunch and after the day was done. Pretty quiet times, the shrinks did all the talking and we sat there fidgeting. When my section commander was asked if there was anything that they could do to help us he said, "Drop off two beer per man then fuck off so we can talk amongst ourselves" The shrinks were pretty offended but he went on to explain himself almost exactly as I just did, he would have felt much better talking to one of his "Buddies" We all know this term, we're all taught to "Watch out for your buddy" and so on. So, I find that it's only natural for us to want to stick with our buddy when we have something not so pleasant on our minds.

That councilman, had he been addressing soldiers may have gotten a different response. I talk differently among the guys I work with. I don't tell my girlfriend the same things, in the same way, that I may tell the guys at the hall.

Sorry for performing a bit of a hijack, interested in replies/rebuttals.

They're just thoughts.

 

[HollywoodHitman]

I would tend to agree with your statement overall. People hang out with people who are cut from the same cloth. Soldiers with soldiers, cops with cops, firefighters with firefighters......You can talk about and laugh about the things you see and do, and there isn't the need to have to explain the simple stuff associated with it. Black humor is indeed a coping mechanism and the best thing to do is not bring it home to family members who couldn't possibly understand it.

As un-PC as it may be, I am not sure I could argue with that politicians logic......If I were him though, I think I would have chosen a slightly less public forum to use than he did. A group of soldiers who were coming or going to Iraq may have been more appropriate, but these days even an off colour joke can be misconstrued and blown WAY out of proportion.......

 

[Sheerin]

At the risk of sounding anal, I feel I should point out that the above story isn't exactly true.

T. Bubba Bechtol does indeed claim ownership of this quote, but he is not a Pensacola City Councilman (part-time or otherwise) nor indeed a real person. Rather, he is the on-stage persona of James Terryl Bechtol, a comedian who has appeared more than one hundred times on the Grand Ole Opry, the world's longest-running live radio show.

According to the 2 July 2004 entry in the Random Thoughts section of his web site, the comedic invention that is T. Bubba Bechtol claims the statement as his own, posting that he voiced it during a then-recent radio interview, after which he was asked to depart the premises even as the audience applauded the sentiment he'd expressed. And it is upon this last point that our Undetermined rating hangs â ” we do not know if there was such a radio appearance or if this is no more than a "Bubba" story. We tend to suspect the latter, given that none of the radio studios we've done interviews from contained audiences â ” such appearances amounted to just us and the host, with possibly a call screener off in another room. However, one can't rule out the possibility that such an interview was conducted as a "live remote" from a location outside the studio.

taken from http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/bechtol.asp .  Man I love that website. 

 

[HollywoodHitman]

Just the fact that it was considered as a possibility is funny.....I've spent some time in the US South and thats the way it is!