Griper Blade: Running on Empty

Occasionally, a poll reveals a somewhat disturbing attitude among Americans. Even when the poll is otherwise good news, we're often reminded that there are a lot of scary people in the Great Land of Ours. Take a recent CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll, for example. Hidden in the good news is a dark revelation for the mathematically inclined.

Asked whether they think waterboarding is a form of torture, more than two-thirds of respondents, or 69 percent, said yes; 29 percent said no.

Asked whether they think the U.S. government should be allowed to use the procedure to try to get information from suspected terrorists, 58 percent said no; 40 percent said yes.

So, if 69% thinks it's torture, but only 58% think we shouldn't do it, then somewhere around 11% of respondents either think we should torture or are undecided on the issue. There's a vein of sadism in the US...

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