Letter to Chuck Schumer

Sen. Schumer,

You have given your assent to torture when your moral and legal duty was to oppose it. Opposition to waterboarding need not be paramount; it is still well below the minimum standard for any law enforcement officer, much less the highest in the land.

When the International Criminal Court asserts its jurisdiction ex post facto against the Bush administration, as the Allies did at Nuremberg, you'll be in the dock, too. I'm sorry to say that you'll deserve it, and it breaks my heart. But you've given your consent to continued crimes against humanity, and that stain requires punishment.

Next year's fast on Yom Kippur cannot atone for this, but on that holy day you should remember what you could have done on this day.

What right have I, a Gentile, to hector you about your faith? You let me worry about the mote in my eye.

--LL

Update: This would have been better with a citation from Jewish scripture, not the mote-beam story from Matthew. Sorry!