That lyric is like Marc Thiessen’s unofficial motto. Andrew Sullivan delivers an Ash Wednesday lesson in Catholic antipathy to torture that’s truly eloquent. Shame on anyone who says Andrew emotes rather than thinks. Not being Catholic, I can hardly participate in the spiritual or doctrinal element of his post, but the lessons of Catholicism on the question of torture and human dignity are, it’s safe to say, universal.

As for Thiessen… My boss forwarded me this Crooks & Liars link of the guy claiming with a straight face that Abu Zubaydah thanked his torturers for waterboarding him. It’s a claim that can never truly be disproven, and even if one day Abu Zubaydah comes forward to deny it, we’ll inevitably hear all about how we’re gullible for believing a terrorist. But it’s indicative of something sick that Thiessen would feel the need to say that Zubaydah was somehow grateful for the torture. Degradation inflicted on a helpless man — no matter how evil, as al-Qaeda is — becomes something redemptive, a gift we bestow, rather than a punishment we choose to inflict. That is righteous fanaticism right there.