As seen on TV

Is Pat Buchanan really trivializing the war on terror by comparing it to a television show? You betcha:

The left may be right on the law, but the people seem to be standing by Bush. Believing the character of this war, where the enemy's preferred tactic is to slaughter civilians with terror bombings, people seem to agree that we have to follow Jack Bauer's rules, not ACLU rules.

As I've said before, it doesn't matter if people think it's okay to break the law, the law still stands. Whether it's wiretaps, speeding, or cheating on ones taxes, people who get caught still must suffer consequences, and they must be held to the rule of law or the country devolves.

Pat also uses '24' to justify torture, even though these situations often present themselves only in Hollywood, the same city that Republicans rail against as corrupting America. Go figure. But as Kevin Drum argued about last year's episode, torture doesn't really work on the show, either. And let's not forget that torture fails to produce any better results in real life, never mind the moral and ethical arguments of it all.

But now we know what Pat Buchanan thinks we should do to win the war on terror - sit around and laugh at '24.'

*UPDATE* Oh, and I should point out that the ACLU/terorrist battle is a straw man as best. The ACLU is not on the side of terrorists, but on the side of rule of law. Something, it seems, the current President has some serious problems with. And if you aren't with him, well, you know...