bush defends torture of pledges
if it’s good enough for frat boys at yale, then it’s good enough for anyone, eh?
should i really call this torture? maybe not.
Many athletes were in DKE, and it was famous for its parties, rowdiness and hazing. Former members say that the new pledges were paddled, battered and then shown a large iron brand glowing red hot in the fireplace. They were told to turn around to be branded, and then a much smaller brand (made of a wire hanger) was substituted to burn a triangle in the small of their backs, as the large brand was dipped into water to make a heart-stopping sizzle.
it’s an old story, really, it even got press coverage in the 2000 election, but i figured i should chime in as well, inspired by ‘Doonesbury’ Artist Trudeau Skewers Bush [ap, via abcnews].
Liberties; President Frat Boy? [dke.org / new york times]”The charge that has caused the most controversy on the Yale campus,” Mr. Weisman wrote, ”is that Delta Kappa Epsilon applied a ‘hot branding iron’ to the small of the back of its 40 new members in ceremonies two weeks ago. A photograph showing a scab in the shape of the Greek letter delta, approximately a half inch wide, appeared with the article. A former president of Delta said that the branding is done with a hot coat hanger. But the former president, George Bush, a Yale senior, said that the resulting wound is ‘only a cigarette burn.’ ” The fraternities were fined by the Yale Interfraternity Council.
it seems that president bush hasn’t learned much about doing bad things and getting sanctioned when caught, and it’s been a lesson he’s had available since the late 1960’s, at least.