24

I watched the season premier last night and continued to question why it is that both Dick Cheney and I like that show. I know why he likes the show.

Jack Bauer confessed his torturing sins to a Senate committee but was unrepentant about it. Then he gets paired up with an FBI team on the trail of some terrorists; the FBI people do not trust Bauer because they don't believe in torture. Until... Bauer and a female agent have a would-be informant cornered in his room and he isn't about to give up any information to them through the usual highly skilled non-coercive investigative techniques used by law enforcement, at least not in the 30 seconds they have to explore that possibility on the show. So Bauer turns to the hardened, squeaky-clean agent and says, "So what do you want me to do?" And she melts in his arms and says, "Do with me anything you want!" Or that's what it looked like to me even though I heard her tell him to go ahead and torture the hell out of the guy.

So what does Bauer do? He grabs a ball-point pen and yanks the guy's head to the side and is just about to ram the pen into his ear when the guy pleads for mercy. "I'll talk, I'll talk, just don't stick me with the pen!" Fortunately for the informant there was a terrorist sniper outside who put him out of his misery before he could talk or be poked with the pen.

I started laughing as soon as Bauer grabbed the pen and pretty much lost interest in the rest of the show. I keep hoping that the writers will allow Bauer at some point to feel some remorse or question his own sick mind. But until the ratings start to slip he is likely going to keep torturing.