Today's Must Read: How the U.S. got into the torture business

The crass stupidity of this is jaw-dropping. These are the people who led our nation? From today's New York Times comes the report that the United States began torturing people because the Bush Administration couldn't be bothered, or was too stupid, to research the history, source and even the effectiveness of the techniques it employed.

The process was “a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm,” a former C.I.A. official said.

Behind it all? The idea of creating "learned helplessness" -- destroying people's psyche to the point that they acted as if they were pieces of furniture. Sound familiar?