My Pa, the Prognosticator

My dad did two or three years in the Navy, supposedly volunteering for a longer stint in order to remain in the States. I mean, I don't doubt his claim, just doubt that any branch of the U.S. military would honor that kind of commitment. See "stop-loss." Anyway, that's why I was born in San Diego, CA instead of somewhere on the path of white flight away from Detroit.

I know he worked as a clerk in the Navy, took a lot of heating and cooling and plumbing classes, and that he only had six weeks on a ship to Guantanamo and back. Pa passed along this nugget of wisdom based on his experience: the difference between being on a ship at sea and being in prison is that you're less likely to drown in prison.

The Bush administration is making this joke more true than ever before. From The Guardian:
US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships. I was going to say Pa was wrong in terms of drowning, given the current policy on waterboarding U.S. prisoners anywhere on dry land, but it was true at the time he made that statement, back when the laws against torture were still ostensibly honored by the U.S.