Toyota and Torture

I've been struck by all the heat that Toyota is taking for its "unintended acceleration" problem. There have been at least 34 deaths linked to Toyota's accelerator in the last ten years in the USA.  Whether or not Toyota is the cause, let's assume it is. What have they done about it? Recalled something like 9,000,000 vehicles, spent 100's of millions of dollars, watched sales collapse, apologized to Congress, and suffered incredibly bad press and public outrage for weeks.

And a quick aside - Why is it that only Americans suffer this fate? Toyotas are sold all over the world, yet a quick Google search didn't find any reports of deaths elsewhere in the world. Why does Toyota hate America?

As for torture, over 100 detainees have died in military or CIA custody in the last ten years. Dozens are missing or unaccounted for. Recently released internal CIA documents could be called Waterboarding for Dummies. It's truly a chilling read. Here's a taste:

"The doctors were also present to monitor the detainee "to ensure that he does not develop respiratory distress." A leaked 2007 report from the International Committee of the Red Cross says that meant the detainee's finger was fixed with a pulse oxymeter, a device that measures the oxygen saturation level in the blood during the procedure. Doctors like Allen say this would allow interrogators to push a detainee close to death – but help them from crossing the line."  

Doctors were present!! Doesn't this violate every oath a doctor takes? Where is the outrage from the medical profession, let alone the public?? Specially designed quick-tilt gurneys, medical professionals, emergency tracheotomies were all part of the officially sanctioned waterboarding procedure. What happens with the press? The story gets buried in the blogosphere.

What's the connection between  Toyota and torture? None really, but if the numbers are to be believed, your chances of being tortured to death by the CIA are about three times that of dying in a runaway Toyota.