Posted 1:04 PM by Robert

In Serum Veritas?

UPDATE: An alert reader writes to tell me that in Latin not of the pig variety, the title would be "In Sero Veritas."
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There's been a surprising amount of discussion of the use of torture over on the Volokh Conspiracy, unsurprisingly all of it a lot better than any contribution made by Harvard Law Professor Dershowitz, who had earlier used the topic to grab a little ill-considered publicity for himself.

The Man Without Qualities does not think he is smart enough to handle torture debates, and, frankly, finds the topic a little icky.

Maybe worthy, but icky. Like gastroenterology.

On the other hand, there is the interesting question of truth serum,, which is addressed in very sophisticated terms by E.V Kontorovich in his excellent OpinionJournal column today.

I know it may ultimately raise all the same issues as torture, but it doesn't make me feel quite so queasy. I'm sure not everyone will agree with either point.