Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. … Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
contrarium (con-TRARE-ium), the one-two punch. After reading two recent books on American torture, Dahlia Lithwick concludes that “the Bush administration erected an entire torture policy” around Jack Bauer, the patriotic sadist in Fox Television’s 24. Bushie and military sources in The Dark Side by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and The Torture Team by British journalist Phillippe Sands—refer to more often Jack Bauer than to the Constitution.
Our favorite quote comes from Antonin Scalia, who uses a deftly absurd contrarium—one of those figures of thought that summarize a whole argument in one neat little package. X is true. Therefore, how could you be for Y? Jack Bauer saved L.A. So why would you convict him?
The problem in this case is that X is not true. Bauer does not exist. Which makes him rather shaky proof for undermining the Constitution.
Who’s going to break the news to the Justice?
Snappy Answer: Superman saved more lives, without flesh-eating chemicals. Is Jack Bauer is better than Superman?