What IS waterboarding?

[Bbbananas]

Is it like snowboarding, skateboarding or is it a sexual activity involving urine in some way?

Fancy George Bush......

[LoftyLottie]

In case you really don't know!! ;o)

http://www.google.co....fOkMj-Dw&ved=0CAUQkAE

[LoftyLottie]

You fancy George Bush, eh Salla? !!

[LoftyLottie]

(I am being stupid on purpose, honestly!!)

[joggerjayne]

It shouldn't have been given such a jolly name.

It sounds too much like something kids do on holiday.

(or maybe they do !!)

[joggerjayne]

Lofty ...

I don't think that was "stupid" ...

I think it was "obtuse"

[Bbbananas]

Thanks Lottie, I sort of imagined it was something along those lines....

It is a strange description I suppose. Most kids & young 'uns hearing it on the news must be thinking "What's torturous about that? - It sounds fun"

(Not as though many kids or young 'uns would know the word tortuous, but you know what I mean) ;-)

[Bbbananas]

... for those over on news who think I must be thick or stoooopid - this is chatterbank, I am being deliberately obtuse, wanted to make a joke about 'watersports' and this is the section to be stupid if that's what we choose to be. Even though we're not really stupid.

Geddit?

[joggerjayne]

Yep

[LoftyLottie]

JJ. Thanks!!

To me it would be the worse sort of torture imaginable. I hate my face being underwater - that alone would finish me off.

[joggerjayne]

Lofty ...

These are prisoners who are prepared to blow themselves to death.

They are perhaps a smidge less sensitive than you.

[anneasquith]

its torture...........................whatever the name.

[LoftyLottie]

More than likely JJ.

[jno]

JJ, there's a reason these things are given jolly names.

[China Doll]

My sister asked my dad what it was last night as it was in a book she was reading... Dad told her to buy the Mirror apparently....

I swear I just answered this...

[LoftyLottie]

What is the reason jno? Serious question by the way.

[joggerjayne]

Curiously, when our faces are submerged in cold water, our pulse rates slow down, and our bodies relax.

It's called the Mammalian Diving Reflex, I think.

We've always called it the "Dolphin Reflex".

[China Doll]

I would assume it's to desensitise people or take away from the horror of the actual action, is that right jno?

[LoftyLottie]

I have heard that too Jane and that drowning is the nicest form of dying!!!

However, being forcebly held down and having cold water poured up your nose and in your mouth might be somewhat different!!!

[jake-the-peg]

So that when it's mentioned people don't have to picture others strapped to a board deperately struggling to breathe as water pours into their lungs whilst they scream.

It puts them off their doughnuts

[jno]

to make them seem less unpleasant than 'torture', I would guess. Here's a list of military euphemisms ("Special rendition: Kidnapping")

http://www.guardian.c...ec/13/usa.humanrights

Plus, though I imagine it was less deliberate, there's a hint that the perpetrators are finding it fun, like going surfing.