On Ed Snowden's "Oppressive Regime Tour"

For those who argue--ridiculously--that Edward Snowden should have "faced the music" and stayed in the US rather than "tour the oppressive, anti-human-rights regimes of the world", a little reminder: Neither Russia, nor Ecuador, nor Venezuela, nor Cuba executed anyone in 2011 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).

The United States? We put 43 human beings to death in 2011 alone.

That puts us behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, but ahead of every other nation in the world in terms of the state killing of citizens.

Torture?

Does it count when the US "renditions"--aka, has other cruel regimes do it for us, like Syria, Egypt, or Jordan? Because even if it doesn't, we're right up there at the top among the world's torturers.

Good grief, people. Take off the prima-donna sleep mask, open your eyes, and wake the hell up.

P.S. As for rendition, the U.S. is still at it, too--the only difference between then (under Bush) and now is that our government currently claims it is overseeing things so that when we do apprehend someone suspected of wrongdoing, throw a hood over his head, and haul him off to another country to be "interrogated", the questioning will not be accompanied by torture--at least, not as far as we know (because it is, after all, taking place in another country, and we can't completely control what goes on behind closed doors). Don't you feel better?

Image: Andy Warhol, Little Electric Chair (Green), 1964