On the release of the Justice Department’s memos on interrogation techniques, the New York Times is predictably having a case of the torture vapors: Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A.

The “brutal” tactics they describe sound very similar to what happens every spring in frat houses across America.

Together, the four memos give an extraordinarily detailed account of the C.I.A.’s methods and the Justice Department’s long struggle, in the face of graphic descriptions of brutal tactics, to square them with international and domestic law. Passages describing forced nudity, the slamming of detainees into walls, prolonged sleep deprivation and the dousing of detainees with water as cold as 41 degrees alternate with elaborate legal arguments concerning the international Convention Against Torture.

As I’ve written many times, describing these tactics as “torture” degrades the language and trivializes the victims of real torture. But that’s what this discussion has turned into; the demagogues of the left have succeeded in defining torture down.