Touching A Raw Nerve, Ctd

A reader writes:

Following Glenn's link in his post I read,

"YEAH, BUT WITHOUT ANDREW SULLIVAN’S ANTI-TORTURE BLOGGING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN 56%: 58% Favor Waterboarding of Plane Terrorist To Get Information."

And I immediately got confused.

Who cares what the favorability rating of torture is? Our laws are based upon principle not passion, it's what keeps us from taking "justice" into our own hands and devolving into a mob. It may be deemed self-righteous to write of things like principles and the rule of law, and true, your bad writing and your lack of persuasion might be junking up the internets, but at least you read like a man of conscience and not someone trying to win a fucking contest.