Former Gawker alum Alex Balk and Choire Sicha kick off their new blog The Awl with this take on Gordon Brown’s Number 10 TV.

WARNING: It will appear as if he’s going to reach out and grab you, but it is only an illusion borne of TERRIBLE MEDIA TRAINING.

Watching Gordon is truly painful. I hope his spin doctors put him out of his misery soon.

Meanwhile, The Awl also links to a looong Daily Intel article cataloging the politicians and talking heads who have defended America’s harshest, bordering-on-torture-if-not-actually-torture, interrogation techniques. Skimming through the list I landed on this pearl of astounding logic from Rush Limbaugh:

If somebody can go through water-boarding for 183 times, 6 times a day …. it means you’re not afraid of it, it means it’s not torture. If you’ve found a way to withstand it, it can’t possibly be torture.