In some societies, John Yoo would be a disbarred lawyer writing newspaper columns in praise of torture from a prison cell, although speaking engagements and television appearances would be out of the question.

But this is the good old US of A, and Yoo, whose pretzel-logic legal opinions as a Justice Department attorney and Bush administration flunky underpinned the use of torture, has of course escaped prosecution, let alone censure. He now has a lucrative second career explaining his perambulations in increasingly bizarre ways, as well as telling President Obama how to do his job.

Yoo’s chutzpah reached new heights — or depths — last week when he rapped Obama for being afraid to capture Osama Bin Laden alive and said that is why “a deliberately small force” was sent into the Al Qaeda leader’s compound.

Don’t expect this drivel to stop. As long as mainstream media outlets like CNN continue to give Yoo the attention that he does not deserve, and so long as the troglodyte Wall Street Journal editorial page continues to give him a soapbox, he is sure to prattle on.

Oh, and then there’s Uncle Dick.