Because General Keyboard does it so perfectly, I'll pretty much copy it.
If you want to see Tienanmen Square, click here. If you want to see Tienanmen Square minus the Massacre, click here.
This is also great.
Showing posts with label civil liberties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil liberties. Show all posts
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Debating torture apologists: it's pretty frickin' simple.
(Yes I know, this post is late. It happens)
Recently, in America, President Obama and former Vice-President Cheney had a debate on American national security. Obama defended the changes made to security, such as attempting to close Guantanamo Bay and banning the American use of torture. Cheney, in contrast, defended the Bush Administration's previous policies, saying that they were in the national interest of security.
The pro-Cheney arguments are as such: terrorists are coming to kill us, and the conventional methods of stopping them are insufficient. Thus, to protect our citizens, we must take harsher methods, such as wire-tapping to intercept such terrorists, enhanced interrogation to extract other information and places like Guantanamo to keep then from getting out and trying to kill us.
The above argument does seem quite convincing to the undecided, but it cracks easily. And what surprised me was during the debate was how Obama didn't tackle the obvious flaws in the Right's argument: that such anti-terrorism methods are inherently undemocratic in every possible way. That these methods are the anti-thesis of a liberal, free democracy.
This is my vebalised response to Cheney.
What would happen if we wiretapped not only suspected terrorists, but also suspected murderers and rapists and placed these suspected criminals in high-security jails without trial, and tortured them into submission? There is a very high chance that we would slash crime rates. The worst people would be locked up, streets would be safer, Western countries would be safer. But there is a very good reason why we don't enact such pro-law and order policies: they are the antithesis of what our civilisation stands for.
In a morally right society, if you are suspected of a crime, and there is sufficiant evidence to say that you have committed the crime, then you are taken to court. Only then and there, if you are guilty beyond all reasonable doubt to have performed the crime, then you are sentenced.
This process undoubtedly results in guilty people being let free due to too little evidence. These unconvicted will often go back out into the public and often reoffend. So why don't we legislate policies to lock them away, in the same manner as suspected terrorists?
Being suspected of a crime does not mean that either you will commit one, or will do so. EVERYBODY (including myself) is capable of committing crimes. Being short tempered does not make you domestic abuser, an occasionally risky driver is not preemptively guilty of manslaughter, and a Muslim who is outspoken in their criticism of the US's history of meddling in Arabian politics is not a supporter of Islamic terrorism, and should not be judged as one until there is evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that they are.
If we begin assuming that suspects are guilty simply for being suspects, then innocent people WILL be jailed in process. That is not the path to tyranny. That is tyranny.
Oh, and torture isn't just inhumane-it doesn't fucking work, either.
Topic cross-posted here, here, here, here and here. And from TIME: here, here and here.
Recently, in America, President Obama and former Vice-President Cheney had a debate on American national security. Obama defended the changes made to security, such as attempting to close Guantanamo Bay and banning the American use of torture. Cheney, in contrast, defended the Bush Administration's previous policies, saying that they were in the national interest of security.
The pro-Cheney arguments are as such: terrorists are coming to kill us, and the conventional methods of stopping them are insufficient. Thus, to protect our citizens, we must take harsher methods, such as wire-tapping to intercept such terrorists, enhanced interrogation to extract other information and places like Guantanamo to keep then from getting out and trying to kill us.
The above argument does seem quite convincing to the undecided, but it cracks easily. And what surprised me was during the debate was how Obama didn't tackle the obvious flaws in the Right's argument: that such anti-terrorism methods are inherently undemocratic in every possible way. That these methods are the anti-thesis of a liberal, free democracy.
This is my vebalised response to Cheney.
What would happen if we wiretapped not only suspected terrorists, but also suspected murderers and rapists and placed these suspected criminals in high-security jails without trial, and tortured them into submission? There is a very high chance that we would slash crime rates. The worst people would be locked up, streets would be safer, Western countries would be safer. But there is a very good reason why we don't enact such pro-law and order policies: they are the antithesis of what our civilisation stands for.
In a morally right society, if you are suspected of a crime, and there is sufficiant evidence to say that you have committed the crime, then you are taken to court. Only then and there, if you are guilty beyond all reasonable doubt to have performed the crime, then you are sentenced.
This process undoubtedly results in guilty people being let free due to too little evidence. These unconvicted will often go back out into the public and often reoffend. So why don't we legislate policies to lock them away, in the same manner as suspected terrorists?
Being suspected of a crime does not mean that either you will commit one, or will do so. EVERYBODY (including myself) is capable of committing crimes. Being short tempered does not make you domestic abuser, an occasionally risky driver is not preemptively guilty of manslaughter, and a Muslim who is outspoken in their criticism of the US's history of meddling in Arabian politics is not a supporter of Islamic terrorism, and should not be judged as one until there is evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that they are.
If we begin assuming that suspects are guilty simply for being suspects, then innocent people WILL be jailed in process. That is not the path to tyranny. That is tyranny.
Oh, and torture isn't just inhumane-it doesn't fucking work, either.
Topic cross-posted here, here, here, here and here. And from TIME: here, here and here.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Crazy righty gets it right for a change
From Leon 'What is it with Lefties and their mummies?' Bertrand's ironically named blog of reason.
Political correctness in the UK has reached stifling and epidemic proportions:
This of course means that civil liberties are under attack from both the hard Left and hard Right. The LPA introduced those anti-terrorism laws which have given far greater powers to police and authorities (stripping suspected criminals of their rights in the process), and now free speech is being constrained by those British softcocks. Still, when it comes to the Brits, I shouldn't be too surprised.
Hence, I would like to share some of my favourite politically incorrect jokes, at least before that's censored as well. Firstly, women.
What is the difference between a battery and a woman?
A battery has a positive side.
What have you done wrong when you wife comes out of the kitchen and starts nagging you?
Made the chain too long.
Why don't women wear watches?
There's a clock on the stove.
Why don't women need drivers licenses?
There is no road between the bedroom and the kitchen.
Wanna hear a funny joke?
Women's rights.
What if God's a woman?
Not only am I going to hell, I'll never know why.Q: How can you tell a Jewish house?
Next up, Jews.
Q: What's a way you can tell a Jewish house?
A: Toilet paper on the clothesline.
Q: What's another way you can you tell a Jewish house?
A: Padlocks on the rubbish bins.
Q: Why did the Jews wander in the desert for forty years?
A: Because someone dropped a twenty-cent piece.
Q: What's a Jewish dilemma?
A: Free ham.
A rabbi, a priest, and a minister were having a discussion as to how they divided up the collection plate.
The minister explained that he drew a circle on the ground, tossed the collection in the air, and that all the money that landed in the circle was for God (to use for the parish) and all that landed outside was for himself (as living expenses).
The priest said that his system was similar: He just drew a straight line, tossed the money up, and that what landed on one side was for God and the church, and that what landed on the other side was for himself.
The rabbi admitted that his system worked along somewhat the same line: "I just toss the plate up in the air," he explained, "and anything God can catch he can have, while I simply take what's left."
This Black guy was walking down 125th Street, kicking rubbish out of his way, when he spotted something that gleamed strangely. It turned out to be an oddly shaped brass bottle. When he rubbed it, a Jewish genie appeared.
"I'll give you two wishes" intoned the genie (not the usual three wishes; after all, it is a Jewish genie).
"Far out" says the Black guy, "First, I'm sick of being Black - I wanna be White, uptight and out-of-sight. Second, seein' how I love having women hanging around me all the time - I wanna to be surrounded by sweet, warm pussy".
So the genie turned him into a tampon.
The moral of the story? You don't get anything from a Jew without strings being attached.
Israel Moses, living in New York, married a Black woman. One day their boy came home from school very disturbed. "What's the matter, son?", asked Israel. "Am I a Black or a Jew?" "What's the problem?", asked his father, "You can be both". "No," said his son, "you see, a boy at school has got a radio he's selling for five dollars, and I don't know whether to bargain with him or to mug him!"
And with that, we shift to African-American jokes.
Q: Why do Blacks always have sex on the brain?
A: Because they've got pubic hair on their heads.
Q: How do you stop little Black kids from jumping up and down on your bed?
A: Put "Velcro" on your ceiling.
Q: Why are the palms of Black people's hands white?
A: Because they were all leaned up against cop cars when God spray-painted.
Q: Why do Blacks wear platform shoes?
A: To stop their knuckles from dragging on the ground.
Q: Why don't you run over a Black guys bike?
A: Because it might be yours!
Q: What did God say when another Black baby was born?
A: OPPS! Burnt another one.
Q: What does NBA mean ?
A: Nothing but Africans.
Q: What do you call a 100 year old black man in a barn ?
A: Antique farming equipment.
A little, short man about 5 foot 5inches walks into a bar, sits down and orders a beer. The bar tender looks and him and says, "Hey man, you better get out of here with that shirt on." The man replies "Why?" The bar tender says well first off it says "I HATE NIGGERS". And secondly it's about 10 minutes from now a lot of them come in here from work. The man insists he will be fine. He proceeds to finish his beer, and orders another one. Well right as he is doing so, three blacks walk in and sit down next to him. They order some drinks, and then notice the man's shirt. The first black guy turns to the white man and says what does your shirt say?" The white man turns to the bar tender and says, "The first thing I hate about black guys is they can't read." The second black guy turns to him and says, "What did you say"? The white man again turns to the bar tender and says, "the second thing I hate about black guys is that they can't hear." The third black guy (a huge black guy, 6ft 9in, arms the size of dumbbells, really mean looking) turns to the white man and says, "Would you like to take this outside?" The white man agrees to take it outside. 10 minutes later he returns and sits back down, orders another beer, and says to the bar tender " The third thing I hate about black guys is that they always bring a knife to a gun fight"
Now that IS funny, you gotta admit.
*And I have a nasty suspicion that the Greens may not be entirely opposed to such laws.
Political correctness in the UK has reached stifling and epidemic proportions:
You know what? That freaks the bejeezus out of me. The idea that people might be so much as fined for telling a tastless joke is genuinely authoritarian. That being said, I have know idea just how accurate the Australian is in reporting this. However, if UK Labor plans on implementing anything like what the Oz is describing, then it may be only a matter of time before the ALP tries it as well.* Heck, after the internet filter, they'll try anything.BRITAIN appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely.
There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent.
Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology". Britain is not Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise.
The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison. The House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out.
This of course means that civil liberties are under attack from both the hard Left and hard Right. The LPA introduced those anti-terrorism laws which have given far greater powers to police and authorities (stripping suspected criminals of their rights in the process), and now free speech is being constrained by those British softcocks. Still, when it comes to the Brits, I shouldn't be too surprised.
Hence, I would like to share some of my favourite politically incorrect jokes, at least before that's censored as well. Firstly, women.
What is the difference between a battery and a woman?
A battery has a positive side.
What have you done wrong when you wife comes out of the kitchen and starts nagging you?
Made the chain too long.
Why don't women wear watches?
There's a clock on the stove.
Why don't women need drivers licenses?
There is no road between the bedroom and the kitchen.
Wanna hear a funny joke?
Women's rights.
What if God's a woman?
Not only am I going to hell, I'll never know why.Q: How can you tell a Jewish house?
Next up, Jews.
Q: What's a way you can tell a Jewish house?
A: Toilet paper on the clothesline.
Q: What's another way you can you tell a Jewish house?
A: Padlocks on the rubbish bins.
Q: Why did the Jews wander in the desert for forty years?
A: Because someone dropped a twenty-cent piece.
Q: What's a Jewish dilemma?
A: Free ham.
A rabbi, a priest, and a minister were having a discussion as to how they divided up the collection plate.
The minister explained that he drew a circle on the ground, tossed the collection in the air, and that all the money that landed in the circle was for God (to use for the parish) and all that landed outside was for himself (as living expenses).
The priest said that his system was similar: He just drew a straight line, tossed the money up, and that what landed on one side was for God and the church, and that what landed on the other side was for himself.
The rabbi admitted that his system worked along somewhat the same line: "I just toss the plate up in the air," he explained, "and anything God can catch he can have, while I simply take what's left."
This Black guy was walking down 125th Street, kicking rubbish out of his way, when he spotted something that gleamed strangely. It turned out to be an oddly shaped brass bottle. When he rubbed it, a Jewish genie appeared.
"I'll give you two wishes" intoned the genie (not the usual three wishes; after all, it is a Jewish genie).
"Far out" says the Black guy, "First, I'm sick of being Black - I wanna be White, uptight and out-of-sight. Second, seein' how I love having women hanging around me all the time - I wanna to be surrounded by sweet, warm pussy".
So the genie turned him into a tampon.
The moral of the story? You don't get anything from a Jew without strings being attached.
Israel Moses, living in New York, married a Black woman. One day their boy came home from school very disturbed. "What's the matter, son?", asked Israel. "Am I a Black or a Jew?" "What's the problem?", asked his father, "You can be both". "No," said his son, "you see, a boy at school has got a radio he's selling for five dollars, and I don't know whether to bargain with him or to mug him!"
And with that, we shift to African-American jokes.
Q: Why do Blacks always have sex on the brain?
A: Because they've got pubic hair on their heads.
Q: How do you stop little Black kids from jumping up and down on your bed?
A: Put "Velcro" on your ceiling.
Q: Why are the palms of Black people's hands white?
A: Because they were all leaned up against cop cars when God spray-painted.
Q: Why do Blacks wear platform shoes?
A: To stop their knuckles from dragging on the ground.
Q: Why don't you run over a Black guys bike?
A: Because it might be yours!
Q: What did God say when another Black baby was born?
A: OPPS! Burnt another one.
Q: What does NBA mean ?
A: Nothing but Africans.
Q: What do you call a 100 year old black man in a barn ?
A: Antique farming equipment.
A little, short man about 5 foot 5inches walks into a bar, sits down and orders a beer. The bar tender looks and him and says, "Hey man, you better get out of here with that shirt on." The man replies "Why?" The bar tender says well first off it says "I HATE NIGGERS". And secondly it's about 10 minutes from now a lot of them come in here from work. The man insists he will be fine. He proceeds to finish his beer, and orders another one. Well right as he is doing so, three blacks walk in and sit down next to him. They order some drinks, and then notice the man's shirt. The first black guy turns to the white man and says what does your shirt say?" The white man turns to the bar tender and says, "The first thing I hate about black guys is they can't read." The second black guy turns to him and says, "What did you say"? The white man again turns to the bar tender and says, "the second thing I hate about black guys is that they can't hear." The third black guy (a huge black guy, 6ft 9in, arms the size of dumbbells, really mean looking) turns to the white man and says, "Would you like to take this outside?" The white man agrees to take it outside. 10 minutes later he returns and sits back down, orders another beer, and says to the bar tender " The third thing I hate about black guys is that they always bring a knife to a gun fight"
Now that IS funny, you gotta admit.
*And I have a nasty suspicion that the Greens may not be entirely opposed to such laws.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
When the ends justify the means
Casually flipping through Captain Tobias' archives, I discovered this little gem, featuring Andrew "Boy Wonder" Bolt. I think he's revealing a little too much of his authoritarian beliefs, here.
Oh, and one last point-nice try at trying to through some political mud at your fictional Leftists. Only trouble is, not every Lefty is a civil libertarian, and not every civil libertarian is a Lefty.
The real scandal isn’t that the US has locked up suspects at Guantanamo Bay, but that it’s let so many of them go free - free to resume their terrorism.Andrew seems to think that if we can save lives my locking up suspected terrorists, then we have a moral duty to do so. My question to Andrew; how far should we go? If we locked up every suspected murderer, rapist and child molester in Australia for life,chances are, we'd drastically reduce the number of murders, rapes and child molestations in the country. Only problem is, we'd be inevitably locking up innocent people in the process. Why is it justified when the suspects are suspected terrorists?
...How many people have now been murdered by fanatics set free from Guantanamo Bay, at the urging of so many civil libertarians and Leftist activists?
How many deaths do those civil libertarians now have on their conscience?
Oh, and one last point-nice try at trying to through some political mud at your fictional Leftists. Only trouble is, not every Lefty is a civil libertarian, and not every civil libertarian is a Lefty.
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