That would be ridiculous. The state is a subset of the sentient beings that populate its governed territory. And it's hardly an elemental evil; it is the embodiment of a fundamental characteristic of the story of humanity: that humans seek to impose their will on other humans. I don't see this...
You do realize that generally when people mention standard assumptions about the legal system they are committing a form of the Nirvana fallacy, right? For example saying that people who commit crimes should be tried and sentenced according to the law (applying this principle to DeChristopher as...
If you mean it in the sense I think you do, I would say yes.
Of course it is criminal, but perjury is not enforced with a standard of truth, but by whatever standard validates the system.
I agree.
The system ensures that a jury will be sworn in. What is more evil, that a jury is sworn in...
I have an unusual spin on things, and am generally uncompelled by notions of collective identity. However I wouldn't say I set myself apart. If I did I would be a deeply resentful person. I understand and even accept that I am put upon by authorities who have coercive power over my life. As much...
"Do you, and each of you, understand and agree that you will well and truly try the cause now pending before this court, and a true verdict render according only to the evidence presented to you and to the instructions of the court?"
I could recite those words without any misrepresentation of...
Is the claim that there is some sort of reverse Bradley effect going on? That would sound about right, as the existence of the Bradley effect is itself a dubious claim. Why not parody one cracked theory when coming up with another one?
It's funny to think that there are so many people who...
There are some oaths which are administered under duress. The current system of national and international law doesn't provide for free persons. I have no allegiance to country. (I do see value in some countries which stand for values which agree with my own. This causes my actions to often...
No. I require no authority to speak my mind. I do as I will and do not apologize for it. I find in that no basis for others to claim that reciting an absurd concoction of noises somehow constrains me.
I am bound by no oath. My yea is yea and my nay is nay. I do what I see as right and I ask...
When you posted a thread about "a whole new story" I was really hoping to see some substantial new information. I was a little disappointed to be honest, as the clips seemed to be rehashing what was already known a while ago. Then again it doesn't hurt to keep this story in public consciousness...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that Marion Barry is some kind of crackhead genius. The man is a whackjob to be sure. I just wonder why people are so quick to say things along the lines of "Yeah he says crazy stuff, but he's just a crackhead." The thing is a lot of the stuff he says is...
Perhaps his credibility on issues of moral regulation would suffer, but why is there this rush to dismiss every lunacy of Mr. Barry as somehow being connected to the fact that his prefered recreational intoxicants happen to be on an arbitrary list?
I know this is intednded to be a rhetorical question, but I like it more in its non-rhetorical form.
This is not what I said at all. I was talking about looking to the law to justify its value as a basis for evaluation. Obeying stupid laws is not necessarily stupid. (Obviously it can be quite...
I think it was polite of you to be so considerate, but I don't think that jury nullification is off topic here. It is one aspect of the fundamental issue, which is how people should act when the law is wrong. Jury nullification is one act of civil disobedience which is protected by absolute...
I know we don't always agree on things, but I didn't think you had me on ignore. ;)
How is this not the issue being discussed? Just to make it clear for those posters who didn't gather it, that was speaking from the authoritarian perspective, not mine.
And yes, I watched them.
I'd bet a pitcher of beer that his IQ is at least 120. True that's not super high, but more than one standard deviation is "significant". I personally suspect he's between 130 and 150, but I don't have much to go on to narrow that down. Being President of the Harvard Law Review indicates...
Is it really so astounding? Sure Obama is no Hawking, but that's not really the accusation - and pretty much no successful politican is that intelligent. That Obama is at least significantly above average intelligence isn't really up for debate. However the phenomenon of poo throwing which you...
Prohibition of prostitution is every bit as pig-headed as prohibition of alcohol.
Also, crack wouldn't even exist if we hadn't started the assinine War on Drugs in the first place. Both the supply and demand for ever more exotic drugs were created by the War on Drugs.
But why should I care about these arbitrary legal lines?
When the law is stupid, only stupid people look to the law as a basis for evaluation.
To put it slightly differently, looking to a stupid law as a standard for evaluating actions makes one stupid.
If only the market had a mechanism whereby expectations about future supply risks could be accounted for in the price of oil. You know, without all that ebul speculumation stuff.
Abraham Lincoln and many of the founding fathers would "pop a positive" too.
The notion that drug use devalues one's humanity and invalidates one's opinions is DEA propoganda. Why do they want us to view an entire class of people as subhuman based on a recreational choice? Why has any...
And the authority for said oath is?...
Judges lie to juries all the time. As much as many want to ignore it, judges are not truly impartial. They are agents of the state, and also carry with them the many implicit prejudices of the profession of law.
Yes, and the law enshrines the absolute freedom of a jury to deliver a not guilty verdict for any reason whatsoever - including jury nullification. One of the reasons double jeopardy is explicitly proscribed is to protect the right of juries to nullify the law.
There is no such thing as a...
It is a bad thing when juries decide that the law's prescribed consequences are unjust?
Does the law (as capriciously enforced) carry some presumption of morality that I missed the memo on?
I wouldn't say that. There is a case to be made that he shouldn't be prosecuted because 29 other auction winners never paid either. (The selective prosecution argument he wasn't allowed to present at trial.)
On the contrary, in order to engender popular docility, doing the right thing is the only thing that must be punished.
If someone occasionally gets away with murder due to a loophole designed to make it harder to secure a wrongful conviction, people can be convinced that that is the price of...
I am very cautious about using the words legally and should together. The practice of law is an elaborate game of three card monte where, instead of hiding the money card, the system hides justice. When the just outcome must be at the expense of exposing government wrongdoing and denying high...
How is DeChristopher any less of an American patriot than the perps in the Boston Tea Party? If anything, the Boston vandals were less justified than DeChristopher in what he did. Tim got the shaft because he had the will to follow through on doing the right thing without the cover of a mob. The...
I made a brief post in the other PPACA love-fest thread (Europe is baffled...) that touches on a couple points. It was hardly comprehensive, but then again nothign I post will make a difference anyways... I'll just give some of the more fundamental reasoning here.
The thing about "Free...
This isn't really the problem behind the lack of cost compettition at all. We dont' have competition on price because there is rampant price discrimination, and there is no price information. Both of these problems are fairly simple fixes (Well, correcting most of the price information problem...
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