http://blueduck37.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] blueduck37.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] politicartoons2012-03-23 02:35 pm
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Exclusive!!!!

This is an exclusive. A look at George Zimmerman's journal...



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[identity profile] madscience.livejournal.com 2012-03-25 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Because it hasn't been established that al-Awlaki was an enemy soldier, or anything like it.

So you don't have any problem at all with a government acting as judge, jury, and executioner with absolutely no public oversight? Public oversight is precisely what gives governments that kind of authority.

[identity profile] farchivist.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
Because it hasn't been established that al-Awlaki was an enemy soldier, or anything like it.

According to you. You keep forgetting that part.

So you don't have any problem at all with a government acting as judge, jury, and executioner with absolutely no public oversight?

In matters of war and national security? Nope. In fact, I wish we had the Official Secrets Act that they use in Britain and that the press was subject to D-notices.

Public oversight is precisely what gives governments that kind of authority.

No, monopoly of force does that.

[identity profile] madscience.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
Not just according to me. According to everyone wise enough not to automatically accept the completely unsubstantiated claims of their governments.

Do you believe that governments derive their just powers from something other than the consent of the governed?

[identity profile] farchivist.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Do you believe that governments derive their just powers from something other than the consent of the governed?

1) "Just" is in the eye of the beholder.
2) Their powers are only "just" if they are "just" in your opinion.
3) The power of government does not require consent of the governed; see history for details. What it does require, historically, is monopoly of force. I'll be happy to point you to the requisite political science texts dealing with the subject.

[identity profile] madscience.livejournal.com 2012-03-26 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
3) That's a descriptive statement. I'm asking you for a prescriptive one, i.e., your opinion about how a government is supposed to work.

Or do you actually equate how things historically have been with how they ought to be?
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