SEVERUSMAX
Benevolent Master
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
- Posts
- 28,995
Seriously, there needs to be a real Republican group actively opposing the PATRIOT Act (well, other than the Ron Paul campaign, which I support). The PATRIOT Act is another case of fear in times of crisis allowing us to rationalize and justify suspending civil liberties. It was wrong in 1863. It was wrong in 1918-1919. It was wrong in 1942. It was just as wrong in 2001.
Let me clarify this, in case there is any mistake. Let this be on the record as me saying it, since I stupidly and drunkenly once made comments with tongue in cheek that proposed a dictatorship by me, with gulags and whatnot. I do not support gulags, illegal detentions, torture, waterboarding, suspension of habeas corpus, or any other suppression of civil liberties. I do not support rendition, here or overseas. I do not support what has been done at Gitmo. I do not support what was done to Americans of Japanese descent back in 1942.
Not then. Not now. Not by Republicans, not by Democrats. Not by independents, not by Libertarians (assuming that such an oxymoron as a Libertarian dictator could exist). Not by Greens or Ralph Nader or Fascists or Communists or Socialists. NEVER! Do you hear me. Never. Civil liberties and human rights are the purpose for the existence of civil government. If they disappear, then government has become a tyranny and negated the reason for its own existence. Period.
I do not even support the draft, because the government doesn't own your body and shouldn't be able to send you to your death against your will. A republic by definition should be defended by volunteers, not conscripts. Yes, my position on that changed, because I have applied my political philosophy and its implications fully to that issue as well as others.
Now, regarding abortion, I don't see that as a civil right, because there is a human being whose right to live trumps the proprietary interest of his mother. Even so, contraception is a right and the morning after pill precedes the completion of the fertilization process. One could even argue that the first trimester embryo is not sentient, so therefore has no rights. But that's the most I am willing to yield on that issue, albeit in the interest of one's inalienable rights. I'm not sure how Jefferson would have felt about abortion, given that in his day, medical science didn't confirm things like fetal heartbeats.
But I digress. The point is that the civil libertarians within the GOP need to stand up and oppose people like Michelle Bachmann, who still favors the PATRIOT Act (and runs a "clinic" with her husband to "cure" homosexuals- what would she do with a bisexual like me).
Let me clarify this, in case there is any mistake. Let this be on the record as me saying it, since I stupidly and drunkenly once made comments with tongue in cheek that proposed a dictatorship by me, with gulags and whatnot. I do not support gulags, illegal detentions, torture, waterboarding, suspension of habeas corpus, or any other suppression of civil liberties. I do not support rendition, here or overseas. I do not support what has been done at Gitmo. I do not support what was done to Americans of Japanese descent back in 1942.
Not then. Not now. Not by Republicans, not by Democrats. Not by independents, not by Libertarians (assuming that such an oxymoron as a Libertarian dictator could exist). Not by Greens or Ralph Nader or Fascists or Communists or Socialists. NEVER! Do you hear me. Never. Civil liberties and human rights are the purpose for the existence of civil government. If they disappear, then government has become a tyranny and negated the reason for its own existence. Period.
I do not even support the draft, because the government doesn't own your body and shouldn't be able to send you to your death against your will. A republic by definition should be defended by volunteers, not conscripts. Yes, my position on that changed, because I have applied my political philosophy and its implications fully to that issue as well as others.
Now, regarding abortion, I don't see that as a civil right, because there is a human being whose right to live trumps the proprietary interest of his mother. Even so, contraception is a right and the morning after pill precedes the completion of the fertilization process. One could even argue that the first trimester embryo is not sentient, so therefore has no rights. But that's the most I am willing to yield on that issue, albeit in the interest of one's inalienable rights. I'm not sure how Jefferson would have felt about abortion, given that in his day, medical science didn't confirm things like fetal heartbeats.
But I digress. The point is that the civil libertarians within the GOP need to stand up and oppose people like Michelle Bachmann, who still favors the PATRIOT Act (and runs a "clinic" with her husband to "cure" homosexuals- what would she do with a bisexual like me).
