| taxwonk |
12-22-2005 11:59 AM |
No surprize here but I am confused again.....
Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
You are really reaching here Ty. This is ridiculous. If you disagree with me on this does that mean that every person on this planet should have the same rights as a US citizen as far as the US government is concerned? Of course not. I didn't go to that absurd extreme because it does not ad to the conversation at all.
I made sure, because of your tendency to take everything to its extreme, that I said that I did not think foreign nationals should not have any rights whatsoever.
When it comes to national security I don't think foreign nationals ought to have their property confiscated. Nor do I think that they should have their organs removed and given to law enforcement personnel.
What I do think is that their rights as a criminal defendent are not the same as a US citizen.
US Citizens need rights because we need to guard against the government turning into a tyranical dictatorship. That problem doesn't exist with non-US citizens. In this country serial killers get rights regardless of its fairness. We err on the side of protecting people rights over justice because of our fear if we don't, the government might start abusing the rights of its citizens. We let people that we are almost sure are guilty, and will probably commit the same crime again, go free because of desire not to let our government start abusing the rights of our citizens. Since foreigners are not citizens, then that is not a problem. If the serial killer happens to be a foreigner then the full rights don't apply.
What is at issue with foreigners is relations with other countries and concepts of basic fairness. If we want our citizens treated a certain way by other countrys then we better reciprocate. But otherwise we should balance what is fair with national security.
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And all that stuff about how all men are created equal, and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights was just puff advertising?
If that's the case, then the only argument that you can really make about Iraq is that we went there because it's more convenient for us to have a democratic (well, up to a point) state than it was to have Saddam.
And if your ability to claim certain rights is based solely on an accident of birth, then what real moral basis is there for those rights?
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