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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: miraje who wrote (60593)	9/23/1999 7:35:00 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Respond to of 67261

>Would you have told [Jews in Nazi Germany to follow the law?] Adhering to legal and moral authority presupposes that the authority in question is indeed legal and moral.< And so you present to me a fine reason to increase my disdain for illegal immigrants. You see, if they would take it upon themselves to judge and then break the laws of my country, laws that I think are legal and moral, and that I recognise as the fabric that sustains my way of life, then they represent a threat to me. Should I accept their illogic, then there would exist no logic enabling me to demand they accept many other laws and authorities whose legality and morality they may think dubious. More than not I have a right to presuppose the authority in question is indeed legal and moral in that, unlike the Jews of Nazi Germany, illegal aliens are breaking laws to force that authority to accept them. >[Your living without money is a] lifestyle choice here, [but it is] a necessity in many parts of the world.< Indeed, but the point here is that the $20 a week figure you mentioned is really irrelevant when it comes to survival. I do not think I must break the laws of another country merely because I am getting paid $20 a week. I could survive on $10 a week, or $2 a week, or even $0 a week, this, without breaking any law. >...I'll admit that if I, or my loved ones, were starving to death, I'm not sure at what point I'd place principle before survival (ie. stealing food).< Well you see this all concerns context. In context of a war, I find it completely acceptable to steal the food of an enemy. But in a civilised society wherein citizens enter a contract to follow certain rules in order to make progress, I would probably rather die than steal food. But before dying I would probe the trash and beg. Truly I would not have to do even this. As long as there are rats and snakes, coons, possums, dogs, deer, cats and fish-- I will survive. Okay, so I would only just kill and discard the cats, but I would eat the other critters. (grin) >And, unless and until they've been at that point, most honest people would probably admit to the same.< Perhaps. At this juncture it is impossible to tell how I would react, though I have good reason to believe it would not occur to me to break into anyone's home or country to steal from them for my survival. Then again I recall my passionate defense of Jean Valjean and how eagerly I once in my mind leapt to his aid. But the circumstances here are fundamentally different. No. Illegal aliens are indeed in error, and our protecting and providing for them is really quite a bit of lunacy.