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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (363236)	12/17/2007 3:00:15 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1586514

"Then what context was he brought up in?" That the US does pay people that might have some connection to the Taliban and/or aQ. "They'll be evaluated and may be released eventually." Right. Eventually. If POWs, we would have to release them when the war is over. If normal detainees, then we would have to charge them or release them. But, these we can pick up for any or no reason and then keep them forever if need be. And you say we haven't jettisoned any laws. What is the legal precedent for that? "Though I guess you're concerned even about holding dangerous enemies if we don't have the evidence to get a conviction under our normal legal system." If you cannot get a conviction, how do you know they are dangerous? Unable to get a conviction usually means that there is insufficient evidence of their danger. "I believe they sent the 13 or so people held in secret prisons to Gitmo not too long ago." Umm, so? " As for picking people up etc., are you referring to US citizens? Or non-citizens in the US?" And non-citizens not in the US. We don't know. That is part of the point. We do know that there have been cases of all three that have been done. How many, well, it is a secret. So there is no way to evaluate it. "Many? I'm thinking of people that had knowledge of the subject. " So am I. I guess you haven't seen where the administration was suppressing contrary opinions within the intelligence community. "You realize the postwar assessment is that he intended to restart his nuclear program as soon as sanctions were lifted." So? There were no signs that sanctions were about to be lifted. "I don't want to bother." So you don't have any proof. Whatever Saddam might have been, he wasn't a moron. Bioweapon use within your own country means you are likely going to affect your own population. Ditto for a country right next door. "They were official established churches in some colonies - which didn't prevent other denominations from operating in those same colonies." Right. And that is why Jefferson said he'd be a Unitarian if there was a Unitarian church in Virginia. Which there wasn't. " A claim the FF's were liberals, socialists, anarchists? " Liberals? Yes. Anarchists? In the sense they wanted to change the prevailing power structures, yes. Socialists? In the sense they saw that they government can do things for the population that weren't being done before, yes. For example, public postal service, public libraries and public schools are all considered to be American inventions. "John Calvin was against the Roman Catholic Church." He was against much more than just the RC church. He was against any religious institution that sought to impose its doctrine on anybody. Which, given that most churches are very much into doctrine, doesn't include very many. "They didn't. If they had, Washington and subsequent Presidents wouldn't have been sworn in on Bibles and wouldn't have issued established national days of prayer, thanksgiving, and fasting." Dunno about the fasting thing. Washington chose to break with his inauguration script to use a Bible. And that set a tradition. However, not all presidents have done so. However, the need to observe Christianity was so strong that Congress regularly met on Christmas day until the 1800s. The point being is that you can find examples on both sides. The fact that there are any examples of them not following Christian traditions means a lot. " The FF's established a system where the leadership is chosen by election." Yes. And for that to be stable, you have to keep church and state separated. "Good Lord, Christians founded and developed the concepts of natural law and natural rights. " Right. But, they saw that as coming from God. The Enlightenment championed the idea that such rights come from reason.