Amongst the many wimpy reasons trotted out for not beating Liberals about the head is the argument that, horrible though Liberals may be, Liberalism itself has some useful things to say about running a country. Or, to put it another way, phrases like ‘civil liberties’ may currently be euphemisms for the moonbat policy d’jour, but the concept itself is an important bulwark against overmighty government.
Well, OK, it is almost Christmas, so let’s not give into mindless knee-jerk reactions – not until the next post anyway. Let us analyse the problem scientifically. Fortunately, recent events have conspired to give us an excellent opportunity to study exactly how Liberals defend three of these ‘civil liberties’, namely the right to free speech, the prohibition against government searching citizens without due cause and the prohibition on the use of torture..
The L3 are so anxious about the possibility of torture that they demand evidence be presumed inadmissible unless the government can prove it was not obtained by torture - even when it comes from third parties in completely different countries. Funnily enough though, the other two rights don’t fair as well. It’s been announced that agents of the state will be able to demand entry to any property they want, sans warrant, accountability or other such historical curiosities. Meanwhile, not only do we have restrictive laws on speech – oops, best make that ‘hate speech’ – but now it appears that the police will target you even if you haven’t actually, y’know, broken the law. And the reaction from the L3 ? Actually, we're still waiting.
You know, it’s ironic that one of the L3’s favourite documents is the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. What exactly is ‘universal’ about their definition of rights ? On the contrary, your rights seem dependant on how the Left feels about you. Author saying things the Left doesn’t like ? Take her away, officer, and we sort out that ‘law’ stuff later. Terrorist conspiring to blow up buses ? Can the government prove that there’s no possibility that anybody even tangentially related to the case anywhere in the world could have been tortured ? Ah well, then – you’re free to go, Mr Jihadi, and yes, you can catch a No 52 from that corner.
Well, OK, it is almost Christmas, so let’s not give into mindless knee-jerk reactions – not until the next post anyway. Let us analyse the problem scientifically. Fortunately, recent events have conspired to give us an excellent opportunity to study exactly how Liberals defend three of these ‘civil liberties’, namely the right to free speech, the prohibition against government searching citizens without due cause and the prohibition on the use of torture..
The L3 are so anxious about the possibility of torture that they demand evidence be presumed inadmissible unless the government can prove it was not obtained by torture - even when it comes from third parties in completely different countries. Funnily enough though, the other two rights don’t fair as well. It’s been announced that agents of the state will be able to demand entry to any property they want, sans warrant, accountability or other such historical curiosities. Meanwhile, not only do we have restrictive laws on speech – oops, best make that ‘hate speech’ – but now it appears that the police will target you even if you haven’t actually, y’know, broken the law. And the reaction from the L3 ? Actually, we're still waiting.
You know, it’s ironic that one of the L3’s favourite documents is the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. What exactly is ‘universal’ about their definition of rights ? On the contrary, your rights seem dependant on how the Left feels about you. Author saying things the Left doesn’t like ? Take her away, officer, and we sort out that ‘law’ stuff later. Terrorist conspiring to blow up buses ? Can the government prove that there’s no possibility that anybody even tangentially related to the case anywhere in the world could have been tortured ? Ah well, then – you’re free to go, Mr Jihadi, and yes, you can catch a No 52 from that corner.
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