Bizud

There are two stances you can have on rights. One is that humans have natural rights and delegate certain privileges, voluntarily, to governments for order's sake, while retaining ultimate sovereignty over their own persons. The other is that sovereignty is inherent to governments, which delegate privileges to citizens, while reserving the right to revoke them at any time. Of fucking course it should be legal.

It's completely intolerable for education, of all things, to cost money.

States should not exist. Flags should be burnt.

I want somebody to provide me with their prediction of what would happen if marijuana were legalized and all funds currently being spent enforcing marijuana laws, including prison sentences, were instead used to create social programs to reduce poverty and unemployment. Fact: Criminalizing something that there is a large market for does not work. It has never worked, and it will never work. What happens is that someone figures out that they can make money by delivering the product in question, and that's usually going to be organized crime (there's nothing organized crime loves more than an illegal substance that there's a market for). And the funny thing is that if you bust a large amount of dealers, that only lowers the supply, which encourages other dealers in the area to raise their prices - which encourages new dealers to enter the market. Moreover, it's just a huge gift to organized crime. If marijuana were legal they couldn't make money from it. This is why alcohol prohibition was repealed. It doesn't work and it's dangerous.

If you want what the Conservatives are promising, vote Conservative. If you want what the Liberals are promising, vote NDP.

It is not merely opinion that the invasion was illegal. All use of force (even retaliatory force, fyi) outside of self-defense against an attack is illegal unless authorized by the Security Council. Whatever your opinion of the UN and international law, this is not in dispute.

It's pretty stupid to say that mumbling = not good. Not a fan of Early (meaning, best) REM? Springsteen? Dylan? Talk Talk?

OK Computer > Kid A > Hail to the Thief > Amnesiac > The Bends >>>> Pablo Honey.

They don't, they're a whole different kind of awesome. Easily one of the best Canadian bands, if not the best.

Don't see what that has to do with anything. No, Zionism is not racism. A Jewish homeland is fine. A "Jewish state" is inherently discriminatory and grossly unfair to the native Palestinian Arabs. Jewish is an ethnicity as well as a religion. Judaism has little to do with this, socialism, even less. No argument. The PLO and PA are thugs and terrorists. Yawn, no argument, also irrelevant. No one said anything about blaming "Jews" for anything. We're talking about holding Israel to account for the actions perpetrated by the state of Israel in the territory occupied by Israel and the denial of rights by the state of Israel (the Palestinian Authority is nothing but an agent of Israel - it's made very clear to them that they run the occupied territories at Israel's pleasure, and Israel maintains and exercises its claims to ultimate sovereignty over the territories). Nothing more. Don't try to generalize that into anti-semitism. First, I never referred to a specific section of international law. I said that none exists, and we both know that's impossible to cite. The burden of proof must fall on those who say it exists. Second, I did not contest that the state of Israel has the right to self-defense, including nuclear weapons. I don't even know what your point is here. Attacks by Arab neighbours (none in the last few decades, incidently) do not justify the systematic denial of rights to an entire population. It is more than clear that in the eyes of the state of Israel, the land in question is "not for Arabs." You don't need to be reading left-libertarian literature to criticize blatant human rights abuses.

Zong....

Correct, but also irrelevant. The criticism is that non-citizen Arabs in the occupied territories - we'll leave the question of Arabs with Israeli citizenship aside for now - are mistreated and denied their right to self-determination. It is not an argument to say that they could be worse off. Furthermore, A "Jewish state" is racist by definition. As is a black state, a white state, or an Arab state. Conquest, even in a war fought only in self-defense, is not recognized by international law (or any sane person) as a valid claim of sovereignty, and it would not be recognized in this case by those who do if the victims were, for example, European. The borders of France were not redrawn to include the Rhineland provinces of Germany after World War II. No argument on those grounds. If other states have the right to have nukes, so does Israel.

You're going to get "crucified" for any moderator action. Surprise surprise, people don't like it. I realize they don't have to and it's your call, but expecting them to take it with a smile is pretty stupid. You in particular seem to take issue with a lot more than just breaking the rules (insulting the admin? please.), so I don't see how this could be a surprise.

http://www.ziggy-shwa.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=321 ;) It's this dude going off on an anti-MG tirade. Non-stop gold.

Way to not address the point. It's not even about religion, it's about a state that wants a swath of land, but doesn't want the people that come with the land, that in the 60's decided it wanted to be a United States enforcer and accept the costs (subordination) and benefits (assistance, both financial and moral, in repressing the native population) that comes with such a choice. The conflict is entirely of Israel's creation. For nearly thirty years there was no conflict, no intifada, no violence outside the occupied territories, yet the territories remained occupied - and very brutally. The idea that Israel is willing to sit down and talk, but the Arabs aren't, is completely ludicrous - offer after offer has been made by the PLO, the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, and they've all been rejected. Up until 1994, when Arafat basically signed away Palestinian rights by legitimizing the occupation of the territories, there was an offer on the table, made by the PLO, for a two-state settlement, that was supported by Canada, Europe, Russia, the Arab League, most Palestinians, you name it - Israel and the United States rejected it. There's just no way to fudge the truth on this one - there will be peace when enough Americans voice their concerns loudly enough (the vast majority of Americans believe there should be a Palestinian state) and the US stops funding the occupation and slaughter.

Some things are. Either Arabs are people who are entitled to the same rights as Jews, including the right to self-determination, or they are something less. Which is it?

If "broker a deal" means "get the Palestinians to retroactively endorse their mistreatment at the hands of Israel over the past 50 years," then yeah, he sure did. There's absolutely no room for debate on this point: Either you accept that Arabs have the same legal and political rights as Jews or you're a racist.

Isn't Anything is to Loveless as The Lonesome Crowded West is to The Moon and Antarctica.

Economic Left/Right: -9.13 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.92 Another anarchist.

Matt's being an idiot. If he thinks Amnesty is better off without him he's wrong. For that matter, if the person in question thinks Amnesty is better off without him she's wrong too. Drama queen behaviour on all sides. Bad press? Are you kidding me? One person on the internet throwing a tantrum is not bad press. The incident in question didn't even involve Amnesty.

Fuck this, there's next to no good Sci-Fi on anymore. Now SG-1 and Atlantis are all I have left.

There are many people who will not still exist 3.75 years from now.

Sliting-throats is a metaphor, not something literal (although it can be). You are naive to believe that there are no criminal elements in society that would use force in order to gain power. There are such elements, and it is the task of the anarchist to ensure that their they and their communities are able to deal with such elements should it become necessary.

I have no idea whether Noam Chomsky currently pays taxes, but he did try to organize a tax resistance in the 60's (I think) to protest the attack on South Vietnam. I think they just garnished his wages so he ended up paying eventually.

If the entire population of this message board was dumped onto an island, I wouldn't be afraid to sleep at night for fear of my throat being cut.