Comments on Pro Libertate: Posner's Paean to Totalitarianism

Seeing the title of Posner's book (Not a Suicide P...

2006-11-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

Seeing the title of Posner's book (Not a Suicide Pack) reminded me of the first time I had heard that phrase applied to the Constitution. It was in the video "The Subversion Factor" featuring G. Edward Griffin.

Near the end of the video, Griffin states that enemies of freedom (which were the communists in those days) have taken advantage of our civil liberties and that "the Constitution was never intended to be a national suicide pact."

This statement always bothered me because it implied that violating the Constitution is somehow necessary in order to preserve it.

Of course today's enemy is now the terrorists. I wonder if there is much similarity between the violations of civil liberties tolerated by conservatives due to communist subversion vs. the violations now embraced in the "war of terror"?

Regardless I'm glad you are tackling the subject of civil liberties from a constitutional-conservative perspective. I feel this is looooooong overdue from our side. Just because the ACLU occasionally gets it right doesn't mean conservatives should automatically embrace the opposite. I look forward to your book.

David Stertz

It just seems like the notion that the government ...

2006-11-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

It just seems like the notion that the government exists to serve the people is a forgotten and lost ideal. It just seems that "we the people" have made ourselves so beholden to the government through the system of entitlements, e.g., welfare benefits, grants and loans for students, corporate subsidies, etc, that the government knows that it can get away with most anything simply by revoking a "free lunch" here or there and making a public example thereof of the individual or group who formerly received said "free lunch".

If it appears that I am describing the government with attributes of a sentient entity, that is intentional. As I see it, the government, i.e., the State, has emerged as an entity that exists independently from the people and requires that it be served by the people. In my short 43 years on this rock, I have watched the State act as a jealous god that seeks to supplant the True and Living God. I have seen the personal work-ethic supplanted with the idea that it is ok to do just what is needed to get by because the State will pick up the slack. As I see it, these two changes are largely responsible for where we are today and for the creation of the mind-set found in people like Mr. Posner.

Will, I want you to know that a 18 months ago, I was happy to go with the flow becuase I thought I was doing the right thing, in a civic sense. However after the short time our families spent together in Wisconsin and after reading through your writings, I realize now what a mess our country is in. I am no longer content to sit idly by while the Republic crumbles around us and is supplanted by an Empire. I, once and again, want to thank you for elightening me.

I loathe being a picker of nits, really, but just ...

2006-11-27T01:38:00.000-07:00

I loathe being a picker of nits, really, but just one clarification, if I may. When you stated this:

(...the divine entities who adorn the federal judiciary, from which they exnihiliate "rights" or revoke existing ones as suits their omnipotent whims.)

Did you actually mean ex nihilo rather than exnihiliate, i.e. create rights ex nihlio (out of nothing)? Not a big deal...hehe...as I'm prone to coin words and construct phrases therefrom that do not exist but manage to provide the intended and appropriate imagery in the reader's or listener's mind ;).

Only a heathen extraordinaire could make statements like the following in earnest. Posner, by definition, must be a bona fide humanist and atheist. These sections penned by Posner are indeed remarkable (more like fallacious in the extreme):

it [the federal government] could be (as at present it is) denied that legal authority yet acknowledged to possess the power, and even the moral duty, to violate legal, including constitutional, rights when necessary to avoid catastrophic harm to the nation.”

and this:

...the regime would enjoy “a moral and political but not legal justification for acting in contravention of the Constitution [that] may trump constitutional rights in extreme situations.... Civil disobedience can be a duty of government in extreme circumstances to its citizens even if not a right.”

Morally justified, but not legally justified?? He seems to be arguing, among a myriad of other dastardly points, that "morality" is sourced from mere men, whereas "legality" is sourced from a higher echelon, say, the deified judicial demigods? Huh?? From what source does his view of morality flow from? If anything, morality is a set of precepts that are unchanging, from a higher source than mere men (from God Almighty Himself, doh!), whereas mere legality comes and goes on a whim. Torture is never morally justified, ever, but legally, it can be made "right" in the eyes of men. Hey, it's legal, so it must be right, because the State says it is!

Ergo, Judge Poseur, uh Judge Posner, sorry, should've sung a different tune in his personal, self-penned State bible. Perhaps the following:

"Even torture may sometimes be justified in the struggle against terrorism, but it should not be considered morally justified,” Posner [should've] writes [written]. Under the government's “necessity” defense, continues the judge, the regime would enjoy “a legal and political but not moral justification for acting in contravention of the Constitution [that] may trump constitutional rights in extreme situations...

Why is it that a guy like me, without even a HS education mind ya, can see the fallaciousness throughout this poseur's arguments? Yet, I'll say many, if not most, ordinary folk, yes well-educated [indoctrinated] ordinary folk will agree with, and accede to, this mantra, prima facie, especially if Amazon's customer reviews are any indication. A couple of reviewers listed, however, do seem to understand and grasp the totality of what this poseur is preaching.

I seem to recall the Washington Post reporter Michael Weisskopf claiming the Christian "Right" as being "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command." I have to admit that I see something quite different in REAL life. I see a hodgepodge of atheists and pagans as "largely rich, well-educated, and thereby VERY easy to command."

will,this posner fella has clearly lost his mind. ...

2006-11-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

will,

this posner fella has clearly lost his mind. he won't find it here on earth. neither will he find it in heaven. man, satan sure is busy with the spreading of his doctrines. but then again, maybe i'm blaming something on satan that he did not do? maybe this is what happens to people who don't have God?--they lose their minds.

Meanwhile the masses vote on American Idol and fil...

2006-11-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile the masses vote on American Idol and fill their water cooler chatter with who is a better singer/actor/dancer, et al. Oh, but what was that thing about habeas corpus?

A wonderful French grandmother who sits for our three children at the gym while mommy grabs a few 20-minute workouts when time permits, was talking with this thinking mama the other day regarding our nation. "Well, it's not a police state yet . . ." she said with confidence, in her fabulous French accent. Then I told her about the woman who was murdered in her bedroom, while shooting with her legally registered gun at the police who'd entered said bedroom. She realized she'd been wrong about our country's supposed lack of a police state. I read about this murdered woman, and her honored murderers, in your blog.

Thanks for educating us all, Will!

thinkingmama.livejournal.com