You know, defense attorneys make these sorts of arguments all the time.
"Don't put my client in jail. His mommy didn't give him a lolly when he was 4."
"My client only had to steal because he's been repressed by society."
"We shouldn't judge the less fortunate."
But, they do it for money (or sometimes, because they're ethically obligated to; such as in the case of a court appointment). Why someone would do it when they're not getting paid to is beyond me.
Originally posted by sh76 You know, defense attorneys make these sorts of arguments all the time. [...] But, they do it for money (or sometimes, because they're ethically obligated to; such as in the case of a court appointment). Why someone would do it when they're not getting paid to is beyond me.
And yet there was you with your sullen defensive silence about Carter's pro-fascist foreign policy a few weeks ago. Were you "getting paid" for that or do you feel as if you are in some way "a court appointment" when such a topic, relating to your own country, comes up on an international web site like this?
Originally posted by sh76 You know, defense attorneys make these sorts of arguments all the time.
"Don't put my client in jail. His mommy didn't give him a lolly when he was 4."
"My client only had to steal because he's been repressed by society."
"We shouldn't judge the less fortunate."
But, they do it for money (or sometimes, because they're ethically obligated to; such ...[text shortened]... appointment). Why someone would do it when they're not getting paid to is beyond me.
Originally posted by adam warlock What argument are you talking about?
This one (from the article):
During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America’s founding fathers paid pirates to protect America’s territorial waters, because they had no navy or coast guard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?
Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn’t act on those crimes – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we begin to shriek about “evil.” If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause – our crimes – before we send in the gunboats to root out Somalia’s criminals.
The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarized by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know “what he meant by keeping possession of the sea.” The pirate smiled and responded: “What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor.”
Once again, our great imperial fleets sail in today – but who is the robber?