Slashdot Mirror
Raisethefist.com Update
d33l0w3 writes: "It looks like Sherman Austin is off the hook for now. For those of you who missed the previous slashdot posting, Sherman was arrested on Feb. 2 for the contents of his website raisethefist.com. This comes as more of a surprise than the FBI raid on his house." Just a couple of days ago, the government was planning to transfer him to California to face charges there, but now according to Newsbytes, those have been dropped. Read that link I just gave - there's quite a lot of interesting information that came out during the hearing. The attorney's concern about Austin being jacked around in "detention" for an indefinite period of time says a great deal about our judicial system.
See, the thing is that someone already DID take a shot at the Defense Department. Happened in September. You might have heard about it. Since then, the US government's (and most American's) sense of humor isn't exactly too keen when it comes to people who talk about violently overthrowing the government.
What you don't understand is that might always makes right. Now, the US government, by and large, uses its might for what I consider good purposes. It's not perfect, but as Churchill once said about democracy, it's better than any of the other alternatives, especially the ones espoused by this inbred.
The US, BTW, did NOT violate ANY "international law" by attacking Afghanistan. It invoked its right to self-defense under the UN charter. And since the ability to make laws depends on the ability to ENFORCE them, who exactly is enforcing international law? I could proclaim myself Emperor of the World, but until I have some power to make my title respected, I'm just a kook with an old towel wrapped around my shoulders.
It's amazing how much time people spend pissing and moaning about the behavior of the US, while ignoring countries like China and Syria, which flout UN resolutions all the time. The difference, of course, is that protesting on the streets of DC against the "fascist" US is safe, while protesting against China or Syria in downtown Beijing or Damascus will result in you finding yourself on the wrong end of a gun. I'm not impressed with crusaders going after easygoing targets.
you find this person's views distateful, and so it's ok to shoot him, in which case you've more in common with him than you realize
No, I don't mind people whose viewpoints are "distateful." I mind the viewpoints of people whose goal in life is to kill me and destroy the society I am a part of. Killing them before they kill me seems like a good idea, but I like myself, so that separates me from most liberals. I'm a liberal (in the classic sense of the word) who believes in self-preservation and the preservation of the things that I value.
I say you have a guy who writes about the violent overthrow of the government, describes how to build weapons, and is found with weapons, you don't wait until he USES the weapons. Sane societies know how to recognize threats to themselves and react accordingly.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
Have you ever taken a fucking history class? "bla bla bla, if we give the masses power, then there's gonna be lots of revolutions and so on so fourth". where the hell do you think the modern world came from? do the French/English revolutions mean anything to you? without all the "anarchy" you would still be donating 90% of your home grown wheat to the aristocracy. and you can forget that fucking computer you happily type away at.