>From: James Rogers <jamesr@best.com>
>
>While I am very big on individual self defense, I have come to abhor
>state-sponsored killing in general. As things currently stand in most if
>not all countries, the state is not held to the same standards of
>justifiable homicide as the individual. While creating such a standard
>effectively eliminates the death penalty, in the absence of such a
>standard I would prefer to explicitly eliminate this ability from the
>state. Arguably, only individuals can have the right of
>self-defense anyway, since the government is made up of nothing more than
>individuals.
Sounds nice. But the minute you hold the state to the same standard as
individuals, the state gives up all police power (except in those few
circumstances were governmental employees or property are harmed or
threatened) and all prisons must be emptied. That might sound like a good
thing to you, but the day it happens here is the day I move to Costa Rica.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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