Category Archives: Justice

UPDATE II: Navy SEAL’s Bad Karma Continues (LIBERTARIAN LAW of Libel)

Ethics, Free Speech, Justice, libertarianism, Military

Deceased Navy SEAL Chris Kyle lived by the sword and died by the sword (BAB 02.03.13). “Or, in hippie speak: Kyle had bad karma”; he was “shot point-blank” by “another soldier who was recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome.”

In a book detailing his life as Uncle Sam’s assassin, Kyle libeled another Navy man, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. It proved the wrong move. “Kyle’s estate,” reports The Daily Caller, “which is run by his widow Taya,” will be liable for “$500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million for unjust enrichment.”

UPDATE I (7/30): Soldiers Against Due Process. Fox News, predictably, reports “Outrage After Jesse Ventura Wins Lawsuit Against Chris Kyle”:

Ben Smith, Kyle’s roommate during SEAL training, still disputes that his friend lied about the confrontation, which occurred at a memorial service for a SEAL who had been killed when he jumped on a grenade.
Smith said he’s having trouble “grasping” how the American judicial system could come up with a verdict like this, recalling that Kyle had told him about the confrontation with Ventura.
“He was running his mouth and saying some really vile stuff, saying we should lose more men, more heroes, more guys out there who were fighting the fight. Is that not almost treasonous? Like you’re anti-American, saying we should lose? [Chris] said ‘you say that again, I’m going to pop you in the — I’m going to get ya.’ And he did and he came over and did it,” said Smith. … Later on the show, the hosts expressed their own thoughts on the shocking ruling, questioning how Ventura could go after the widow of an American hero.

MORE.

UPDATE II: LIBERTARIAN LAW of Libel. There is the controversy over libel in libertarian circles. Most of us think that speech ought to be unfettered and that a person has no right in his reputation. I suppose I ought to have mentioned the libertarian law of libel, which I like a lot and support. Instead, I got carried away with my feelings about this much-worshiped killer.

Dead Men Walking

Israel, Justice, Terrorism

The Shin Bet security service already knows the names of the terrorists who kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers. They are said to be Marwan Qwasmeh and Amar Abu Aisha from Hebron. DEBKAFile reports that Qwasmeh and Abu Aisha have “both done time in Israeli and Palestinian jails for terrorist actions.”

The IDF has blown up the houses of Qawasmeh and Abu-Eisha. Their victims, Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Frenkel, can rest in peace. Although the “two terrorists remain at large,” it is safe to say that their days on earth are numbered.

Also to be dispatched, in a manner, “are The Israel Police’s Judea and Samaria District Operations Department Commander … as a result of the police’s mishandling of a call from the abducted yeshiva boys that was mistakenly classified as a prank call, as will the Commander of the District’s Control Outpost (Mashlat) and Operations Branch Commander, IDF Radio reported Monday. Also to be dismissed are the policeman who was in charge of the shift at the police’s ‘100’ hotline and the senior policewoman who received the information about the call and classified it as a prank.” (Via Arutz Sheva.)

If only the IDF could do something about our domestic terrorists (Lois Lerner and her bandits, Holder, etc).

UPDATE II: Lynching In-Absentia

Justice, Media, Military, Republicans, War

Pitchforks hoisted, the media-military collective has gathered to lynch Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in absentia. Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly have been especially quick to fill their studio colosseums with lynch-mobs eager to convict the man without due process. An example of the many leading questions with which the crowds were prodded:

All right, you — you lost your son. Every one of his platoon members said he left of his own volition. They heard a radio transmission saying there’s a guy looking for the Taliban, and that your son was among those that gave his life. They spent over two months looking for him. I can’t think of anything worse than losing a child. What’s your reaction to all this? (Interviews @SeanHannity, June 06, 2014 ‘No apologies’ for Taliban trade: Families of fallen respond to Obama. Guests: Cheryl Brandes & Ken Lucconi, parents of Matthew Marinek, Andrew & Sondra Andrews, parents of Darryn Andrews.)

Megyn Kelly has been almost as “fair and balanced” as Hannity in her assorted exclusives: “Platoon opens up about Sgt. Bergdahl’s desertion: Soldiers set the record straight amid outrage over trade.” Her suggestive kind of questioning: “… Raise your hand if you think he deserted. Wow. Raise your hand if you have some question about whether he deserted. Wow. All right.”

In this atmosphere, one worries that Bowe Bergdahl will off himself as soon as he can.

UPDATE I: Neither side is admirable or believable. Journalism should come closer to that truth.

UPDATE II: I don’t like Bergdahl and his creepy parents one bit. (I called them creep from day one.) His comrades, who seem to be as collectivist as they come, insist on exacting admiration for their mission. I don’t like any of this charade.

UPDATED: Contra The US, Shame Is Not Dead In South Korean Politics

Asia, Barack Obama, Bush, Justice, Morality, Multiculturalism, Nationhood

It may be symbolic, but the offer of resignation made by “South Korea’s prime minister … over the government’s handling of a deadly ferry sinking,” and the death of hundreds of children, is not insignificant. And it is in stark contrast to the conduct of the American government and bureaucracy.

In the US, government uses its alphabet soup of agencies to spy on (NSA), intimidate (IRS), humiliate (TSA), and dispossess (ICE) the American people. Contra South Korea, nobody ever pays for these infractions, much less offers himself up for punishment or public shaming.

Assassin Sam deploys the most formidable military in the world to eradicate entire countries in the name of a mockery of freedom (Iraq)—and nobody ever resigns, much less offers to resign. Not Cheney, not Bush (of the WMD fame), not Colon Powell; not Condoleezza the skeeza (“who had categorically denied she possessed the analytical wherewithal to connect the dazzlingly close dots between Arab men practicing their aeronautical take-off skills and terrorism”), and not Obama (the abominable creature who drops drones on faraway villagers, leveled Libya, nationalized a 1/6 of the private economy and robbed many millions of their healthcare), nor dominatrix Lois Lerner (a vile and corrupt Obama operative), on and on.

In South Korea, shame and honor still play a corrective role in national politics:

… South Korea’s prime minister offered to resign Sunday over the government’s handling of a deadly ferry sinking, blaming “deep-rooted evils” and irregularities in a society for a tragedy that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing.
The resignation offer comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims’ relatives that the government didn’t do enough to rescue or to protect their loved ones. Most of the missing and dead were high school students on a school trip. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry that sank April 16, a prosecutor said. …
… “As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister,” Chung said. “There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again.”

MORE.

UPDATE (4/27): Myron Robert Pauli writes: “… not to mention Slick Willie whose conduct was probably not criminal due to prosecutorial sandbagging and irrelevance but whose conduct was shameful enough to merit resignation. The woman in charge of GSA during the “hooker conference in Vegas” scandal did resign not that it did her any good [the lower level malefactors were not punished and, in typical overreaction, government scientists WERE and continue to be severely restricted].