Scalius Caesar

The religious right is fond of telling us that our constitution is based on something called “Judeo-Christian” principles, although they usually leave us guessing as to what those might be. None the less, our country is obviously steeped in the Enlightenment idea of the basic rights of man. Whether endowed by Nature, an unnamed creator or Nature’s God, we as human beings were thought to be so endowed. One would think that this was a kind of bedrock principle for the conservatives. One would think wrong.

Anton Scalia, that scaly, fat-faced, duck quacking, finger giving, sociopathic thug tells us otherwise. Anyone, he believes, can be deprived of the rights my state gives a pregnant sow and without any trace of process, due or otherwise. An accusation by parties not to be revealed is enough to confine one to a cage indefinitely and apparently, to subject one to beatings, torture and misery without end.

In a speech to Swiss law students at the University of Freiburg earlier this month, he said "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts." The question here begged is “what is a combatant?” Is Saddam’s driver a combatant? What about his dentist? What about internationally agreed upon rights?

"If he was captured by my army [italics mine] on a battlefield, that [Guantanamo] is where he belongs” said Scalia, coyly avoiding any discussion of what constitutes a “battlefield” in a “war” where the world is a battlefield. Geneva conventions be damned, to hell with Judeo-Christian ethics, lex talonis rules and we do what we want to do. Damn decency, damn God and damn any silly “inalienable rights;” if we can do it, we will. Sieg Heil!