[Wikipedia-l] Treason (Was: stupid anglicization)

Fri Nov 22 09:47:47 UTC 2002

Toby Bartels wrote:

>Jonathan Walther (Clutch, right?) wrote to Lir:
>
>>You claim to be
>>
>>from Iowa; speaking ill of your country, in the way that you do, is
>
>>treason.
>>
>No, it's not.  Maybe in Canada it is, which is why I'm still proud
>to be an American, despite the ever shrinking reasons for such pride.
>But ill speech of anybody and anything is still protected here
>to a greater extent than anywhere else, thank goodness.
>
No, not in Canada either.  We don't regard our politicians as seriously 
you do yours.  An aide to the prime minister to-day made a casual remark 
that George W. Bush was a moron.  The politicians are aghast, but the 
public is giggling.

Speaking ill of one's country could be sedition rather than treason ... 
if it's anything at all.  Patriotism masks too many evils.

I finally subscribed to the en-list and spent the rest of the day 
catching up on the archives.  Larry's definition of fact seems way off 
base.  If we strictly follow his definition of fact than it is fact to 
say that Saddam Hussein is a popular president.

Fact is what is or what was, independently of what anybody sees to be 
fact.  NPOV is a great ideal, if only the people trying to apply it knew 
what it means.  From our frail human perspective, it can only be 
approximated.

Eclecticology