It's not easy, running a gulag

[Don Corleone]

I'm not confused, I'm simply astonished.

You're either confused or you're being dishonest. You railed against Pindar's saying that the Human Rights Charter wasn't important and didn't matter.

He never said any such thing.

I don't agree with him on this issue, but I don't need to resort to putting words in his mouth to make a logical argument.

Edit: On the chance that you are in fact really are confused, allow me to explain. Pindar said the UN Human Rights Charter is a piece of rhetoric. Let's say you assumed he meant that it was unimportant or irrelevant. That's not what he meant. The Declaration of Independence is a piece of rhetoric. So is the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. None of these three documents is enforcable law. They are speech, declaring or defending a position. The UN Human Rights Charter is not a body of laws. The UN is not a government. It's an organization. It has no jurisdiction over any particular citizen. It cannot declare that Don Corleone has too many trees in his yard and must cut half of them down. It CAN issue a statement to that affect and call on the State of New Hampshire, the Town of Kingston and/or the United States Congress to pass such legislation. But that statement, without the law being passed by one of the following appropriate authorities, carries no weight. Pindar is highlighting for you that making a statement and having the enforceability of an actual statute are two different things.

[HoreTore]

Edit: On the chance that you are in fact really are confused, allow me to explain. Pindar said the UN Human Rights Charter is a piece of rhetoric. Let's say you assumed he meant that it was unimportant or irrelevant. That's not what he meant.

Well, the feeling I was left with after reading his posts, was that he didn't think the declaration was important, and that left me pretty astonished, as I've never met a single human being(barring some of the nazi's here, I don't think they have much respect for it) who doesn't believe it to be one of the most important document ever made.

I apologize if I'm mistaken and read too much into his words, of course.

And as for the legal issue, if I haven't made it clear enough, I'll say that I don't really care about whether it's legal or whatever. What I care about, is that it should be the law, treated like it was the law, and respected by every state. Some countries do that, others don't.

Also, I'll say that it doesn't really matter whether it's in a nations law or not. If the states politicians respect it, it's more than enough. The law doesn't really matter at all to the people who can change it. If a US court says that gitmo is legal, then all it takes, is for the politicians to say that it's not, and that will be the final word. Thankfully, no judge can overturn our elected officials...