Stirling Newberry wrote:
[snip quoted argument]
Which is a distinction without a difference.
Perhaps you need to go back over the difference between malum
prohibitum and malum in se, and why your formulation doesn't work very
well in light of that difference.
Having encountered Mr. Newberry on several other forums, I would urge
that people not waste their time arguing with him. He generally resorts
to attacks on his opponents rather than attempts to make coherent points
[1]. The unexplained use here of several legal Latin phrases in passing
is characteristic of his typical "vocabulary-dropping, but doesn't know
what he's talking about" style.
(And yes, this counts as an ad hominem attack as well, but sometimes one
must point out the obvious.)
-Mark
[1] See, for example, this representative exchange with
kuro5hin.org
founder Rusty Foster:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2004/10/15/212724/90/4#4