In this case it does. You’re talking about the civil rights of the meta-humans but you forget the civil rights of the regular humans. If a meta-human wants to protect the people, the people have a right to know that that meta-human is mentally and physically competent enough to do so.
Anytime you are in a position of power, the government needs to know who you are to make sure you don’t abuse that power. Doctors need to have licenses. Drivers need to have licenses.
Driving is a privilege. And so is having powers. If you treat your powers for granted, if you don’t treat them as a priviledge… you end up with a Stamford Connecticut incident.
Wrong. When you’re born with something–six fingers, dark skin, the ability to make toast with the palm of your hand–it is not a privilege. It is a part of who you are. Forcing somebody to register with the government because they somehow mutated in a way that turned out differently from the rest of humanity is no different than forcing people of a certain race to live in concentration camps during a time of war. A doctor obtaining a license is a part of the binding contract he makes when he chooses to undertake medical school and open a practice. A person obtaining a driver’s license is a part of the binding contract he decides to make when he chooses to purchase and operate a vehicle. A person who can change the channel on a television simply by thinking about it never made a choice and never entered into a contract.
I’ll remind you that some meta-humans chose to stand up and protect people, but the registration act makes no provisos for those who don’t. It gave them two choices: turn themselves in or hide themselves from the government agents. The registration act does not concern itself simply with vigilantism on the part of those with unique powers, but with the unique powers themselves.
Vote for goodm0urning: standing up to those pro-reg Washington fatcats.
Also, not only is All-Star Superman #9 not coming out this week, it isn’t coming out this month. That is downright depressing. Maybe once November 7th rolls around, it will have been pushed back yet another month.
Power is always a privilege. With great power comes great responsibility. You can’t treat them for granted no matter which way you slice it.
Forcing somebody to register with the government is so that no super-human places himself above the law just like regular humans. It is more about conformance rather than segregation.
Doctors need licenses cause their decisions mean life or death. A driver needs a license because their decisions also mean life or death. If that person who can change a channel on television by blinking… can turn off all the power systems in an airplane by blinking, then that person would need to register so that the government can determine that he’s mentally and physically competent to use his powers. If he can’t control his powers and he happens to go on an airplane… then we have a disaster. Licenses aren’t simply contracts about television channels. It’s to ensure that people are competent physically and mentally in the use of power. Doctors are in positions of power when they are performing surgery. Drivers are in power behind the wheel.
Yes, because a meta-human could be a walking nuclear bomb. A paper-cut would blow up the entire country. If such an individual existed, the government should know about them for the safety of the entire country. They can provide provisions to help protect the individual from harm, maybe even train him to not blow up every he gets a paper-cut.
Yes, and there are plenty of ordinary humans who can train themselves to kill other humans with their bare hands. The human body is entirely capable of being deadly, in and of itself. We all wield our own measure of great power. Should people have to register who they are and what they can do with the government because of that? We commonly refer to the things a person is born with as a right of birth, because it is true–but what gives the government the right to put that kind of magnifying glass on the life of a private citizen? Certainly not the Constitution. Heat vision is one kind of power, but the ability to start a riot using only words is quite another. Should people have to register for being eloquent orators? Should they have to hide the talent that makes them special because it COULD be dangerous, and live in fear of being locked up just because they can do something that a lot of people can’t?
And yet, I do agree with you on one thing: in the real world, there probably would be a registration act–just like the Treaty of New Echota and Executive Order 9066. Or the PATRIOT Act, for that matter.
Everyone has the potential to kill other humans with their bare hands. It really comes down to whether or not you define that as a super power. I don’t think the government would.
Don’t forget that there are also many people who acquire superpowers at a later stage in their life. The government’s job is to protect the country. It wouldn’t be good if another Stamford incident occurred. If acquiring the identities of meta-humans prevents another Stamford incident, I’m all for it.
Again, it truly comes down to what defines a superpower.
I dunno. I guess I just don’t see the registration as that big a deal. The government knowing who you are seems like a small price to pay if it’ll prevent another Stamford incident. The government already has most of everyone’s information anyways.
A lot of people also believe that detaining non-citizens without charge and monitoring the activities of private citizens without notification are a small price to pay in order to prevent a second 9/11, but…
Vote for goodm0urning: defending your liberty from government scrutiny.
List has been updated. Even though today is Columbus Day comics will still ship this Wednesday.
The first volume of Studio Udon’s translation of Masaomi Kanzaki’s Street Fighter II manga comes out this week. Also looking forward to Gargoyles, Spider-Man and Red Sonja, New Avengers and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man since it will continue One More Day. Fun week!
So does Gale’s run on Wonder Woman start this week?
Yeah never read any of her stuff so didn’t know how to spell her name lol! In Midtown’s description of the next Wonder Woman issue they didn’t list who was writing the book and I thought Gayl’s (I’m on a roll) run was supposed to start after the annual, so curious about that.
OT, my sister in-law hates Columbus Day, she teaches her students how he was an evil bastard and so on. Her daughter, my 3 year old niece already knows how to say “Columbus was a bad man!” What’s funny is that today is my sister in-law’s birthday, this is one of those years it falls on Columbus Day. So she will be teased. At least she gets the day off from work, I think everybody does except me… :arazz:
Found out that Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman will start with #14, so next month. Looking forward to checking it out, I’ve heard a lot of good things about her.
List updated. Quiet week for me. Excited about Megatron Origins 4, I think it’s the last issue. Man they should follow up with a Shockwave Origin story or something. :tup:
Something came up so I don’t think I’ll be able to update the list today, if anything I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll try to do it later today but no guarantees. For the time being you can check the link in the first post for the list of comics coming out this week.
List updated finally, sorry about the delay. I had a lunch date yesterday around the time when I usually update and the rest of my work day was pretty busy, ah being an adult got in the way lol!
Looking forward to Udon’s Art of Capcom book of course! Also more Gon unflopped goodness! Oh and more Naruto books dang Sasuke is bugging out… Countdown finally gets “Final Crisis” in its title, finally! X-cited about X-Men Messiah Complex ha ha! Oh yeah gonna get the Spider-Man 3 Bluray that comes out today and I’m dressed in all black! I’ll make sure to do some weird pelvic thrusts while I’m walking down the street! :looney: Anyway pretty cool week for me! :tup:
Nah man gotta abuse my power when I can. Besides the Spider-Man DVD is on the list of new stuff coming this week. Aren’t you just showing off your spell check skills anyway? Lol if only Taichi updated this list on a weekly basis in the first place like he is supposed to MWAHAHAHAHAHA! :badboy:
Yeah just messing around Taichi I’m sure you have other things to do. :tup:
At least she gets the day off from work, I think everybody does except me… :arazz: