On Sat, Mar 03, 2007 at 05:22:21PM +0000, s. keeling wrote: > > > > Right, and the section that you quoted included this phrase: "under > > any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being" > > > > To me, that disallows self-defense. If I get punched in the face and I > > As in, _someone initiates force_ against you ... > Right. Curt already explained initiate was meant in the legal sense.
> > decide to realiate, then I have initiated force against my attacker. > > Retaliation is not initiation. You are entirely within your rights to > defend yourself. You'd be a fool not to. > I *completely* agree with you here. Again, I misunderstood the original passage. > > Now, that is in response to his attack and so is in self-defense. > > However, I still have to initiate [something]. > > You may be initiating the courage to stand up against your attacker, > but that's something else altogether. > And that thinking "initiating the response to the attacker" is what lead me to believe that the "initiate" meant in the original quotation *included* self-defense. > > idea of my political views. Can you cut me a break for an honest > > mistake? > > Not when you continue to make them. Self-defence is not initiation of > force. > Continue? What other mistakes have I made? I am not claiming that I have not made mistakes. However, misunderstanding something quite so badly is not a mistake I think I have made previously, or even often enough to call it a continuing pattern. > IFF English isn't your mother tongue (I don't know), I'd happily cut It is, along with Spanish. > you slack for that. If so, this is merely a language based > misunderstanding. My expertise is sorely lacking in foreign language > skills, and I envy those (such as you?) who manage as well as they do > in this often ridiculous language. Many twenty-somethings who were > born into it do far worse these days. > Well, my misunderstanding was based confusing the common language use of initiate with the legal use of initiate. From the context it was impossible to distinguish which was the intended reading. This is a problem that exists in many languages besides English. Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://people.connexer.com/~roberto http://www.connexer.com
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