Saturday, February 18, 2006
Short TV Post
There was a lot of politics last night on Battlestar Galactica and it reminded me of some recent political thoughts here on Earth. First the TV show. There was a stowaway, a 4 months pregnant girl who wanted an abortion but because she lived with the Gemini guys (who are religious fanatics--more on that below) she couldn't get one where she lived. The Doctor on Galactica (nicknamed the Bucket), apparently the only one, Donnelly Rhodes, Dutch on Soap, suggests the girl apply for asylum and she does. The President, clearly a lefty, she says that she has always supported abortion on demand--it was a right before the cylon's attacked the second time and it will remain so. Then, for purely pragmatic reasons, she reverses course and says no abortions because in the war with the cylons, we need people not aborted fetuses (or something like that) starting right after the stowaway's abortion.
A lot of people on the left and a few even on the right (filled with libertarian overzealousness no doubt) accuse the President of saying he has unlimited power under his constitutional duties as commander in chief and he can ignore any law he wants. The President doesn't say that, but I'm focusing on the criticism. The President, and the Supreme Court in Hamdi, says that the President can use the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUFM), which allows the President to use necessary and appropriate force against al Qaeda, to do things normally incident to waging war. How far does that go? He can certainly take prisoners and hold them (that's the ruling in Hamdi). He can almost as certainly spy on the enemy without any Court's involvement. On the other hand, he can't seize a striking steel mill in order to supply the Armed Forces with the steel they need (that's the holding in the Steel Seizure case, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer),
OK, can the President issue an Executive Order saying we're going to need men in 20 years to fight against Islamacist terrorist, so every pregnant woman has to have amniocentesis and if it's a boy in her womb, she can't have an abortion? Certainly not according to Steel Seizure. But is it really beyond the President's war powers? Should it be absolutely off limits--don't even think about it?
OK, back to Battlestar Galactica. The Gemini people are described as zealots, they are both black and white in race, they consider abortion an abomination to the Gods (the people on Battlestar Galactic are polytheistic (like the Greeks and Romans were before Christianity) while the robots are monotheists) and the stowaway daughter was the "property" of the parents. I think the writers were trying to portray the Gemini people as being like the guys down in Colorado Springs (unyielding proponents of scripture--civil rights be damned) but what is the difference really between the group as portrayed on TV and Muslims (except for the polytheism)? I see none. I don't think, however, that Focus on the Family types and nearly all Evangelicals consider their children their property. Maybe I'm being naive here.
Finally, some criticism. They're going to have to decide whether the "fleet" is Navy or Air Force. (I personally think the Navy will always be Earthbound in water (so no space Marines either) and everything out in space will be Air Force with airborne troops (even though there are naval and Marine aviators and some of the astronauts were naval and Marine officers-so it's complicated). Some of the ranks on Battlestar Galactica are Navy--Chief, Commander, and Admiral; some are Air Force--Major, Colonel; and, some are both--Lieutenant and Captain. I was willing to put up with Colonel Tigh, thinking maybe he was a liaison with the ground forces or something, but now Lee Adama starts as a Captain and then gets a promotion (we expect Commander) to Major. What? It's a small point, I know, but it's disconcerting.
And the magic machine (the FTL) that allows the the Galactica to leave normal space and zip faster than light to another part of the Galaxy has four large plumbing valves as an integral part? What, are they kidding me?
A lot of people on the left and a few even on the right (filled with libertarian overzealousness no doubt) accuse the President of saying he has unlimited power under his constitutional duties as commander in chief and he can ignore any law he wants. The President doesn't say that, but I'm focusing on the criticism. The President, and the Supreme Court in Hamdi, says that the President can use the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUFM), which allows the President to use necessary and appropriate force against al Qaeda, to do things normally incident to waging war. How far does that go? He can certainly take prisoners and hold them (that's the ruling in Hamdi). He can almost as certainly spy on the enemy without any Court's involvement. On the other hand, he can't seize a striking steel mill in order to supply the Armed Forces with the steel they need (that's the holding in the Steel Seizure case, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer),
OK, can the President issue an Executive Order saying we're going to need men in 20 years to fight against Islamacist terrorist, so every pregnant woman has to have amniocentesis and if it's a boy in her womb, she can't have an abortion? Certainly not according to Steel Seizure. But is it really beyond the President's war powers? Should it be absolutely off limits--don't even think about it?
OK, back to Battlestar Galactica. The Gemini people are described as zealots, they are both black and white in race, they consider abortion an abomination to the Gods (the people on Battlestar Galactic are polytheistic (like the Greeks and Romans were before Christianity) while the robots are monotheists) and the stowaway daughter was the "property" of the parents. I think the writers were trying to portray the Gemini people as being like the guys down in Colorado Springs (unyielding proponents of scripture--civil rights be damned) but what is the difference really between the group as portrayed on TV and Muslims (except for the polytheism)? I see none. I don't think, however, that Focus on the Family types and nearly all Evangelicals consider their children their property. Maybe I'm being naive here.
Finally, some criticism. They're going to have to decide whether the "fleet" is Navy or Air Force. (I personally think the Navy will always be Earthbound in water (so no space Marines either) and everything out in space will be Air Force with airborne troops (even though there are naval and Marine aviators and some of the astronauts were naval and Marine officers-so it's complicated). Some of the ranks on Battlestar Galactica are Navy--Chief, Commander, and Admiral; some are Air Force--Major, Colonel; and, some are both--Lieutenant and Captain. I was willing to put up with Colonel Tigh, thinking maybe he was a liaison with the ground forces or something, but now Lee Adama starts as a Captain and then gets a promotion (we expect Commander) to Major. What? It's a small point, I know, but it's disconcerting.
And the magic machine (the FTL) that allows the the Galactica to leave normal space and zip faster than light to another part of the Galaxy has four large plumbing valves as an integral part? What, are they kidding me?
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:35 AM 
