Modern Australian Republicanism is predicated on the supremacy of the individual, and the government deriving their legitimacy to make laws from the consent of the people. The basis for this consent is void when individual rights are violated by the government. Rights exist for all individuals under the jurisdiction of the government's ability to make and execute laws - a right is not unique to a citizen, nor an individual from a majority - they are universal to all. Torture is a contravention of an individual's rights, and an individual's consent to the civil legal system; consequently it represents government tyranny. Torture is a vehicle of state oppression and intimidation. It has no place in an Australian Republic.
Torture
Torture is the affliction of severe physical or psychological pain for the purpose of intimidation, coercion or punishment. The
UN Convention Against Torture
describes torture as;
For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
The conundrum with government in a liberal democracy is relinquishing the perfect freedom of the individual in a trade off for an ordered society. If all individuals are perfectly free, not only in their person and possessions, but also in their ability to inflict their arbitrary will on others, then it can lead to a chaotic society. The consistency in a society comes through the consent to the "rule of law".
Individuals in a society, presumably consent to government in order to have their person and possessions free from the arbitrary will of others. To achieve this, government is granted a monopoly to create law and enforce it. Vigilante justice is frowned upon as it is the arbitrary creation, and enforcement of law. To ensure the consistency of the law, the enforcement and judgement are moved to separate arms of government, the police and judicial.
This compact between government and people is done through an individual wilfully giving up their ability to impose their arbitrary will on another individual. While government is given a monopoly on coercion through legislation, it does not gain a monopoly on arbitrary legislation and enforcement. The government cannot impose their will arbitrarily, in the same manner that an individual cannot. If the government does, it has fallen into tyranny. With this step from the rule of law, the compact is broken and the individuals, whose consent gives the government legitimacy, do not need to follow the laws of the government any longer. With tyranny, the government is illegitimate.
Inviolable Rights
Modern Australian Republicanism contains in its doctrine the principle of inviolable rights. Inviolable rights, codified into a rule of law body of legislation, protect the individual from the tyranny of the state, and the arbitrary will of government. At its very core it is an individual being secure in their person and property. This includes freedom from torture by other individuals and the state.
Any government which practices torture is practising tyranny. Australian Republicanism is about removing the capability of tyranny from government - that includes torture of anyone under the jurisdiction of the state.
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Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
