# 10 Breath-taking Examples of Government Hypocrisy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 21, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819 "2013-10-21T14:46:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819/1 "2013-10-21T14:46:36Z")

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Found this fascinating [Listverse article.](http://listverse.com/2013/10/20/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/) A useful primer for anyone who believes that hypocrisy is the exclusive provence of one political party or the other.

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**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819/2 "2013-10-21T14:55:30Z")

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You talk about the government as if it something outside of yourself. You are the government, you and I. We the People.

Also, the first story is more about ‘some politicians’ than 'government.  
And there’s no “nuclear double standard”. WE can have nukes and the rest of the world can suck eggs.

(No offense intended to individual members. Just talking policy.)

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819/3 "2013-10-21T15:06:28Z")

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Pending legislation is in the public record and easily found.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819/4 "2013-10-21T15:15:37Z")

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I’m sort of confused. #9 says we flout extradition treaties and then gives examples where we refused to extradite people. The examples given are a man they say bombed a Cuban jet, but when you read the article we see this:

> [@](#):
>
> Felipe Millan, Posada’s El Paso lawyer, said a Venezuelan court tried Posada twice on terrorism charges and acquitted him both times.

oh, and:

> [@](#):
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> The U.S. government is not going to extradite Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela because he **faces possible torture by the authorities there** , one of his lawyers said Wednesday.

One thing extradition treaties don’t really cover are things that are not illegal in the other country or when the punishment may be considered harsh by the country. For example the us loses a lot of extradition issues when the death penalty is a possible punishment.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-breath-taking-examples-of-government-hypocrisy/671819/5 "2013-10-21T15:24:15Z")

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Also, with #3 IIRC we were verrry grumpy about Pakistan acquiring nukes but there wasn’t very much we could do about it. A lot of nations worked to stop them from getting the materials but that would not work forever.

This list seems determined to shock, not really give confirmed information.