In retaliation to recent US order that travelers from countries that need visas to enter the US will be fingerprinted and photographed, a Brazilian judge, Julier Sebastiao da Silva, announced that US citizens will be fingerprinted and photographed on entering Brazil. My position is that Brazil can do what it wants to regarding travelers, but the judge’s statement was over the top:
“I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis,” Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva said in the court order.
He was refering to the US law, but isn’t ordering the same thing for Brazil then just as bad in his mind.
And also I believe the Nazi’s did a few worse things.
This, of course, is the Law of Reciprocal Stupidity.
If you do something incredibly stupid, I have the right to be just as stupid.
It seems to be applied especially when the Unitied States is being particularly stupid. And since the U.S. is being stupid a lot lately, the average human IQ seems to have dropped about 30 points…
I don’t know, except for the Nazi part, it makes sense. A lot of countries tend to charge reciprocal visa fees. If you are charging my citizens $100 dollars to get a visa, then I will charge your citizens $100 to get a visa. This is just more of the same.
Shit, after reading my post, I realized that my words could be misinterpreted. I mean that I think the judge was a fool for calling the U.S. actions Nazi like. I see no problem with him ordering U.S. citizens photographed and fingerprinted as well.
I’m fine with the reciprocal nature of this, but equating this with the worst horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime pisses away 99% of your moral high ground, and then turning around and doing the same thing yourself pisses away the remaining 1%.
Had he left out his little temper tantrum, I don’t think anyone would have really cared very much.
I went to Brazil in March of 2002 and had to buy a tourist visa before I could go there. I’m pretty sure that I had to submit a picture to get the visa. I had to do all of this before I could get on a plane to enter the country.
That judge is a self rightous ass. First for implementing a “neener neener” type law and then mostly for comparing such a law to the Nazi atrocities. The corruption in their Government and the horrible poverty in their society are orders of magnitude worse than in the US. He should clean his own house before he shits on mine.
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You know, the funny thing about Godwin’s Law is that Mike Godwin, the EFF lawyer who coined it, has a reputation on message boards (The Well, for one) for bringing debates to a screeching halt with niggling hairsplitting and attention to pointless details. People give up in frustration at not getting anywhere.
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Methinks that Brazil needs American tourists more than the U.S. needs Brazilian tourists, so the judge is being really stupid and short-sighted with this.
I say good on 'em. Not enough people in this world stand up to the asshole Cheney administration. While invoking Godwin’s law is a losing gambit for debating with intelligent people, I think it’s just fine for the general public, which has been known to be outsmarted by boxes of hammers.
