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Flame » in reply to re: "words mean what I want them to mean"

re: "words mean what I want them to mean"
gbaikie — (archived)

"That is soooo whacky, gb. A law book trumps a dictionary any day. If you're accused of a crime, how far do you think you'd get defending yourself by challenging the law's definition of the crime with a definition you found in a dictionary?"

Robert. I would hire a lawyer.
Defending myself in a court of law is not something I regard as reasonable. Even lawyers would hire lawyers. Saying that Gary was somehow suggesting some posters should be criminally prosecuted is over the top. And if you actually thought this was the case, bringing the matter to the flame board is a bit whacky.

"This matters in this case because it's the most-significant definition of the word that takes precedence. "Treason", in its most powerful and precise meaning describes a crime and implies the death penalty; that power overwhelms all the weaker definitions you might try to fall back on."

Actually one should consider the issue of jurisdiction, if one is looking for "most-significant". For example in India the American legal definition of treason has no standing. Particularly in this "case", since the matter involves international elements: largely to do with an alleged Iranian and posters which might be from countries beyond the US.
But I don't think we should pretend we are lawyers.

"It's like I tried to explain to Mark: You don't get to use the names of crimes metaphorically. The dictionary doesn't specify that "pedophilia" is a crime, either, but that doesn't mean you can get away with falsely accusing somebody of pedophilia by claiming you were using the term metaphorically and didn't really mean to accuse them of a crime. Oh yeah, right."

Well the questionable crime is this case would be libel, but it's doubtful one could try it. But suppose someone did accuse an person of being a pedophilia, in court one would be looking at definition of pedophilia in the dictionary rather than how it's defined in law- unless [perhaps] the parties involved were bunch of lawyers involved in a legal discussion or it was claimed that the person was convicted of pedophillia.

And metaphorically? No. Literal. A "water boy pissing in the team's water" could be a nice metaphor, but it is precisely and literally treason. Naughty boy or booboo doesn't cut it. The water boy has a duty, function, job, just as a citizen has a duty, function, job in regards to maintaining national security.

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