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Monster Rain wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:

BaronIveagh wrote:So Joseph Mengele, Vlad Tepes, Erzsébet Báthory, Nicolae Ceauşescu, François Duvalier, and Slobodan Milošević were all fictional?

Virtually all there were given power via political appointment or rank. About the only supervillain like that I can think of out of hand is doctor doom, and he's a gypsy sorcerer superscientist. It's also entirely disimilar from what you are proposing and none of them are what I would classify as a supervillain.

Even though I know you're just being a pain in the ass on purpose...

Al Capone, John Gotti, Osama Bin Laden... Also, your idea that being a "super-villain" is contingent on not ever being killed or captured or whatever is silly. They all end up in some sort of unpleasantness.

There's also these guys.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16611_5-real-world-criminals-who-were-certified-super-villains.html

All of those personalities were entirely dependent on organizations that were more often than not largely out of their control. Supervillains can certainly be killed, but no one has ever done enough to be a supervillain without being killed first. It's what separates fantasy from reality. As for the list, I would only really count Konopka, the rest were too run of the mill (and killdozer wasn't even a villain).

It appears our bomb suspect was on a no fly list and STILL managed to get aboard a plane for the US.

So Napolitano, your people have everything under control and are doing their jobs?

If I did my job the way Homeland Security is doing theirs I would lose my job. LOL.

Fateweaver wrote:It appears our bomb suspect was on a no fly list and STILL managed to get aboard a plane for the US.

So Napolitano, your people have everything under control and are doing their jobs?

If I did my job the way Homeland Security is doing theirs I would lose my job. LOL.

I thought you did. Zing!

It's also at the discretion of the airlines to enforce the no fly lists. They aren't government airlines (And indeed they did eventually do their fething jobs).

Let's be honest: how good a job is a TSA agent going to do for $7 an hour?

I'd make a piss poor TSA agent as I profile anyone who isn't me.

White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, Purple, Blue. Everyone would be a terror suspect in my eyes.

Fate, you're just into giving body cavity searches, and we all know it.

Fateweaver wrote:I'd make a piss poor TSA agent as I profile anyone who isn't me.

White, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, Purple, Blue. Everyone would be a terror suspect in my eyes.

Profile hundreds of people a day every day for months. See how long your inquisitive spirit lasts.

Only if she is blonde or redhead, built like Barbie with an IQ so low as to not realize she doesn't need to be cavity searched 3 times.


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I worked a liquor store for 9 months. Everyone that wasn't at least 70 was a potential shoplifter in my eyes. Trust me, it never got old nor did I cease being inquisitive.

Shuma is right Fate,after months...hell years on the job,complacincy would grow,it would soon take something like this to even get you to raise an eyebrow.

I never got bored of liquor retail...best retail job I ever held was a liquor salesman.

Anyway, wandering OT so I'm just saying that apparently airline didn't do it's job and Napolitano is STILL a moron.

Of course we all know he'll get tried in civilian court, slapped on the hand and allowed to return home.

Fateweaver wrote:I never got bored of liquor retail...best retail job I ever held was a liquor salesman.

Anyway, wandering OT so I'm just saying that apparently airline didn't do it's job and Napolitano is STILL a moron.

Of course we all know he'll get tried in civilian court, slapped on the hand and allowed to return home.

Not likely, if he's successfully convicted the penalty for attempted terrorism is pretty severe. Even taken as separate civilian crimes he has quite a substantial list of crimes under his belt. He wasn't some dude that was picked up in his villaige for no reason than tortured for 2 years, he was caught after an unsuccessfull attempt at terrorism. It's a pretty different situation .

I highly doubt that.

I am curious though, what's with the opposition to trying terrorists in American courts?

We still do execute people in this country, though I personally think that being a nameless prisoner to the end of time is a far worse fate.

Death is quick.

Then again, I also think that we need to reopen Alcatraz for the terrorists. We can keep them nice and secure, the most liberal state in the union can make sure we're not burning their nipples off with blow torches, *and* it has a reputation for being a hardassed prison known the world over for containing the worst scum known to western civilization.

Sort of America's version of the Tower of London or Devil's Island.

Terrorism is an act of war, hence they should be tried in a military court.

Humanitarians don't want that because they believe a fairer trial will be conducted in a civilian court and we can't have terrorists rights violated now can we?

When you look back at history, you find that a lot of criminals traded on inflated reputations, or were hardly viewed as 'super villains' in their own time.

Al Capone, to this day, has a famously positive reputation in Cicero, and Jesse James was often thought of as a popular hero by former Confederates. Pretty Boy Floyd's funeral is the largest in Oklahoma history. And the support for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are well documented elements of recent history.

I can't think of anyone who is really comparable to the idea of a comic book super villain; tenting his fingers in a secret lair, or blowing up random bridges in order to create universal anarchy. There's always a significant group of people standing behind every successful criminal or terrorist.

Fateweaver wrote:Terrorism is an act of war, hence they should be tried in a military court.

Humanitarians don't want that because they believe a fairer trial will be conducted in a civilian court and we can't have terrorists rights violated now can we?

Except war can only occur between nations, and one dude isn't a country. Terrorism is a violent form of international crime as the moment it becomes a war they stop being terrorists and become a foreign military body. Given that the civilian court system is a hell of a lot better than the military one I fail to see the issue.

dogma: most successful super villains in comics have the backing a large amounts of money or organizations behind them (Lex Luthor, The Kingpin, ) guys who don't seem to tend to spend their down time in prison (Jigsaw, Bullseye, Rhino, Titania, The Absorbing Man).

Or an asylum. (The Joker, Carnage)

Most are not James Bond super villains who appear out of no where with huge organisations of spies bent on world conquest.

Blofeld, No.
Wilson Fisk, Yes.



I might point out that historically, civilian courts have a higher rate of prosecution then military tribunals for war criminals.

Fateweaver wrote:Terrorism is an act of war, hence they should be tried in a military court.

It cannot be an act of war unless the terrorist is considered to be the agent of a state. Additionally, if they are tried in military courts they must be tried in accordance with the uniform code of military justice.


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BaronIveagh wrote:dogma: most successful super villains in comics have the backing a large amounts of money or organizations behind them (Lex Luthor, The Kingpin, ) guys who don't seem to tend to spend their down time in prison (Jigsaw, Bullseye, Rhino, Titania, The Absorbing Man).

There's a distinction between organizational support, and popular support. Bin Laden was, and is, supported by people who are not affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Jesse James was supported by people who were not affiliated with the James Younger gang. Unlike a comic book super villain, there are people who look at bin Laden, and what he's done, and say "Good work!", or minimally "meh." The absence of that sort of polarizing effect is what makes me hesitate to make the comparison, or even use the term. Really, I don't even like using the term 'villain' when discussing reality, as it cheapens it.

Hmm... that's a tricky one. In the case of an organization like the IRA or Hamas, you could argue it as an act of war by a deposed (or existing) government, which would bring it under acts of war.

However, if they aren't a legitimate deposed government, it would be a criminal organization.