Murder is “unlawful killing.” Unlawful is not lawful, or not legitimus (latin). Legitimus is “in line with the law,” and laws are rules. Rules can be either decreed by a ruler, or discovered by legal theorists observing norms, conventions, and mores. Murder is unlawful killing both in the sense that rulers have declared it such and most individuals on Earth believe it to be wrong because it violates the norms, conventions, and mores that evolved to value, and thus protect, life. Therefore, when a criminally-innocent individual is intentionally killed, he has been murdered in the latter sense, but not necessarily in the former. When a mass of criminally-innocent individuals are killed, they are victims of mass murder. Such are those individuals killed by war waged by other individuals calling themselves “government.” Examples of mass murderers in history? Many, including but not limited to: Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Cesar, Cleopatra, fast-forward, King George III, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Vladimir Lenin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, George Bush, William Clinton, Osama bin Laden, and George W. Bush. As the current Commander-in-Chief of the United States military, Barack Obama is well on his way to becoming a mass murderer, if he’s not there already. And that’s today’s two cents.
Skyler.
