Originally posted by jeffbert+Jun 24 2004, 12:37 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (jeffbert @ Jun 24 2004, 12:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Originally posted by -cybotron@Jun 23 2004, 12:41 AMOriginally posted by -jeffbert@Jun 23 2004, 09:04 AM
[b] <!--QuoteBegin--cybotron@Jun 22 2004, 02:35 PM
[b] My heroes have allways been agents of the police and goverment, Marines and Soldiers. From The Fantastic Four,Hopalng Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Captain Marvel, Commando Cody, Iron man, Nick fury, Spiderman, Superman, The X-men, Astroboy,etc. These have all acted as agents of Law and order.
You must really have a selective memory or knowledge of these characters. While it may indeed be true that some have always had recognition as officially deputized law enforcers, others do not share that distinction. Spiderman & The X-men have usually been depicted as operating outside the law. B) <_< However, you interpret the fact that they are good guys as if it meant that they are duly deputized law enforcers. In the daily comics, Spiderman may be viewed as such; however, this does not hold in the comic books. OK, it has been 20 years since I read a Spiderman comic book, but the thing that you see as universally true is far from it.
As you misinterpret those facts, you have also misinterpreted Atom's occasional work for the police. You commit Equivocation when you use the word 'agent.' You say that anyone who acts on behalf of x is an agent of x. However, your first use of this word was in this form "But Astro is at least an agent of the security forces. And there is a chain of command. Tawashi has to ask for permission to use Astro. Astro is a restricted device. I would conclude that Tawashi is subordinate to O'Shay." This use makes him either an employee of the police or as a robot, an item owned by it or some other govt. agency. Whether or not the central govt. owns him, the city govt. does not own him. As such he is not subject to the city police dept's juristiction any more so than any privately owned robot. These are two very different meanings, and you seem to have abandoned your first position, that of Atom being an agent of the police as G. Gordon Liddy (who resembles Tawashi, BTW) was an FBI agent, and as such an employee thereof. Having this position refuted, you then continued to employ the word 'agent', but with a different meaning. Was this your attempt to save face? You thought you could cover your error by changing your argument, just slightly, hoping nobody would notice that slight change![/b]
They are voluntary assets of Law enforcement. Acting as detectives and crime fighting agents. They investigate crime, interfere with criminal enterprise, and turn over into the hands of the police authority any criminals that they apprehend. That's all that's required to be an agent of law enforcement or security. In any sane book.
be quiet... Go watch Sherlock Holmes.... Answer the questions I posted.[/b]
So what is your point? I have not said anything contrary to this, rather that some of them operate outside the law (x-Men & Spiderman), so whether or not they act for good against evil, they are not acting in any official capacity. Being self-appointed crime-fighters is far from being deputized crime-fighters.
Once again, you have avoided the subject. As I have already clearly stated, you use 'agent' in 2 different ways. After you felt that you could not defend your using it to mean one who acts in an official capacity, who is employed by the govt & under its authority, you used it as one who acts on behalf of the govt., but has no official ststus (see above for a better argument of this point). You are the one who skirts the issue.

By your reasoning, even though the govt. was out to destroy him, Mighty Joe Young was an agent of the fire dept., & therefore of the govt., because he rescued orphans from the top floor of of the burning building.
You would say that cub scouts who go out on a Saturday morning to pick up trash from the roadside are agents of the govt., because they took actions that are the govt.'s responsibility. :wacko: :blink:

while mighty joe young is acting for the benifit of society, he is not making an actual judgement based on society's view of good and evil. He is not interfering with criminal enterprise on an intelligence level. Batman is, astro is, Spiderman is. spiderman is making a citizens arrest of a mugger, he apprehends him, he encases him in a web, and leaves him for police. We just had a guy killed here for aiding the police against gangsters. People have tried to kill Spiderman for stopping their crimes. But Astro actually goes out with the police, even as Sherlock Holmes goes out with the police. Holmes will pull a gun and hold the criminal for the police, the police will say thank you Mr. Holmes, we would never had broken this case without you. Just like Astro. There are secret police, no one knows who they are, not even the official police. They are on a need to know basis. They are secret agents of the police. All super heroes act as agents of the police. :wahah: