McCain and Obama are both the worst candidates fielded by their respective parties in recent memory. The election of either of them will be a complete disaster for this country.
I am surprised at the amount of people who call "Breaking and Entering" a petty crime. I may be wrong, but I believe it is probably a felony. They were almost certainly not looking for food, but for anything of any value they could grab.
Was he justified in shooting them? Probably not. Why did he shoot them? Probably because, while they were on their knees, one of the kids said something that really pissed him off, and he pulled the trigger. That's my guess. But, maybe not. Maybe one of the other kids lunged for him. There is no question he had every right to be scared, with four almost adults in his house. We know that children that age don't have full moral faculties yet. He had no way to know that none of them would be armed, or that they wouldn't try to swing around and take the rifle from him.
It doesn't seem fair to me to punish someone severly for a situation which they didn't ask for or initiate. I guess he could have just sat back and waited 15 minutes for police to show up, but, until he pulled the trigger, he acted in a reasonable way. How you react to a stressful situation should be criminally different from the situations you willfully initiate.
All in all, if I was the prosecutor, I would have pushed for a charge of manslaughter.
On a side note, I think someone should conduct a study on a connection between junk food and violent, irrational behaviour.
It's amazing that people allow the child support system to stand as it is.
For one, it dehumanizes the role of a parent, declaring that the role of a parent is a purely monetary one. You can buy them supplies, teach them how to paint, take them to the zoo, offer to spend as much time as you want, pour your hearts out to them...but none of it will subtract one cent from it.
The #1 reason for parents in the child support system to lose their job is having to go to court many times for various reasons.
Child support basically criminalizes parenthood (in particular fatherhood, because usually it's the dad who gets enmeshed in it).
Once in the system, you are treated basically like a criminal. Even if you pay the money, you are still given the respect treated to anyone wrapped up in the court system - which is none.
I had a friend who refused to pay his payment because the mother had become an alcoholic and drug abuser who was treating the kids like shit. He was available to them 24/7, and spent a lot of time and love with them. He eventually got reamed, the judge refused to listen to his side.
Section 8 of the proposed legislation provides that "(d)ecisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Bend over America. You're not getting kissed first.
Bear Sterns $60B, AIG for $85B, promises to buy soiled Lehman securities for $100s of Bs, loans extended to BoA to buy Merril for almost $50B, and now this - which is just a start. The total bill might go into the $Trillions. Total prosecutions for fraud? Total billionaires being asked to fork over their 99% of their fortunes to ensure the survivability of the firms they have led off a cliff? 0. Remember that Paulson is the retired CEO of Goldman Sachs, a major beneficiary of this, and is worth at least $.5B.
It's amazing that you can go to jail for not paying a $50 ticket, but not one person is being punished for this. Sort of like 9/11 - people are only punished when relatively little things go wrong, not major things.
A case can certainly be made that it was too much government intervention, not too little, that caused the Great Depression. A massive credit glut for a decade, followed by massive, poorly thought out government initiatives to protect Wall Street. Sound familiar?
Our democratic republic barely survived that crisis.
What would happen if the Dollar loses it's reserve currency status and we face hyperinflation? The question is, can our Republic survive the (now assured) economic cataclysm?
I wouldn't bet my money on it.
So, batten down the hatches, and vote every single incumbent out on every level. Never vote for a Democrat or Republican again.
Some people are suggesting a revolt of the creditees-simply stop making all payments on unsecured debt. Screw your credit rating, a good credit rating will just enable you to make poor decision and get yourself strapped with debt in the future. If they can't repossess something more valuable than your debt, stop making payments. We shouldn't be helping the bankers run off with our country.
This will be remembered as the most audacious financial crime in recorded history.
Anyone here about the cases of drug arrests in the Dubai airport? One fellow was arrested for having like 3 micrograms of weed in the tread of his hiking boots, another for having a few seeds from a poppy seed bagel he had eaten that were in the seams of his cuorduroy jacket. Dead serious, they both happened this year and they face real prison terms. I fully agree with anyone who says we should be more concerned with problems in our own country - but man, screw that place. Watch out, and don't support it financially. In trying to create their materialistic heaven, they have instead manifested a vision of hell.
That looks like a ton of fun. I would do it in a heartbeat. You don't have to trust the operator of the excavator as much as your own grip and timing - as well as the depth of the pond ;)
This poll is bogus, and reveals an implicit political slant on this blog.
That is, the slant towards the status quo. Defining the race as only between these two utterly compromised candidates is making a statement itself. It is analogous to dishonesty by exclusion.
Face it folks - are political system is rigged. We do not have a real choice. On social issues that are dangled in front of us like toys in front of a toddler's eyes, sure, there's a difference. But on the major issues of the day - war, taxation, freedom, what the proper and constitutional role of government is - there is no difference. I mean, McCain wants war in Iraq and Iran. Obama wants war in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This is a choice?
A vote for McCain is a wasted vote. A vote for Obama is a wasted vote.
A vote for either is a vote for our current system where bankers and corporations rule our country.
Hell, look at the wildly unpopular bailouts in effect now. Look at the war that was escalated after the voters clearly voted to rein it in. Look at the Democratic leadership refusing to even consider impeaching Bush when the crimes he committed are clear, clearly evidenced, and clearly meet the constitutional standard of impeachable offenses. Look at the current fiscal abyss we are falling into, being dragged into, with the warfare state gripping our right hand, and the welfare state gripping our left hand, and interest on past insanity pushing from behind, dragging us kicking and screaming into the unknown chasm of federal bankruptcy.
WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY. WE DO NOT HAVE A REPUBLIC. THE WILL OF THE VOTERS IN AMERICA DOES NOT AFFECT THE ACTIONS OF OUR GOVERNMENT.
That said, I'm probably voting for constitution party candidate chuck baldwin, even though I disagree with him on some crucial issues (shoot, I'm a buddhist, not a baptist). Nothing is more important than getting these crooks out of the seats of power.
But what is it that makes 3,000 who died in a single, dramatic moment more tragic than 3,000 who died in their own, small, unnoticeable tragedies?
Are deaths of American citizens more tragic than deaths of foreigners? If they are both strangers to us personally, what is the different?
Is innocent death by violence caused by terrorism more tragic than innocent death by violence caused by falling bombs?
Yes, the crime of 9/11/2001 was tragic and unforgiveable. There can be no question. It deserves to be mourned.
But why the annual ritual of mourning for this crime, and for nothing else?
I know that personally, I feel worse about crimes I might have committed than wrongs done to me. If my taxes helped killed an innocent, that weighs more heavily on me than a crime I have no culpability for.
In the last five years, at least 100,000 Iraqis, and maybe up to a million, have died. That represents at least 30 september 11ths.
In the Vietnam War, around 2 million civilians died trying to repel a foreign invader (us) from their country…that’s almost 1,000 september 11ths. Where is their memorial?
Of course, 50,000 GIs died in that war too. They have a bleak memorial in D.C…but, they are largely forgotten.
In Guatemala, 300,000 indigenous peasants were murdered in a cruel and relentelss war throughout the 1980s, while our government funded and armed the murders, knowing their crimes…Who has noone made a list of them for public mourning? Is it because they are so different from us, because we can’t understand their life stories?
Hell, in our own country, 300,000 die every year from smoking..which at least is their own fault. More people probably die every week due to fast food and the junk food we feed our children than died on that day-and I would argue that years of incapacity and misery followed by death is much worse than sudden death. Between 30,000 - 100,000 die from side effects of prescription drugs. Where is their memorial? Vioxx alone killed more than 20,000 people - after studied showed that it was potentially lethal. That’s more than six september 11ths. The executives in the company knew about the study and buried it. Why is there not a similar national outrage calling for their heads, calling for them to be drawn and quartered? We know who the criminal are in that case, we know their crime. Yet they still live in mansions and own private jets, and enjoy all the fruits of wealth and liberty.
I am not criticizing anyone for mourning the 9/11 attacks - especially if you had a relative or friend who died in it. But this ritual of mourning every year for something we had no control over, replacing reason with emotion, promotes a feeling of victimization, of helplessness, and draws attention away from what we can control.
As human beings, we are only responsible for our own actions. If someone causes us harm, then we have a right and a responsibility to find justice. But if we focus on the crime committed against us and our victimhood, we lose track of our own potential to create good in the world, and prevent evil.
P.S. On a different topic.
The real danger of 9/11 is that it was such a stunning act that it can be used to justify anything.
The right wing has "islamofascism" - a threat so great and grave that, by just invoking the name, it can be used to justify anything. Who wants a nuclear bomb going on in times square?
The left wing has "global warming" - a threat so great and grave that, by just invoking the name, it can be used to justify anything. Why wants our seaside cities drowned?
Of course, the solution presented to both is fundamentally flawed - the RAND corporation, certainly no bastion of liberalism, just released a study stating that any military solution to terrorism is bound to fail. And global warming is, probably, a giant crock. When we are deciding what to do, we have to remember something that has been common knowledge for as long as politicians been around - most politicians are self-interested crooks. If they claim they are trying to help you or protect you in any way, don't take it at face value. Don't be taken up by emotional calls, but rather consider everything rationally.
What is past is past. Many millions of people have been killed by evil in history, many millions probably will be killed by evil. What matters is now, what can be done now. In the here and now, I don't want to lose my country and my liberty to politicians who cynically demagogue these fears in order to justify their own agendas.
It is important to remember that - as vile as islamic fundamentalism is - both Nazism and Communism came not out of that part of the world but out of the Christian westernized lands of Europe. They were both created, basically, by politicians in times of crisis promising to provide protection from very real enemies (the nazis promised protection from the largely jewish communists and the communists promised protection from the ruthless capitalists), and both promised to improve the lives of the people.
Already, America today doesn't in any way resemble the America our parents knew - there is so much less freedom, so much more government, so many more police, so many more laws and regulations, so much more fear.
America can never be destroyed by bombs and guns and terrorists. We are physically too strong - we span a rich continent, and we are extremely well armed and resourceful. We can only be destroyed by forgetting the ideological basis of what makes America.
Some poor schmuck is facing seven years in prison for a "crime" that imperiled or harmed no one but himself and his lawnmower.
It's a case where the rights of the lawnmower trump the rights of the man to learn from his own mistakes.
Sure, a sawed off shotgun might be more useful for a robbery or a crime of violence-but this guy never used it for either. In fact, it was more dangerous only for himself.
Seven years? That's an incredibly long time. Seven days would be too long.
So, a story where the only actual violence - one person using force to harm another - is commited by the state.
A story told one million times in modern America...
Was he justified in shooting them? Probably not. Why did he shoot them? Probably because, while they were on their knees, one of the kids said something that really pissed him off, and he pulled the trigger. That's my guess. But, maybe not. Maybe one of the other kids lunged for him. There is no question he had every right to be scared, with four almost adults in his house. We know that children that age don't have full moral faculties yet. He had no way to know that none of them would be armed, or that they wouldn't try to swing around and take the rifle from him.
It doesn't seem fair to me to punish someone severly for a situation which they didn't ask for or initiate. I guess he could have just sat back and waited 15 minutes for police to show up, but, until he pulled the trigger, he acted in a reasonable way. How you react to a stressful situation should be criminally different from the situations you willfully initiate.
All in all, if I was the prosecutor, I would have pushed for a charge of manslaughter.
On a side note, I think someone should conduct a study on a connection between junk food and violent, irrational behaviour.
For one, it dehumanizes the role of a parent, declaring that the role of a parent is a purely monetary one. You can buy them supplies, teach them how to paint, take them to the zoo, offer to spend as much time as you want, pour your hearts out to them...but none of it will subtract one cent from it.
The #1 reason for parents in the child support system to lose their job is having to go to court many times for various reasons.
Child support basically criminalizes parenthood (in particular fatherhood, because usually it's the dad who gets enmeshed in it).
Once in the system, you are treated basically like a criminal. Even if you pay the money, you are still given the respect treated to anyone wrapped up in the court system - which is none.
I had a friend who refused to pay his payment because the mother had become an alcoholic and drug abuser who was treating the kids like shit. He was available to them 24/7, and spent a lot of time and love with them. He eventually got reamed, the judge refused to listen to his side.
Bend over America. You're not getting kissed first.
Bear Sterns $60B, AIG for $85B, promises to buy soiled Lehman securities for $100s of Bs, loans extended to BoA to buy Merril for almost $50B, and now this - which is just a start. The total bill might go into the $Trillions. Total prosecutions for fraud? Total billionaires being asked to fork over their 99% of their fortunes to ensure the survivability of the firms they have led off a cliff? 0. Remember that Paulson is the retired CEO of Goldman Sachs, a major beneficiary of this, and is worth at least $.5B.
It's amazing that you can go to jail for not paying a $50 ticket, but not one person is being punished for this. Sort of like 9/11 - people are only punished when relatively little things go wrong, not major things.
A case can certainly be made that it was too much government intervention, not too little, that caused the Great Depression. A massive credit glut for a decade, followed by massive, poorly thought out government initiatives to protect Wall Street. Sound familiar?
Our democratic republic barely survived that crisis.
What would happen if the Dollar loses it's reserve currency status and we face hyperinflation? The question is, can our Republic survive the (now assured) economic cataclysm?
I wouldn't bet my money on it.
So, batten down the hatches, and vote every single incumbent out on every level. Never vote for a Democrat or Republican again.
Some people are suggesting a revolt of the creditees-simply stop making all payments on unsecured debt. Screw your credit rating, a good credit rating will just enable you to make poor decision and get yourself strapped with debt in the future. If they can't repossess something more valuable than your debt, stop making payments. We shouldn't be helping the bankers run off with our country.
This will be remembered as the most audacious financial crime in recorded history.
google "bagel poppy dubai" to read about this.
That is, the slant towards the status quo. Defining the race as only between these two utterly compromised candidates is making a statement itself. It is analogous to dishonesty by exclusion.
Face it folks - are political system is rigged. We do not have a real choice. On social issues that are dangled in front of us like toys in front of a toddler's eyes, sure, there's a difference. But on the major issues of the day - war, taxation, freedom, what the proper and constitutional role of government is - there is no difference. I mean, McCain wants war in Iraq and Iran. Obama wants war in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This is a choice?
A vote for McCain is a wasted vote. A vote for Obama is a wasted vote.
A vote for either is a vote for our current system where bankers and corporations rule our country.
Hell, look at the wildly unpopular bailouts in effect now. Look at the war that was escalated after the voters clearly voted to rein it in. Look at the Democratic leadership refusing to even consider impeaching Bush when the crimes he committed are clear, clearly evidenced, and clearly meet the constitutional standard of impeachable offenses. Look at the current fiscal abyss we are falling into, being dragged into, with the warfare state gripping our right hand, and the welfare state gripping our left hand, and interest on past insanity pushing from behind, dragging us kicking and screaming into the unknown chasm of federal bankruptcy.
WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY. WE DO NOT HAVE A REPUBLIC. THE WILL OF THE VOTERS IN AMERICA DOES NOT AFFECT THE ACTIONS OF OUR GOVERNMENT.
That said, I'm probably voting for constitution party candidate chuck baldwin, even though I disagree with him on some crucial issues (shoot, I'm a buddhist, not a baptist). Nothing is more important than getting these crooks out of the seats of power.
But what is it that makes 3,000 who died in a single, dramatic moment more tragic than 3,000 who died in their own, small, unnoticeable tragedies?
Are deaths of American citizens more tragic than deaths of foreigners? If they are both strangers to us personally, what is the different?
Is innocent death by violence caused by terrorism more tragic than innocent death by violence caused by falling bombs?
Yes, the crime of 9/11/2001 was tragic and unforgiveable. There can be no question. It deserves to be mourned.
But why the annual ritual of mourning for this crime, and for nothing else?
I know that personally, I feel worse about crimes I might have committed than wrongs done to me. If my taxes helped killed an innocent, that weighs more heavily on me than a crime I have no culpability for.
In the last five years, at least 100,000 Iraqis, and maybe up to a million, have died. That represents at least 30 september 11ths.
In the Vietnam War, around 2 million civilians died trying to repel a foreign invader (us) from their country…that’s almost 1,000 september 11ths. Where is their memorial?
Of course, 50,000 GIs died in that war too. They have a bleak memorial in D.C…but, they are largely forgotten.
In Guatemala, 300,000 indigenous peasants were murdered in a cruel and relentelss war throughout the 1980s, while our government funded and armed the murders, knowing their crimes…Who has noone made a list of them for public mourning? Is it because they are so different from us, because we can’t understand their life stories?
Hell, in our own country, 300,000 die every year from smoking..which at least is their own fault. More people probably die every week due to fast food and the junk food we feed our children than died on that day-and I would argue that years of incapacity and misery followed by death is much worse than sudden death. Between 30,000 - 100,000 die from side effects of prescription drugs. Where is their memorial? Vioxx alone killed more than 20,000 people - after studied showed that it was potentially lethal. That’s more than six september 11ths. The executives in the company knew about the study and buried it. Why is there not a similar national outrage calling for their heads, calling for them to be drawn and quartered? We know who the criminal are in that case, we know their crime. Yet they still live in mansions and own private jets, and enjoy all the fruits of wealth and liberty.
I am not criticizing anyone for mourning the 9/11 attacks - especially if you had a relative or friend who died in it. But this ritual of mourning every year for something we had no control over, replacing reason with emotion, promotes a feeling of victimization, of helplessness, and draws attention away from what we can control.
As human beings, we are only responsible for our own actions. If someone causes us harm, then we have a right and a responsibility to find justice. But if we focus on the crime committed against us and our victimhood, we lose track of our own potential to create good in the world, and prevent evil.
P.S. On a different topic.
The real danger of 9/11 is that it was such a stunning act that it can be used to justify anything.
The right wing has "islamofascism" - a threat so great and grave that, by just invoking the name, it can be used to justify anything. Who wants a nuclear bomb going on in times square?
The left wing has "global warming" - a threat so great and grave that, by just invoking the name, it can be used to justify anything. Why wants our seaside cities drowned?
Of course, the solution presented to both is fundamentally flawed - the RAND corporation, certainly no bastion of liberalism, just released a study stating that any military solution to terrorism is bound to fail. And global warming is, probably, a giant crock. When we are deciding what to do, we have to remember something that has been common knowledge for as long as politicians been around - most politicians are self-interested crooks. If they claim they are trying to help you or protect you in any way, don't take it at face value. Don't be taken up by emotional calls, but rather consider everything rationally.
What is past is past. Many millions of people have been killed by evil in history, many millions probably will be killed by evil. What matters is now, what can be done now. In the here and now, I don't want to lose my country and my liberty to politicians who cynically demagogue these fears in order to justify their own agendas.
It is important to remember that - as vile as islamic fundamentalism is - both Nazism and Communism came not out of that part of the world but out of the Christian westernized lands of Europe. They were both created, basically, by politicians in times of crisis promising to provide protection from very real enemies (the nazis promised protection from the largely jewish communists and the communists promised protection from the ruthless capitalists), and both promised to improve the lives of the people.
Already, America today doesn't in any way resemble the America our parents knew - there is so much less freedom, so much more government, so many more police, so many more laws and regulations, so much more fear.
America can never be destroyed by bombs and guns and terrorists. We are physically too strong - we span a rich continent, and we are extremely well armed and resourceful. We can only be destroyed by forgetting the ideological basis of what makes America.
Fortunately, the whole family will realize the natural consequences of this when their son is still "training" in the basement at 30 years old.
Simple:
Some poor schmuck is facing seven years in prison for a "crime" that imperiled or harmed no one but himself and his lawnmower.
It's a case where the rights of the lawnmower trump the rights of the man to learn from his own mistakes.
Sure, a sawed off shotgun might be more useful for a robbery or a crime of violence-but this guy never used it for either. In fact, it was more dangerous only for himself.
Seven years? That's an incredibly long time. Seven days would be too long.
So, a story where the only actual violence - one person using force to harm another - is commited by the state.
A story told one million times in modern America...