gunnergoz

Hardly surprising. California, formerly the Golden State, is now the Really Tarnished State after years of political infighting. I can hardly recognize the place as the semi-paradise I moved to some 46 years ago. Now it is just a landed fish, struggling for air and trying to reach the water again. Sad, really. Were it not for the climate where I live, we'd be long gone...

Yep, the times are indeed reminiscent of that period 70 years ago. The difference is, now we have the Internet, and with it the hope that what good remains in people, can be accessed and used to thwart those who would persecute others. But it is a double edged sword, the Internet and it also can serve the opposite effect. Maybe it comes down to how many humans choose one side versus the other, how strong is their voice and how firm is their political determination to never let the Holocaust happen again.

Can't argue with that. It has been a colossal failure. Billions spent upon it, with almost nothing to show in the way of success. In retrospect, it would have been far better to have used the money to set up a crash program of medical research to discover the bio-chemical and genetic roots that underlie the behavioral aberration that is addiction. As it is, the problem of addiction in the US is so great that the demand and profit from drugs has seriously destabilized the government of Mexico (the "Narco Wars") and provided yet one more reason for us to remain entangled in the quagmire that is Afghanistan.

Hoax it may be (and I am not so sure), but the site does not seem to invite them; to the contrary. Here's a quote from their info page: http://www.courthousenews.com/aboutus.html

Sometimes I read the news and wonder what happened to reality as I once thought I knew it: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/24/28330.htm Apparently it is OK in some jurisdictions to tase an 86 year old disabled woman lying down in a hospital bed. The cops in this place, apparently having already rounded up all the other criminals and ne'er do wells, collected sufficient numbers of their colleagues to subdue this rampaging threat to the community. Hopefully, she will serve a long and well-deserved sentence for mainlining that designer drug, Ensure.

And I still think she looks like Jodie Foster!

Given the power of lobbies and special interests to sway (or even throw) elections in the USA now, I'm not so sure we are any different at all...

I'm sure glad we have our priorities straight around here. One must find some humor in even the most inane circumstances if one is to survive this crazy world.

SO - My point is that I would not wish it upon my conscience to find out that even 1/10,000 of the people put to death by the state were later found out to innocent. It has to be a "fail safe" system and I am not convinced that such is possible given the realities of the day and the foibles of human nature. Juries make mistakes, witnesses are often unreliable, judges and prosecutors can be biased and evidence can be lost or hidden. My career's proximity to the system in action led me to see its flaws close up and personal. It ain't pretty. The days when I was absolutely confident that the system was working perfectly are long gone and replaced by an appreciation that a truly humane society values one innocent life more than the revenge it may exact upon countless guilty ones.

OK, I get it. So they elected Jodie Foster to be their PM?

Can someone please translate this thread into American?

Laws are written by lawyers for the most part. I rest my case. Cases of beer are heavy, y'know?

Does Sharon Tate count? Remember the Manson Family murders? She was a school chum of mine. Admittedly no relative, but her passing hit my family pretty hard nonetheless. And yes, as I stated, for years I was a staunch supporter of the death penalty. Now, given the sad state of our legal and judiciary, I have more doubts and less certainty of its correctness - even were I close to the victim, I'd have doubts. I spent a lifetime working probation and corrections so it is not a moot point with me either. I've met my share of murderers and rapists. And revenge is sweet, believe me, I know that. But I fear the system's ability to carry out death sentences with any degree of validity any longer, given the large number of innocents that we now know have been unjustly jailed over the years.

Intelligence was never a prerequisite to pass the bar in any state.

Here's a judge that never learned the meaning of the word "recusal."

Yeah, but how many palm trees play elevator music?

When I believed in competent government, I was for the death penalty. What with the influence of media and lobbies upon elected officials nowadays, I'm not so sure any more that justice will be served and that checks and balances in the system will even work any more.

The only problem is, will there still be a middle class in Western Europe - and particularly in the US - after this is all over?

Corporations are absolutely lethal to democracies when those same democracies allow elected officials and political parties to collect campaign and advertising funds from corporations. Were there a clear separation of campaign funding and corporate deep pockets, corporations would be much more likely to receive impartial handling by lawmakers and the courts.

If China economically devastates their best customer, where will they sell all their...stuff? It ain't gonna happen. Americans may end up speaking a dialect of Mandarin, however...

Voted Thread Most Likely to Make No Sense At All

Too much watching of the Military Channel and not enough watching the Travel Channel?

Its all about making bucks. The entire American political/electoral system has been skewed and manipulated so that it is at the beck and call of moneyed interests, be they corporations or wealthy individuals. The entire deregulation movement was the result of such forces at work. It has reached a tipping point now where Congress is essentially powerless to act except in accordance with the wishes of the lobbies that fund their election campaigns. BP is of course one of those lobbies. The current administration, just like the two political parties, are just as deeply mired in this system as any one in the past. The only difference is, people are pretending it isn't so and keep talking about change. They are changing silverware on the Titanic. No one is acting to change how elected officials are funding their campaigns and that is the one thing that the lobbies want to stay the same, so it probably will. And the more money these lobbies have to swing, the greater their effect upon public policy. Finally, when the system reaches a certain point and all three branches of government are fully invested in the system (including the Supreme Court) then the vested interests will have a lock on it all and real change becomes an ever more remote possibility. BP and the oil spill is just one more act in a stage play that is growing tiresome. Frankly, I'd like my money back but I'm afraid its too late.

I suspect that what will happen in the end over there is going to be quite unpredictable and also fairly quick and dramatic. I would not dare say exactly what that outcome will be, however...

They don't make 'em like that any more, it seems. RIP.