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By: Da Sissop
Date: 2/5/98 11:27:54 PM
# Replies: 75
Lemme start out by saying that I am OPPOSED to the death penalty. I'm not comfortable with the concept of granting my government the right to kill me. Odds are, if I'm ever accused of murder, I'd be innocent. And I also happen to believe that people *can* change, and that a lot of what screws people up and causes them to be capable of murder may be treatable, if not today, then perhaps in the not-to-distant future, as our understanding of the brain physiology & psychology increases.
So in the grande scheme of things, I would rather that Karla Faye Tucker not have been executed. But since we *do* *have* a death penalty, and since Texas *is* the execution capitol of the USA, I think, legally, she *should* have been executed. And hopefully she *was* saved, and she *is* in heaven, and now some folks who were blindly supportive of the death penalty will have some new ideas to ponder.
Presently, the death penalty serves no purpose other that eye-for-an-eye retribution. Deterrent? Feh! It tries to set an example that killing is always wrong, by killing the perpetrator. Make the killers afraid to kill, because they might get killed. Duh, maybe it's just me, but isn't this also sending a message that killing is *appropriate* in situations where the killee "really deserves it"? And who's to say that the government is the only one qualified to make that determination? Judging from the recent popularity of the militia movements, my guess is there are a *lot* of folks who tend to look out for their own needs first, laws be damned.
To me, it seems that the best way to set an example that killing is wrong is not to condone it at all. Life in prison without parole, if it was a real prospect, would be preferable, since it serves as a greater punishment (15 years and then you go to sleep VS. the rest of your life with no freedom), and in the event of a mistaken conviction, it could still eventually be overturned.
Ahem. Okay, I'm done fer now.
Response #1
By: Jay
Date: 2/6/98 10:51:22 AM
London Evening Standard Women rush to wed Unabomber
by Peter McDonald
Uuabomber Ted Kaczynski, convicted of a murderous bombing spree over 18 years, is being peppered with marriage proposals.
The offers have all been from women who have never met the former maths professor and have been posted to him in a Sacramento prison.
"He's getting a lot of mail," said Dick Lundberg, a friend who has visited him in prison. "Some of it was from kooks, some it was marriage proposals."
"He was laughing about it," Mr Lundberg's wife Eileen added. "I don't think he was taking them seriously."
Kaczynski is serving a life term without possibility of parole and a state appointed psychiatrist has diagnosed him as mentally disturbed.
The Lundbergs said in an interview that the Unabomber does not appear depressed although according to a report he constantly hums to himself.
Response #2
By: rorschach
Date: 2/6/98 11:44:23 AM
Lets bypass the debate whether capitol punishment is right or wrong for the moment. It IS the law of the land right now. Lets look at what this debate in the news is really about. Karla Faye was a woman, a relatively attractive one if you go in for the prison garb bit. She was articulate and relatively educated. Sure she found "GOD", most death row inmates do. Sure she's gonna say that she thinks all life is precious now... after all, she's about to have her's taken away! How does this change her situation? Is it any different for an angry black man with a 4th grade education? Obviously so because there sure is a hue and cry about her but not about the numerous others that have got the "big send-off". Personally I agree with the death penalty wholeheartedly. these inmates are given so many chances to appeal the verdict that the odds against them being guilty is pretty remote. Her crime was particulary grizzly, after all, she pickaxed two people to death and had an orgasm with every swing of the axe! its not as if she killed a guy in fear while robbing a circle-k or something spur of the moment like that. What about the three guys that killed all those people in malibu gran prix back in what? '81? the one guy who was a juvenile at the time is now saying one of the guys that got death not long ago really didn't kill anybody, he just held the victims down while the juvenile killed them... and this makes him not guilty? I don't THINK so.... Can people change? sure, thats why theres such a thing as life with chance of parole. Death is supposed to be reserved for those who commit such a heinous crime that society MUST make this person an object lesson for everyone else. the death penalty is about the fear of punishment. is it effective? hard to say, but you CAN point to the current crime statistics to note that the incedince of capitol murder has dropped substantially over the last few years. connection? who knows. personally I think it is, at least a little. sure theres punks out there with so little consience that they don't CARE if they get the death penalty, course that changes later on....
Response #3
By: sooz
Date: 2/7/98 11:57:57 AM
Hey, Ror*, I thought you were gonna bypass whether the death penalty was right or wrong. :-)
I think Karla Fay is sincere in that she's "found God". So are lots of folks on death row, as Ror* says.
Let's just be frank. (No, I'm Susan. You be Frank.)
The big deal about Karla Fay is that she doesn't have a penis.
Folks are executed in Texas all the time. Most of us don't even blink twice, it's so commonplace. But it usually makes page 4 or 5 of the city/state section of the paper, instead of Page One, day after day.
The difference between K. Faye and your average executionee is that she was blessed with girlie genitalia instead of boy stuff. Plenty of men have been just as sincere as her, and mobs didn't run to their defense.
Of note: There's a black woman in line to be executed. She says she hasn't "found God", did the crime, and is ready for execution. She's not attractive, and looks damned mean. Where's her fan club?
I think it would have been cool if Karla Faye had taken a completely different approach, and claimed to be the reincarnation of Chapita Rodriguez (the last woman executed), and told everyone, with one eye half shut and a little bit of a twitch at the corner of mouth, to "Go ahead.....
Response #4
By: rorschach
Date: 2/7/98 1:42:16 PM
hehe... i like that scenario... might make a good wes craven flick! actualy i only said i'd bypass it for a moment...ok, so it was a short moment....so sue me! yes, it does seem a bit insincere that the crowd chose HER instead of a guy.... makes you kinda question their motives. I'm not saying every moron on death row deserves it but a whole bunch of them do, the rest still are guilty, just maybe not as guilty as she was. but lemme tell you, SHE WAS! the fact that she "found god" is immaterial. in fact, if there is a heaven and a hell (not that I think there is mind you.)i do not see how suddenly "finding god" could possibly keep her for roasting for all of eternity. it seems too much of a cop-out to say that "I found god so all the shitty things I've done are going to go unpunished..." seems almost a lisence to do whatever the hell you like because all you gotta do is recant and its all forgotten...
Response #5
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 2/7/98 4:19:29 PM
Yep..my tax dollars at work..
Good thing she gave her soul to the Lord, cause her ass belonged to Texas..
Response #6
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/7/98 7:46:09 PM
There's a story of a death-row inmate in, I think, Alabama, who started reading Buddhist literature in prison. Eventually, he officially took refuge in a Tibetan lineage, and began teaching meditation and other practices to other inmates.
He was totally up front about his position, saying he did the crime, he pleaded guilty, he would go ahead and be executed; he would just have to work harder to teach the other inmates in his time left.
An attempt to get a stay of execution, organized by the Buddhist community and a local Baptist church, failed, and he got killed by the state.
The end.
Response #7
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 2/7/98 10:30:06 PM
And this is bad how?
They were talking about Karla Faye on Politically Incorrect the other night before the execution. They had three liberal or center people and one conservative religious right guy.
The conservative guy was trying to make the point that she had changed and was born again so she should be spared. One of the more liberal people asked the conservative guy if Charles Manson became born again and started preaching The Word, if they should maybe let him out if he seemed sincere.
The conservative guy said, "Okay, uhm, it's because she's a woman."
(P.S. This is where I point out that although Charles Manson may very well be quite insane, he's never actually killed anyone.)
Response #8
By: rorschach
Date: 2/8/98 2:02:35 PM
not true.... he ordered the deaths so that makes him as responsible as the freaks that actually did the deed
Response #9
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 2/9/98 12:02:37 AM
I can order a lot of people to do horrible things, but that's just not the same thing as someone who embedded a pickax in someone's chest and had an orgasm doing it.
Response #10
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/10/98 5:32:31 AM
Ooo. Kinky. Are you available, Gowan?
Response #11
By: Ralf
Date: 2/10/98 5:50:30 PM
How about the argument that "death penalties are good because they excise diseased elements of society from the whole"?
Not saying I subscribe, and even if I did I'd have a problem with the way we carry out the sentence... it's so half-hearted. Like, "okay, let's lock you up for a few decades JUST IN CASE we change our mind."
If we're gonna do it, do it right.
Think Judge Dredd. Think Instant Justice.
People sure would drive more politely.
Response #12
By: jjhitt
Date: 2/11/98 1:43:39 AM
Think slogans. It saves you from having to think too hard.
I haven't been avoiding this thread, and it's not that I don't
have strong opinions on the topic...
But, frankly, after persueing the topic exhaustively in another
forum (Fidonet's HolySmoke), I'm all Tuckered out.
Response #13
By: Jay
Date: 2/11/98 10:14:36 AM
I think we should start dropping them off on tropical islands then charge rich Big Game Hunters license fees to hunt them down like on Fantasy Island when Audrey and Julie Landers were hunting Sonny Bono....
Response #14
By: Ralf
Date: 2/11/98 6:28:23 PM
Apparently, they got him.
Response #15
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 2/12/98 1:41:51 AM
Homer sez: Ooo. Kinky. Are you available, Gowan?
I say:
For you, Homey, ANYTIME.
Response #16
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/12/98 6:00:29 PM
1) I can wholeheartedly recommend Negativland's 'Dispepsi' CD. Go buy it now. "I got fired from my job... PEPSI!/I nailed Jesus to the cross... PEPSI!"
2) You still read fidonet, jj???
3) I say feed the criminals to the giant Iraqi sandworms. Sort of a Dune-meets-Jabba-the-Hut kinda thing.
Response #17
By: Da Sissop
Date: 2/12/98 9:05:13 PM
Ya know, the first time I heard about the giant Iraqi sandworms I thought, nah, it's just too silly.
But this makes *twice* in one day! Maybe there's something to this!
Response #18
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 2/12/98 11:40:23 PM
They just want the United States' supply of SpiceGirls.
Or is that meringue?
Response #19
By: jjhitt
Date: 2/13/98 1:54:58 AM
> 2) You still read fidonet, jj???
I get the echo by way of a i-net mailing list, yes.
Holysmoke isn't just a Fido-Echo, itsa whole goddam
cultural experience.
It's better than drugs and reality combined.
Response #20
By: sooz
Date: 2/13/98 12:41:20 PM
Anyone catch the Mad TV episode where there was a Spice Girl Hunt?
Response #21
By: rorschach
Date: 2/13/98 2:05:07 PM
no, but i got my deer rifle all cleaned and scoped in.....
Response #22
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 2/17/98 11:17:21 AM
The Spice Girls movie *is* the 4th sign of the apocolypse, is it not? Or was it the 5th?
Response #23
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/17/98 10:22:15 PM
I want to see SpiceWorld.
Thing is, I want to see it ten years from now.
Response #24
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 2/18/98 5:22:16 AM
Hey Homer...just buy the video and leave it sealed. By the way, what's with this 'Scream' on video tape with 4 'collectable' covers?! I mean really, what's so damn 'collectable' about it in the first place? I know, it's not exactly like having 'collectable' Band-Aids (tm)...but it's close. Kind of like scented toilet paper...what's the point..we all know what it's used for and where it's ending up...and considering that, a 'light floral fragrance' ain't really gonna help, now is it? Am I rambling? I need to get that checked...or buy a louder stereo.
Response #25
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 2/19/98 1:24:49 PM
You know, Howard Stern's movie _Private Parts_ is now available in two different covers, as well.
It's like they did with comics a few years back where they had the gold cover, the silver cover and the holographic foil cover. It's $$$.
They now have trash bags that are scented vanilla.
You can buy kleenex(tm) that are mentholated.
Response #26
By: Ralf
Date: 2/19/98 6:16:33 PM
How come things that are "scented" don't taste like they smell?
Case in point: vanilla candles are NOT yummy.
(Also, pipe tobacco smells DELICIOUS but don't even think about eating it...)
Response #27
By: sooz
Date: 2/19/98 7:35:46 PM
Ok, you forced my hand. Scented tampons mystify me. It's not like one's going to leave them lying about the house as potpourri.
Response #28
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/19/98 9:02:26 PM
Being anosmic (look it up), I am wary of anything scented like other things.
Response #29
By: Da Sissop
Date: 2/19/98 10:21:41 PM
Homer: Have you tried counting sheep?
Sooz: You should leave them lying about for ornamental purposes, like bowls of wax fruit.
Response #30
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 2/20/98 7:32:21 AM
Fang: anosmic means he tried ground turkey for hamburgers once....once.
Sooz: Perhaps they function like an open box of baking soda while in a purse.
Homer: Things scented like other things? You mean like Twinkies?
Response #31
By: rorschach
Date: 2/20/98 8:17:11 AM
as allergic as i am to virtually everything, scented ANYTHING drives me absolutely NUTS... i cant hardly breath for all the artificial scents wafting through my house! as to scented tampons, ya know, if anybody is putting their nose down there, i DOUBT there will be a tampon in the way.......
Response #32
By: Jay
Date: 2/20/98 11:06:04 AM
I like the pheramone sented tampons myself ....wait I ment to just think that, not write it.....
Response #33
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/22/98 1:11:43 AM
I'm imagining an art installation that features a year's worth of used tampons, mounted on the wall in chronological order, with detailed notes about the dates used, the surrounding life-events, and so forth.
Unfortunately, I am ill-equipped to manifest this particular work.
Response #34
By: Cleotis
Date: 2/22/98 12:01:22 PM
Where's Cerrano when you need him?
Response #35
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/23/98 6:21:55 PM
Uh... busy worshipping Satan?
Actually, he did these great photo portraits of dead people at a morgue. They're against a black background with these red shawls. They were showing at the houston CAM for a while...
Response #36
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 2/28/98 9:39:15 AM
Homer..I think you should make it a personal challenge to go about collecting them...with your teeth.
And that's the last disturbing mental image I want to have before I finish this cup of coffee...
Response #37
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 2/28/98 10:08:26 PM
Better drink quick!
:-)
Response #38
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 5/4/98 9:00:38 PM
Homer's doing something with the sheep...but I don't think it's counting.
I wanna see Homer taking some pictures of dead sheep against a black background.
Or would llama's be better?
Response #39
By: Mycroft
Date: 5/9/98 11:08:43 AM
Homer hasn't got time for sheep, he's being persued by a physicist-fetish blonde...
Response #40
By: Ralf
Date: 5/10/98 12:28:32 PM
"Physicist-fetish"?
She IS a physicist, or she LIKES physicists?
Both?
Response #41
By: sooz
Date: 5/10/98 11:50:01 PM
I dated a physicist once, but his hair was light brown. Must've been a different guy/girl.
Response #42
By: Da Sissop
Date: 5/11/98 9:54:10 AM
It's the Physicist Friends Network!
"My physicist knew things about me, all the way down to the molecular level, things even my own mother wouldn't have known! Thanks Physicist Friends Network, and God bless you, Dionne!"
Response #43
By: Mycroft
Date: 5/11/98 9:11:15 PM
She has a fetish for physicists. It's really cute to watch.
Response #44
By: Ralf
Date: 5/11/98 11:10:57 PM
She collects them?
Response #45
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 5/14/98 9:46:27 PM
Does she know when her physicist is gonna call?
Response #46
By: Mycroft
Date: 5/19/98 2:40:27 PM
No, and due to Heisberg's Uncertainty principle, she doesn't have to worry about birth control as much as most folks, but if she _does_ get pregnant, she won't be able to tell whom the father is.
Response #47
By: Ralf
Date: 5/19/98 11:52:48 PM
She can tell WHO the father is, or WHERE, but not both at the same time.
Response #48
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 5/23/98 12:37:27 AM
But does that mean that in a reverse osmosis situation, that she could or could not tell whether he's coming or going?
Response #49
By: Mycroft
Date: 5/25/98 7:42:06 PM
No, but c0onsidering the implications, I think I might want to pick up a coupl'a norplant tubes for meself.
Response #50
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/2/98 2:28:57 AM
Sigh.
She's cute, too.
Owell.
Response #51
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 6/2/98 5:48:50 AM
Mine's so good, she calls me.
Response #52
By: Mycroft
Date: 6/4/98 9:33:14 PM
Just keep coming back to Houston, Homer... She'll be here for a while... But she'll probably want to photograph you in the nude or something.
Homer the Nude?
Response #53
By: Ralf
Date: 6/5/98 7:24:58 PM
Pretty Brave, if you ask me.
Response #54
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/6/98 4:05:19 AM
I find it hard to make jokes about being a nude model while Karla Faye is watching.
Response #55
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/6/98 12:28:01 PM
Oh come one, I'm sure you could get it straightened out. One way or another.
Response #56
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 6/7/98 6:24:30 AM
This post inentionally left blank
Response #57
By: Ralf
Date: 6/7/98 9:42:04 AM
I'm not wearing any pants.
Response #58
By: Mycroft
Date: 6/7/98 10:42:01 AM
I just imagined the docker's commercial in the subway station involving a wired pair of ubergeeks advertising nuns. As the car pulls away, the Geekette looks from her Palm III to his HP, noticing the nuns logo on both and his handle, mouths "nice. post." as the car pulls her out of the scene, and his afternoon, forever.
Response #59
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/7/98 1:18:30 PM
Alright, someone kindly go over and unplugs Mycroft's TV.
He's full.
Response #60
By: Jay
Date: 6/7/98 8:27:32 PM
sorry..it must have been that Chinese buffet lunch Jim and I had today...
Response #61
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/7/98 9:09:03 PM
Did you bring enough for EVERYONE?
Response #62
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 6/8/98 5:19:15 AM
Antacid? I've got some linty ones in my pocket.
Response #63
By: Ralf
Date: 6/14/98 4:32:28 PM
MMmmm. Lint.
Response #64
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 6/16/98 6:15:03 PM
Ahem..
"Behold The Power of Cheese!" Zane shows off some of his Mortal Kombat finishing moves with a large, jagged piece of baby swiss....
Response #65
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/17/98 5:23:57 PM
Spoooon!
Response #66
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 6/19/98 1:29:58 PM
You know, I'm not sure that my browser supports BLINK.
Response #67
By: Da Sissop
Date: 6/19/98 1:55:26 PM
It's kinda nice, actually... IE4 doesn't seem to support the BLINK tag. I don't recall setting a preference for it, so maybe Bill Gates simply made a judgement call.
Response #68
By: Mycroft
Date: 6/19/98 8:54:08 PM
It should disturb me that microsoft is making aesthetic judgement calls on my behalf, but realizing that they're doing it to the blink tag makes it ok, somehow...
Response #69
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/19/98 8:54:49 PM
In the showdown of the Browser Wars, he didn't want to <BLINK>.
Response #70
By: rorschach
Date: 6/23/98 12:50:16 PM
but which OTHER tags have they decided not to support? or even MORE importantly which undocumented tags DO they support?
Response #71
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 6/23/98 12:54:08 PM
Yeah, I mean, I just found out that they DO support the <SENDUSALLYOURPERSONALINFO> tag, which can be really dangerous.
Response #72
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/23/98 10:19:52 PM
Otherwise known as a cookie?
Wait until you see the information they want you to send if you have a bug report for 98.
Response #73
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/24/98 12:14:20 AM
"I want a raise... I want a new car... I want sex... I want a cookie..."
So, like, there's this nifty web site called GlassDog (www.glassdog.com) that puts a cookie on your system. It says, in effect: You now have a cookie. Deal.
Response #74
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 6/24/98 10:40:06 AM
www.cookiecentral.com
Learn the facts.
Response #75
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/25/98 9:58:59 PM
Kinda gives a whole new meaning to Cookie Monster doesn't it?
Or what about Grandma's Cookies?