Your political opinions on abortion and capital punishment

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Is it not rather strange that calling what has always been talked about as "the child in my womb" a baby is loaded unfair language, but calling the Womb Denizen a "parasite"s NOT loaded language?

I seems to depend on who is doing the loading. Reminds me of the old French line,

Cet animal est tres méchant;
Quand on l’attaque il se défend.

No, I know the media doesn't hear truly liberal voices

Just had to see it that way, since everyone has so much fun talking about liberal media. If the media was as liberal as people think, it would have gotten covered.

Great video from the hearing, however. Everyone should watch it. Ignore the commentator; just listen to the video of victim's families speaking out.

So speed it up. There's not much that can be done to speed up the original trial, but you can streamline the appeals process and cut it off if the rulings don't change after a couple appeals, and let other executions occur while one is held up in appeals for some reason.


So do something with the convicts to help recoup the cost. Kill them in a way you can sell their organs or have them fight as gladiators on Pay-Per-View or something.


It's very possible that there are other factors influencing the crime rate. For starters, what are the demographics of those states that don't use the death penalty compared to Texas and Oklahoma, and what is their respective murder rates as well?

The media are not looking for anything but what sells papers.

Sex sells. Scandal is great Mudslinging is good press.Man bites dog is news.

Pause to visualize - you tune the TV to the wrestling match of the decade. Madman Axel and the Lobsterman are interviewed just before the bout commences. "Oh, of course Axel and I are really looking forward to this" says the Lobsterman. "What better way to end the season than a few rounds with an old friend from the hardscrabble days in the 80s. I remember when we had to take the silver-plated cup they gave me and pawn it so we could pay for our hotel room."

Axel adds, "Roland is in great shape tonight, but I think I have a good shot at winning. Afterward, stop by the dressimg room and we'll all go out for a few drinks and a few laughs"

Fat chance. Give them some nice negative vibes, or theyll invent their own.

The amount of wrongful executions would rise if you "streamlined the appeals process". But if that's a risk your willing to take with other peoples' lives, all I can say is "thank goodness you're not in government".



That's probably not going to happen.



Okay, and what proof do you have that murder rates of those Red States that haven't banned the death penalty are being reduced by the death penalty? It seems that you're willing to admit the effectiveness of the death penalty at influencing crime is peanuts compared to other, structural factors, correct?

It is the use of the term pro-life in this situation that I find inconsistent, not the political position that uses the term. What we are describing is a position that is anti-abortion, but not pro-life. Pro-life was supposed to be a conception to grave concept, wrapping in social justice concepts, and choosing to preserve life even for those we might feel least deserving of it. To leave the end of life in all cases in God's hands, not human ones. So, in my eyes, even though I know we're stuck with it, describing a position that cares nothing about protecting and cherishing life after birth, but only before birth, as "pro-life" is a fallacy.

Pro DP people just can't imagine how someone could not be vengeful. I mean I would be pissed off, but I think I would mostly just be sad for my loss, I don't think revenge would be the first thing on my mind and eventually I probably wouldn't feel the need for it at all. Though then again, I guess I can't say until it's happened, but some victims families do forgive, it's less common than the ones who die angry, but it's not rare either.

The moment that justice becomes a matter of dollars and cents, it ceases to be just. Speeding up the process and cutting off appeals simply increases the likelihood of error. As for allowing other executions to occur which one is held up in appeals dramatically raises that risk. How many people might have been wrongfully executed absent stays pending the decision in Furman v. [/i]Georgia[/i]? Ought Demarcus Sears to have been executed while Kennedy v. Louisiana was sub iudice?

Any proposition that makes the death penalty less reliable simply compounds its failings.



The difficulty is that we are always stuck in the correlation/causation problem. Given the relatively low number of executions that actually take place in most jurisdictions, it is difficult to find much statistically valid rationale. But it seems to me that if statistics present us with an uncertain landscape, then we must resolve the question in favour of the answer that forecloses the fewest future options. And to my way of thinking, that means abolition. You can always reinstate the death penalty later, if its use becomes essential. But you can never undo an execution wrongfully undertaken.

Pro-choice and anti death penatly.

I'm trying very hard to form a coherently worded explaination of the connection between these two things. And I'm not succeeding. So either I'm missing the connection, or there isn't one at all. I'm voting for the second. All I can come up with is that having an abortion and the death penalty for a criminal are both considered to be the ending of a human life (or in the case of abortion, what some believe should be considered a human life).
I'm pro-choice because I believe a woman has the right to make decisions regarding what happens to her body. If a woman becomes pregnant (by rape, accidentally, or even willfully and changes her mind) and doesn't want to have a baby, she shouldn't have to. Her body, her decision. And should I ever end up in such a situation, I also want to be able to make that decision for myself.

I know that many think I'm heartless or evil for being pro-choice. And I kind of understand: I think that many pro-lifers are heartless and evil for wanting to take away women's rights over their bodies. But just because I'm pro-choice doesn't mean I'm "pro-abortion" (a stupid term) or that I take abortion lightly. With better education, better access to birth control, and a different attitude towards sex in society I think we would actually see the number of abortions drop. I've heard many say that, in the early stages of prengancy, the baby isn't a baby yet, just a clump of cells, and it doesn't count as an individual life yet. I agree. However, that clump of cells is the potential for life, and ending that potential for life should never be taken lightly.

As far as the death penalty: I don't believe in it because our legal system is simply too flawed. Innocent people are convicted of crimes. Criminals are set free. We need change and reform in that area, and soon. If the courts are wrong, they can let an innocent person out of jail but they can't bring them back to life. Even if our justice system were perfect and infallible I don't know if I would be pro death penalty.

I voted pro on both but should explain why.

1: I'm generally against killing unborn babies and would try to find a way to not have any of my own offspring aborted, but i believe that women have that choice whether we give it to them or not. If they are going to do it, they should do it in a safe, legal environment.

2: I think that if a violent criminal - murderer, serial attack rapist, etc - is convicted beyond any doubt at all (higher conviction standards than currently exist in the USA), and a quorum of psychiatric professionals determine that they cannot be a productive member of society, we should go ahead and kill 'em. But i have sort of a big problem with the way prosecution and conviction works for death penalty cases at the moment. I think a lot of people get executed on pretty shaky evidence. Particularly if they are black or a resident of Texas.

my problem with death penalty is that we are talking about the human mind, to be honest i find that death penalty could be used if it was shown their actions was a choice and that they were "sane" (i hate these terms they are too simplistic under the best of circumstance)

however i dont think we know nearly enough to make these claims or to say if such a thing even exists, maybe everyone doing these deeds have very specific deficiancies, unfortunately this could lead to the gattaca effect.

"I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science. "

Well, we know for sure that Anders Breivik won't die at the hands of his government - my money is on vigilante justice - so we can use him as a hypothetical.

Lets say that he's crazy. He probably is crazy. What level of crazy must he be at to where we (a) can't hold him culpable and thus shouldn't kill him, but (b) he is still enough of a danger to society that we shouldn't let him out on the street?

My feeling is that he is both crazy and culpable. And i won't shed a tear for him if someone decides to put him down.

neither would i,
i wouldnt be happy about it either.

since they are prosecuting every single murder independently he can receive so high a sentence as to never be released (dont know if they have a limit)

in the end it is cheaper to lock him up than it is to implement a death penalty.
from where i stand with how little we know about the brain and the numerous arguments against it, DP really is all about vengeance.

There is no such thing as a free lunch OR an easy choice if your eyes are open. For every pro there is an equal and opposite caon [pun intended].

Without omniscience [which I fo sho do not have] how do you calculate the balance betwee the wrongly convicted dead and the victims of the Elba effect.

Pro-choice; anti death penalty

I already said why I am anti death penalty in another thread. Not gonna repeat myself.

I am pro-choice at all stages of pregnancy but I wish other pro-choice people would stop calling the pro-life position inherently misogynistic. It makes us look like douchebags.

Norway has a 21-year maximum sentence. If they can make those consecutive that's news to me.

Funny thing about the cost of execution, it's more expensive in this country but in china it is very cheap. They bill your family for the bullet, though.

I do agree that if we let all the nonviolent drug offenders out of jail there would be plenty of room for murderers and kiddie diddlers.

I don't see vengeance as a good excuse for a state to kill someone. Removing them from society permanently is a good enough reason, if they can never be a positive part of it, why not.