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SneezingPenis
ACHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!111!

Registered: 01/15/05
Posts: 15,427
Last seen: 6 years, 9 months
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that was my whole point. Even though the island idea is rather sci-fi(ish), it is a valid solution.
We cannot deem something universally wrong, we can only define it within our borders. As it stands right now, I am an American, and if I break the laws/rules set forth by the American society, and wish to remain a part of the American society, then I have to accept their punishment.
Now, if someone gets pissed off at parking tickets, and chooses to leave the American society, most likely another country will take them.... but if you are branded a murderer, most (if not all) will refuse you access to their society.
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Richii
Modern DayPsychonaut


Registered: 07/05/07
Posts: 152
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 12 years, 10 months
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I'll quote YawingAnus to answer your questions, because this answers your question:
Quote:
YawningAnus said: We cannot deem something universally wrong, we can only define it within our borders. As it stands right now, I am an American, and if I break the laws/rules set forth by the American society, and wish to remain a part of the American society, then I have to accept their punishment.
There is no universal 'good' or 'bad'. The only thing every person can do is act how they believe is 'right' or 'wrong'. And what you believe to be right or wrong is completely up to you, and the society you were brought up in and live in.
I would call someone with a conscience someone who is not doing 'wrong'. But of course, this is my opinion. And there are many ways to teach someone about moral behavior in the society they live in. From my point of view, I would explain that in Canada we think killing is wrong. And this is one of the reasons we don't have the death penalty.
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SneezingPenis
ACHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!111!

Registered: 01/15/05
Posts: 15,427
Last seen: 6 years, 9 months
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Re: Capital Punishment [Re: Richii]
#7210324 - 07/22/07 02:52 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Canada would be cool if it werent so cold and people didnt constantly say "eh". When I think of Canada, i imagine a country full of Kids in teh Hall cast members, smoking pot and listening to Celine Dion.
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Richii
Modern DayPsychonaut


Registered: 07/05/07
Posts: 152
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 12 years, 10 months
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Quote:
YawningAnus said: Canada would be cool if it werent so cold and people didnt constantly say "eh". When I think of Canada, i imagine a country full of Kids in teh Hall cast members, smoking pot and listening to Celine Dion.
Hahaha... 
It ain't all that cold, and we don't say eh all that much. I've visited many places in the states and at first glance everything looks similar, except bigger. It's the details that set us apart.
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
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And Brian Adams
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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Rhizoid
carbon unit


Registered: 01/22/00
Posts: 1,739
Loc: Europe
Last seen: 14 days, 23 hours
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I am against capital punishment simply because it is unnecessarily destructive. Prisoners should only be killed if they ask for it (i.e. mercy killing) or if there is an emergency situation that makes it impossible to guarantee their imprisonment for life.
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Lakefingers

Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
Loc: mumuland
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Re: Capital Punishment [Re: Rhizoid]
#7213253 - 07/23/07 09:12 AM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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The reason I wanted to hear from those of you who are against it is because I often meet atheist rationalists who believe in the common assortment of humanist postulates, which includes that capital punishment is wrong. What bothers me about many of these individuals is not the anti-capital punishment stance in combination with the humanistic assumptions, but their fundamentalism, which seems to be due to lack of insight in the history of ideas. Obviously and therefore they are hardly more open minded than Muslim, Christian, ( fill in the blank ), fundamentalists.
Basically we have the following positions against capital punishment:
It doesn’t inflict adequate suffering on the criminal, it’s oppressive, the innocent will be punished, it’s biblical and stigmatizing, it doesn’t prevent, it’s not reciprocal (eye for an eye analogy is untrue an d outdated), it’s murder and one of you even wrote: “no one should be forced to be at mercy of irrational punishment”. (So would it be OK if we changed the laws, making it rational?) I’m against capital punishment for many reasons. One that hasn’t been talked about yet is this: A government has no “inalienable right” to execute its citizens.
Something interesting about the movement to abolish capital punishment in the USA: it’s main argument is that capital punishment is economically effective—the criminals to be executed wait an average of 5 years from verdict to execution. The government’s legal fees, the criminal investigation and the paperwork, political work, etc, make these prisoners many dozen times more expensive than other criminals. Although this is interesting, the whole matter is so disgusting if it is relegated to terms of money. However, this hardlined economic argument makes me think the activists (many are lawyers) might just get their way--how else to you appeal to Americans?
Many of you focus on the US. However, capital punishment is not all about lethal injection. In many places woman and men are stoned to death, strangled, burned, hanged, etc.
YawningAnus wrote that “now, killing someone else, seems to be our societies greatest crime.” That seems to be the case, but it’s not the most taboo crime. The most taboo seems to be pedophilia. That seems to be the last great taboo of the postmodern society.
Some of you are more cynical than others, and I wonder how you would think about it if you were to be executed.
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