Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,336
You do realize that the Catholic Church originally came out against the smallpox vaccine, saying they were violating "God's will". Now you have people taking ridiculous amounts of fertility drugs, ending up with sextuplets that endanger the mother and all the babies, and religious types go back to the old trope of, "We couldn't choose to terminate any one of these children... it's God's will that we have all of them."

The goal posts on what's ridiculous keep getting moved all the time. I'm not making a value judgement on it -- I'm just saying what is. And to prepare for more of it.

As an old housemate recently told me, who's now the head of surgery for a Silicon Valley medical center, "My job is basically to prevent natural selection." That's true today as it was 200 years ago. When you look at it in those lights, really -- we should be genetically modifying humans 10x over in no time now. We're long past riding the slippery slope, folks.
We've been preventing natural selection for well over 150 years by now. And yes, we'll be genetically modifying humans very soon. It's an evolution we can't stop. We can make rules about it, we can try to prevent monstrosities, but we won't be able to stop it altogether.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,336
In case you are against death penalty, which of these two sets of arguments do you find more convincing:

Set 1:

• The death penalty is an unjust response for the taking of a life.
• In many cases it does not match the crime.
• Our society holds that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
• Not all criminals deserve to be punished in the most severe way possible.
• Regardless of whether it is a deterrent or not, the death penalty is not necessary or just.

Set 2:

• The death penalty is not an effective response for the taking of a life.
• There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than life in prison.
• Making the statement that we take an eye for an eye only makes our society more violent, not less.
• Criminals do not need to be punished in the most severe way possible to reduce crime, states that have death penalty laws do not have lower murder rates than states without such laws.
• Regardless of whether it is necessary and just, the death penalty is no more a deterrent than a life sentence.

Set 2, but that is coming from a legal background.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,336
Does not change anything at all. The absurdity that a woman if she can't prove she was raped risk going to prison. How many women do you think deter from reporting being raped to the Police?

Dubai is a shithole where people have little to no rights and where a rich Masterrace is treating foreign workers as slaves.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/29/uae-repression-all-fronts

Well, Fred, I must say it's sort of hard to neglect the latter. And don't tell me Maddy is wrong, because we know he's not.
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,768
I've never seen so many deaths here in Serbia. Over the past year or so there have been so many murders.. like never before. Or at least it wasn't mainstream. Just today I see a girl (23) found dead and one 11yo kid found hanged! Yesterday I read how one guy was found dead with his legs and arms cut. Also traffic accidents and kids drying and drowning in the river pretty often. But murders, rapes, kidnaps... That's just insane... I have no idea what's going on. I know that's all 'normal' world-wide but the amount of crimes has increased drastically. I know I read about some study where they compared the US and Canada when it comes to crimes on the street. What was the reason behind it was a huge difference between the two. Results were saying it's all because of the media and how there's way too much violence in the US hitting the main news unlike in Canada.
Could it partly be because there are also more people reporting on things that you may not have heard otherwise before?

I have never been to Dubai, but I would like to see it with my own eyes. Everything I know about it looks bad though :D.
It's OK. Arid, dusty, hot. Heavily developed where no town really belongs. A long beach. Lots of skyscrapers along a main strip with tons of luxury stores. A bizarre fetish with luxury hotels ... very artificial-like, much like Vegas.
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
In case you are against death penalty, which of these two sets of arguments do you find more convincing:

Set 1:

• The death penalty is an unjust response for the taking of a life.
• In many cases it does not match the crime.
• Our society holds that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
• Not all criminals deserve to be punished in the most severe way possible.
• Regardless of whether it is a deterrent or not, the death penalty is not necessary or just.

Set 2:

• The death penalty is not an effective response for the taking of a life.
• There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than life in prison.
• Making the statement that we take an eye for an eye only makes our society more violent, not less.
• Criminals do not need to be punished in the most severe way possible to reduce crime, states that have death penalty laws do not have lower murder rates than states without such laws.
• Regardless of whether it is necessary and just, the death penalty is no more a deterrent than a life sentence.
Set #2, though arguments are missing, probably the most important one being the fallability of legal judgement (which is a lot higher than one would assume).

You're not fucking Gandhi. Go make a sandwich ffs. :D

@swag
 

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