RE: The Washington Sniper —- Death???

I know I would rather see the money we waste on
keeping murderers in luxury diverted to the people who need
it most. I know it’s emotive Arthur, but have you ever had
to watch someone die because there are no intensive care
beds available?

Yes, i’ve seen such things happen unfortunately. On the other side of the Channel – and i’ve seen mentally ill patients tied to their beds for weeks since that was the best way to keep them from harm with too few people available, and i can go on for a while.

But keeping murderers in luxury? I’m not familiar with the prisons in the UK, but the same argument is brought up here in the Netherlands over and over again. Yet you can believe me, that luxury exists mostly in the imagination of people bringing it up. And add to that the fact that imprisonment means imprisonment. Being locked up. Unable to leave. Knowing that when you get out, you’ll be there empty-handed. If you’ve ever spent one night in a cell you might understand what i’m talking about. Even if your sheets are clean or if you’ve worked for months to get a TV privilege, prisons are not ‘luxurious’ (although, i agree, conditions in certain hospitals aren’t much better).

Also (and this was mentioned above already), i think it’s quite a cheap argument to advocate a cut on this-or-that sector of government spending because some other sector is in your eyes getting too much. I think the British healthcare system can do better with better spreading of the resources. Same as here.

(Australia) Surely it’s not full already?

Nah, they mutate into sheep 😀

RE: The Washington Sniper —- Death???

…who said any state is above a little
murder of their own?

None of course. But most states claim to be there for the good of their own people, and in general the state-sponsored murdering is only against terrorists/untermenschen/former employees/ingrateful communists/capitalist pigs/people-whom-i-thought-to-be-on-our-side/enemy football hooligans/pot smoking hippies/etc…

So therefore without states there could be no war and what
can war be other than organised murder?

Legal murder of course! Your country is offering you a great chance to fullfill your homicidal tendencies – join the army now (although it’s not nearly as much fun as it used to be with all this stand-off killing).

The state has a responsibility to be “humaine” you suggest.
I would think locking up someone… even in relative
comfort… with a guarantee they will never leave alive is
not morally better than quickly and painlessly ending their
lives?

I think it is indeed more cruel than offering someone a quick, painful death. Yet in most punitive systems, the death penalty is the highest penalty you can get whereas being behind bars for the rest of your life is considered less cruel (personally i’d go for my shoelaces in such a case). But at least a life-long sentence can be reverted if it’s proven some judge made a mistake, preferred believing the attorney in stead of your pro-deo lawyer.

I have also mentioned there is a question of financial and
material waste involved in keeping members of society that
can no longer be productive for that society.

That’s a sick argument. Then why not kill elderly, disabled and ill people as well? Claiming those people aren’t useful for society is bollocks anyway: those criminals still provide a bad example (“this is what happens to you if you go on a shooting rampage against people you were told not to shoot”), material for books, obscure T-shirt prints… Charlie Manson would have been an even greater myth if he was dead by now.

You can’t exile these people to Australia any more… maybe
we should send them out into space…

I thought they are going to create some room near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers?

RE: The Washington Sniper —- Death???

Absolutely not. For two reasons:

1 – I think the death penalty is fundamentally wrong. By convicting a criminal to death, the state lowers itself to the same level of the criminal. Same with relatives of victims demanding the death of the criminal who hurt their loved ones – if that’s what you want, then move to Albania or some other place where vendetta is still legal.

2 – The sentence is far too light in comparison to REAL . Sorry to the more blood-thirsty people around here, but being in jail for a few months or years knowing that it is a finite time you spend there, is IMHO much less depressing than knowing you will be behind bars when you’re really, really, really old and finally die.

RE: What is the meaning of life?

Having entertained a few people.

RE: RAF Squadron Markings.

16sqn originally had (and still has!) two keys, which should have been the originaly symbols of St. Omer. The Saint figure only was added when the TV-series aired.

9 sqn: the bat (love that badge!) was the batch when it still was a wireless radio unit. It has probably something to do with the bat’s habit of using inaudible sound to move around.
10 sqn: an arrow, to denote speed and state that the arrow is the predeccessor of the modern air-dropped bomb
15 sqn: a Hind, but who would know? XV!
60 sqn: That gazelle undoubtedly refers to it’s African origins.
92 sqn: the snake comes from the squadron’s origins in India.

RE: Check this out-totally hilarious

The good thing about this site is that it’s running for quite some time, and if the computer fails on you, you can add the new character yourself.

But yes, the amount of obscure TV characters is huge. ##### Turpin, Frank Buck, Bokassa, Matthew Starr (anyone remember that one?), Mork from Ork, Pol Pot, Sandokan…

RE: Carry on luggage.

I think walking around with a really big telescope near an airbase/airport has never been so much fun.

As long as Eric isn´t around 😉

RE: Whats the speed of Dark ?

Don’t forget: time is not a constant… i’m sure you have heard of the relativity theory?

Darkness is very slow by the way. You have to look straight into the sun for quite some time before you enjoy total darkness for the rest of your life (…hmm, i want to apply this for the sick-remark-of-the-week contest).