Judgement Of Solomon?

yes of course id want to see justice done rita... but i am not the one to dole it out... id hope a proper justice would be given... its another argument entirely that the legal system can be crap at times, and one i do not disagree with.

Rita. So if America were to commit criminal acts abroad which killed people you would want retribution visited upon the US and for US citizens to be killed in return?

Philip, I don't have the figures to hand but there are folk here who have them at their finger tips. Communication is mostly body language, tone of voice and expression, unfortunately none of these come across on a monitor. You always have to read the words and then consider there's a thousand ways to construe them. I believe that most people will plump for the meaning they feel is either deserved or that they wish for. (read Larph's responses to my posts and you will see what I mean) If you had been sitting next to me as I typed that you would have seen the huge grin on my face. Take Two.

Phil, are you a member of staff or a student at UCLAN?

No, I don't think it's fair. I've no wish to look at those aircraft flying into the world trade centre with the idea that what's happening there is fair enough. I would like to see changes in the criminal justice system in this country but I don't think intelligent people talking as if they are morons is going to help much. The system in this country is not going to be run as it is in ,say, Zimbabwe. The law is not an attempt to homogenise justice. It takes motivation into account and the specifics of a particular case. 'A life sentence should be for life, no release, no remission, die in gaol. Murderers, rapists and paedophiles should never be released. Drug dealers should get life too.' Well, someone could import and distribute tons of heroin through a criminal organisation. Someone could grow a cannabis plant in their bedroom and sell some of the leaf to their friends. Both are drug dealers. If the person who had sold the cannabis to his friends was 18 then he would spend the next 60 years of his life in prison while we all pay the £40,000 pounds a year to keep them there. Is that really such a great idea? A person who grooms small children for sex is a paedophile. So too under the law - (c) Section 6 (intercourse with a girl between 13 and 16) - is anyone over the age of 16 who sleeps with a 15 year old. So a 17 year old who sleeps with a 15 year old should spend the next 60 years of his life in prison while we all pay the £40,000 pounds a year to keep them there. Is that really such a great idea? I could go on but I'm sure you get the gist. And before anyone says it's obvious and it's common sense. It isn't that simple. For example the age of consent for sex in Holland is 12 years of age. Cultivating cannabis is Canada is legal. Some people would like that here, most people wouldn't. But these issues aren't always obvious and apparent. Mississippi, a question. Why do you always approach these questions as if everything is so simple and so clear cut? I could understand it if you didn't really care and were just enjoying yourself on a public forum. But I get the impression (I could be wrong of course) that you really do care, so I don't understand why accepting that justice is complex is the subject of so much derision from yourself. [%sig%]

Sorry, Phillip, Carl is yours. My hunk is fantastic thank you. Makes me very happy. What a wonderful holiday this is. Rita

Justice IS complex but we have judges to deal with that. Why is it that Judges aren't allowed to excercise their own sentence based on their judgement of the case? that way we wouldn't get friendly pot smokers given the same sentences as millionnaire drug dealers and gangsters. child raping monsters wouldn't be classed with those young lovers you speak of. ALSO all the tricks used in courts that HAVE to have an effect on your sentence even thought hey're obviously utter nonsense would be wafted away with a sigh and the reality of the crime and its effects dealt with.

BTW. I'm talking about decent judges, new judges not some of the disconnected old fools that sit wigged and foolish in court today. Out of touch and out to lunch. Ex policemen perhaps (the good ones) who have seen crime at first hand and had to deal with it and its makers. elected people from appropriate backgrounds. Ex criminals even (everyone deserves a chance) even Missi? eh? Justice Missi residing "the crown verses the crown"

Decent voted judges are like decent voted politicians. The 'good' ones are the ones you vote for and the 'bad' ones are the ones the person who disagrees with you votes for...

Mississippi - I still don't get it. Kevin - I'm actually both.

Rita - what kind of political group(s) were you involved in?

Rita - I wasnt 'overlooking' anything... i was simply saying that its not a good idea that hysterical blood bayers are agents for justice. Isnt that clear enough? And, Id consider a death penalty a pretty severe punishment. Doesnt stop murders though... Id rather see the crime rates dip than get my revenge.

I am an active member of the DAR; an active member of the Democratic Party campaigns, on the Texas Board for the Governor of Texas to aid and assist retired state employees, and various others through the years. I am also involved in mentoring children and immigrants and work with disabled children in the use of animals to assist them in relating to their surroundings and helping them learn to respond as much as possible to their surroundings. Is that enough or do you need my entire CV?

why would a woman choose a pseudo name like fish? A little self-deprecating to my taste. A fish will swallow anything. Why put yourself down like that? Why do you have such low self-esteem?

She doesn't. Ivoryfishbone.

Kevin, I started both of these threads in an attempt to stimulate a discussion about a topic more interesting than 'Pop Idle', or some of the other banal crap I have to sift through to find something worth the effort. I frequently start provocative threads to this end, I don't necessarily support the views I expound. It's just a way of getting people like you, 'at it'. OK?

Yeah, sure it's ok. I assumed that you meant what you said. I've been reading the general diss regularly now for about two and a half years and in that time I've read plenty of times the same kind of stuff as you've written above. So I gathered, on that basis, that you did support those views. Why don't you say what you really think though? That would mean too that if someone makes the effort of getting a reply together their time wouldn't have been wasted.

Well I do sometimes mean what I say, those that really know me know which is which. Those that either don't know me or despise me very often get it wrong. As long as an interesting discussion follows I don't really think it makes any difference, after all no one is particularly interested in my points of view, anymore than they are interested in yours.

Lynching and flogging? I see it says Dallas in your tag up there Rita. Some things never change eh?

Well that's true. But your posts, without exception that I'm aware of, have no interest in looking at the criminal justice system except to sneer at it. To say that it's rubbish, which you do frequently. Your sneering, to be specific, is aimed at the process of justice as being complex and involved. Involved, in that it admits the motives of the accused as part of the process. You seem to genuinely despise all that. I'm quite sure you are genuine in despising the Mugabes and Husseins of this world. Yet those kind of regimes have subverted the judicial process - the idea of fairness - by using exactly the same kind of language, with the odd word changed, which you have produced on many occasions. So I think it would be an interesting discussion for others to hear you say how the criminal justice system in this country could be improved without it becoming despotic. If you don't think it can happen or that there is no place/point for this kind of discussion in public then I think that would be an interesting discussion too.

I don't have any real problem with the 'process'of justice, just the outcome.

Philip, I didn't think you would get it. You probably have more in common with Dicko than me. Cest la vie.

I think the rules need tweaking, the penalties tuned to fit the seriousness of the crimes.

OI, who's doin' the lynching then? I got sole rights in flogging and lynching departments.

Hi Rita, if people write letters then they still need something to put in them. Whether it's asking for more police patrols, or employment, or for the courts to work faster, or more funding, or sociopaths to be moved away or whatever. Or it might be an account of the fear and desparation and what it's like to be let down by the authorities. Or the difference between the way the authorities and the media talk about crime and what the reality is like. In any case this is a writing site and a forum so I don't feel that it's out of place to consider these things. You are wrong when you say that the only response people will have to this is if it happens to them or their family is the desire for revenge. It's the most common response. But there are people, from all walks of life in all times, who have suffered the most terrible injustices and do not want revenge and do want revenge to be carried out in their name. [%sig%]

I'm completely lost now. Mississippi, what is it you want from this forum? Who on Earth is Dicko? 'Philip is a twat' - what is there to get?

But in the South, no?

Want Philip? I don't WANT, I contribute, that's it. >> 'Philip is a twat' - what is there to get? << >> Mississippi - I still don't get it. << You are always going to have a problem, just accept it.

No, I want you to explain what my 'problem' is - exactly. To be so vague while being so insulting is cowardice. Why (and what) do you 'contribute'? Unless it is point-scoring like this.

Rita. You've lost me now, and I was trying... Mississippi; I think you're right. But I think part of the process of change is less 'this is a load of shite' routine = easy to do and 'this is how it could be improved' = not so easy but almost certainly more useful.

I don't really offer solutions, just the criticism, it's less stressful.

*very stern look*... but I have to laugh anyway ha ha ha.

and so proving, that history teaches some people nothing whatsoever. Here, have a hood.

is that a burning cross in the garden?

bawls?

*makes note to ask rita about her position on smacking children*

Philip, go f.uck yourself. Does that explain?

No, it doesn't. Please, I need some rationale for this. Where does all this bile come from? I know I told you to eff off on another thread, but I did apologize. I thought we were OK. I feel like a beggar asking you for change, and you respond by smashing a huge jar of coppers on the floor and shouting 'there you go, pick it out of that'. Now, what is all this about? Please?

Rita. You possess all the characteristics of a mollusc. Apart from intelligence where a mollusc would outperform you without straining its shell.

Will somebody please explain it to him? I can't be ar.sed.

She only favours smacking children if the cattle prod itsn't available.

Bollocks - you explain. You can be arsed to tell be to go **** myself, but not to converse with me in an adult manner. You sound like a playground bully! Explain it to me, please.

Does anyone need me?

End of discussion.

Yeah well. I haven't got balls and you haven't got a dictionary. We've all got our cross to bear.

Yes Lord.

handbags at dawn?

PS I think I am beginning to understand.

Such wit. Such verve.

Redneck Reet I meant.