Kim Jong Il Dead

never said that. I said 5th highest rate of execution, not incarceration. We remain #1 in that area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment

 

In all fairness, it's the highest "documented" imprisonment rate.

Only God and dictators know for sure.

 

I would rather do cold calls than review resumes. Being a hiring manager must be a bitch these days.

 

When the British were found to be subjecting members of the IRA to sleep deprivation and blindfolding for prolonged periods in the late 1970's it caused outrage in the America and in the US Government and they were pressured into stopping the practice....it was classed as torture, just for your information.

 

Well aware of it. I also know that the definition of torture has been re-defined by multiple watchdog organizations in the years since.

 

Freedom is a bitch, is it not?

Are we really implying that the US is worse than Korea?

 

From the previous link. I'll give you fuzzy numbers from Russia, maybe SA, still the scale of the difference...

 

Well, thank dog for korea....

 

This is the aspect that got me calling out cmra's post in the first place.

 

I clicked your link and saw the numbers. Did the smilies not give away my real reaction??

 

Get your facts straight. You're both half right, and half confused.

Marriage is a "fundamental right." Prisoners cannot be denied the right get married. As a general rule, anything the government has a monopoly on (voting, marriage, etc.) is a "fundamental right." As that pertains to gay marriage, I would agree that same-sex marriage should be constitutional, and a denial thereof is an infringement on a person's fundamental rights.

But you're way off-base on that next part... The right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" does not exist. That's from the Declaration of Independence. It is NOT LAW. The Constitution is law. That only guarantees that you will not be deprived of "life, liberty, or property" without due process of law.

So the government can deny all of the above, as long as they follow the proper procedures.

 

Nice numbers.

As previously stated,

It is my opinion that the numbers (graph) above highlight two things, freedom and culture.

Freedom and Culture have consequences, some intended, others not so much.

With respect to Freedom, the basic difference is that a good number (percentage) of those incarcerated in the US are in jailed because they seemed to have misjudge the extent of personal freedom. People often confuse what is really within their rights.

In some countries, North Korea, incarceration or worse, is almost always guaranteed in the process of exercising ANY freedom.

Cultural or culture is another big difference that I believe that add or skew the numbers on the graph.

Some cultures, countries, are less susceptible to embedding excuses into developing minds.

I do believe that in the US culture has played a significant role in the numbers of incarceration. I would extend the culture leanings to both racist components and flower child mentality. In either case, more harm than good is a result of.

In the end, I still don't follow how we can even come to this discussion in a thread related to North Korea and a dictator such as the recently departed?

But I guess it can only happen with freedom.

 

So much for "inalienable rights", eh?

 

All that graph shows is that Americans exercise their freedom to be dumb-fuck morons more often than people in the other countries represented.

Our legal system is far from perfect, but it's the best one we've got.

 

Talking about it and codifying it into law are two very separate things.

"the pursuit of happiness" would be impossible to legislate. As someone else pointed out, what if heroin, or sex with young boys makes me happy? the "pursuit of happiness clause" would be an absolute defense to virtually any crime.

 

Don't want so many people in prison in the US? Get them to stop doing stupid shit that will get them thrown in prison.


or just shoot them like in China.

 

That wasn't really his original point. I'm guessing you read the whole thing and saw where he indicated that the US treats gays as less than human beings solely based on their sexuality. That's really where that whole point derailed. I'm still trying to figure out how not being allowed to legally marry correlates to not being treated as a human being. The "human rights" aspect of it came from my trying to question his statement.

 

Understood, it just drives me nuts when people try to quote the Declaration of Independence as if it's law.

it was merely an eloquently written break-up letter with Great Britain.

 

The "gay" issue is one that kills me when it comes up in discussion with friends that lean to the left.

I refer back to previous questionings on my part regarding the coaliton that makes up a siginificant segment of the voting block on the left, democrats.

To me the constituents in opposition of all things conservative or republicans have some oddities that are beyond understanding or can simply be explained with one word "hate".

For all claims regarding the evils of the US when it comes to the rights or treatment of gay individuals, I would venture to say that few gays around this green planet exercise greater freedoms in few countries outside of ours.

It is my observance that generally speaking:

- few religions are fully acceptance of gays.
- Socialist or Communist Nations are not welcoming to gays
- A good number of the declared minorities in this Countries are not extremely gay friendly.

...but Christians in this Country are the problem.

What if they were no Christians or Conservatives or "haters" to hate. What then? What glue will keep it it together?

 

As the saying goes, you can pick your nose but you can't pick your parents.

So you are lucky in that you weren't born in Long Duck Dong province.

Or named Long Duck Dong, for that matter.