So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[dh66]

Thanks for all the kind words, folks, and I didn't mean to pop open a can of worms. Folks kill folks all day every day, unfortunately, it's just a fact of life I suppose, and there's no shortage of other folks waiting to cash in on it, andthe media is not sailing that boat alone by any stretch, either. As for the death penalty, it is what it is, and as long as there's wars, hunger, infant mortality, grinding poverty, lack of access to decent healthcare.....I won't even get started, except to say that maybe 15 or more (24 in this case) years after the fact, maybe justice isn't being served as well as it could. Of course, if he'd been taken out 15 minutes after the fact, it wouldn't have unkilled her. The world is just a f-ed up place, really, and we all have to find our own way to deal with that fact.
I really was just disappointed at first, then frustrated, that this dude got all the limelight (like so many others) while his victim barely ranked a mention. What really got me was when, on my own, I tried to find a picture of her and his was the first thing to pop up. It's as if her existence (again, like so many others) no longer mattered, her role in the world ended when she did. If anyone should've had their photo on the front page yesterday, it should have been her.

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[ChiTownScion]

It's murder as entertainment, dh66. And the stars of the show are the killers. The popular entertainment media are chock full of homicide -- some of it fiction, some of it "reality."

We glamorize violence. And we're steeped in it.

Very sorry for your loss. And I can easily relate to how you must feel about the celebrity status of your friend's killer. It would have my blood boiling, too.

I, too, have no interest in engaging in a debate on the death penalty. I'm sure that my reasons for opposing it will change no minds on the matter anyway. But I wouldn't want to leave anyone thinking that my heart bleeds for the killers, or that I think the world is a worse place on account of their no longer bring in it. Indeed, if a killer were to do to my loved ones what was done to others, the killer had better hope the authorities get to him before I do.

In 2010, at a time in life where I'd spent 28 years of my life as a member of the criminal defense bar, my wife and I experienced the murder of our 19 year old son. He, essentially, stepped between a woman and her abusive boyfriend. I cannot convey the weight of our grief to anyone who has not experienced it. The worst, and I mean the absolutely worst, aspect of it was witnessing the heartbreak, grief, and pain of my wife during that first month after his death. My greatest priority was supporting her in any way that I could.

Apart from that, my highest priority was preserving my own humanity and not using the alibi of a murdered family member to allow me to compromise my own ideals. I wanted the 42 year old man accused of killing my son to enjoy all procedural due process protections accorded under law. I have given my life to seeing to it that those protections were accorded to all- and to me at least, maintaining that standard- even when the accused was alleged to have murdered my own son- was the determination of whether my convictions were ideals worth living (or even dying) for, or merely empty platitudes.

The jury was out less than three hours before returning a verdict of guilty on a count of first degree murder. I presented a victim witness statement at sentencing. I emphasized to the court that it was not my desire that the court exercise vengeance or retribution for the sake of my son: his life stood for better things than that, and acting from a sense of vengeance would not bring my son back. My concern was that no other parent ever have to endure what my wife and I experienced, and that the court render a sentence predicated upon a desire to protect the safety of others. The defendant was sentenced to 28 years: in our state that means that 28 entire years would be served on a sentence for Murder One.

I certainly don't judge the conduct of others who have stood in my shoes, but I really wanted to maintain the high road through the whole experience. I remember saying , "If they ever did that to MY kid, I'd ..." on many occasions. But I'd like to think that when faced with any series of decisions which test our deepest held values, we want to stay true to our ideals and not compromise those values, even when doing so is anguishing in the extreme.

 

[tonyb]

Yup.
I would hope that our justice system reflect the best in us.
Individually, we might be given to vengeance. But I don't wish vengeance in any aspect of what we do as a people. And that's mostly for practical reasons.

 

[ChiTownScion]

"Most of the death row inmates have court appointed attorney's and in our state it is the only crime that no hourly limits are placed on the attorney's [sic] representing these scumbags. We're paying for their defense."

As well we should. The system, from the beat cop to the supreme court justice, is at the hands of flesh and blood men and women, and as such, mistakes can be made, either intentionally or unknowingly. Before even the time of Blackstone, we have adhered to a legal system that we have assigned the ideal that, "It is better that a hundred guilty go free rather than one innocent be locked up."

The seemingly endless appeals, post conviction claims, state habeas claims, Federal habeas claims, etc., are the word becoming flesh in regard to those long settled ideals we proclaim. And while they are like watching sausage being made in that they are not often a pretty sight to experience, they are absolutely essential in order to preserve the integrity of the legal system. My cop friends may gripe about according rights to a suspect pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, et al., yet to a man and woman, when called before an Internal Affairs investigator, they will invoke their right to have their attorney and union rep present during all questioning. All of this is essential to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system: to protect everyone against the likelihood of it becoming arbitrary and capricious. A cop can be wrongfully accused of misconduct, as can the criminally accused, and the presumption of innocence for both has to be maintained. Likewise, after that presumption is rebutted by a determination of guilt, a review by the courts by a variety of remedies is essential.

And the remedies available after conviction have not been without positive effect: decades after the fact, because of developing technologies, or reexamination of all aspects of the trial process ( including, I am ashamed to admit, the ineffectiveness of defense trial counsel... as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct, improper jury instruction or influences, and judicial corruption) have been brought to light and resulted in either a new trial or outright exoneration of those on death row or serving natural life (or extended) sentences. When the innocent are exonerated, it makes it all worth the effort, at least in my mind. And unfortunately, we have to wade through that dung heap of claims of innocence that are frivolous and patently without merit in order to discern those diamond situations where a wrong has occurred. That is our "cost of doing business" in that regard.

Steering this away from contemporary political issues and back to, "the Era," I will note that back in the day there were far less criminal statutes calling for incarceration for offenses that are malum prohibitum : wrong because they are prohibited by legislative fiat and not wrong in themselves (malum in se). To put that in terms that are a bit less in the realm of Thomas Aquinas: we're locking people up now for actions that merely piss us off rather than present a clear and present danger to public health and safety than they did back then.

And we are paying for that- oh, how we are paying dearly for it! I do not condone drug usage in any sense, but by treating it solely as a law enforcement issue and employing the pandering "war on drugs" rhetoric, we have incarcerated millions and incurred skyrocketing costs that make the costs of the legal representation of those on death row a mere pittance. We would do well, I submit, to consider criminal sanctions including incarceration only as a last resort in this regard. I think that they appreciated this far more back in the Era than we do today.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I remember many years ago, watching Bill Buckley engaging in an argument on "The Firing Line" explaining the difference.

" malum prohibitum, malum in se)

I miss that guy!

 

[GHT]

In 2010, at a time in life where I'd spent 28 years of my life as a member of the criminal defense bar, my wife and I experienced the murder of our 19 year old son.

No parent should ever have to suffer the pain of outliving a child, and to suffer the loss in such a callous and brutal way is beyond comprehension. Time has put space between you and your bereavement, time to come to terms with your loss, but no amount of time will ever heal your scars. Despite the years that have past since you lost your son, I offer you my sincerest condolences.

 

[swanson_eyes]

No parent should ever have to suffer the pain of outliving a child, and to suffer the loss in such a callous and brutal way is beyond comprehension. Time has put space between you and your bereavement, time to come to terms with your loss, but no amount of time will ever heal your scars. Despite the years that have past since you lost your son, I offer you my sincerest condolences.

I wholeheartedly agree. It will never be ok, but the way you responded shows great character. You have my deep respect, ChiTown.

 

[MisterCairo]

It ticks me off, that the usual imported US-peanutbutter ("Barney's best" and so on), in german supermarkets, costs 2,29 EUR (350g). I mean, ok, it contains really 90% peanuts. But, are peanuts special??

Converting that to Canadian dollars, it's really not that expensive!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Converting that to Canadian dollars, it's really not that expensive!

It's not particularly expensive in US dollars either. That's probably about what you'd pay for it in the US.

 

[Stearmen]

It's all relevant to time! I was researching the price of a replica Jaguar SS100, when I found out why so few original have the Jaguar hood ornament? Seems they were a 2 Pound Stirling option, which was just too much for a frivolous trinket back in 1937!

 

[GHT]

I was researching the price of a replica Jaguar SS100, when I found out why so few original have the Jaguar hood ornament?

Well why didn't you say so in the vintage car thread? There you go, just for you. Order one for me while you are at it.
La Riviera.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Things about youTube that tick me off:

1. Worse Than Amateur Videos -- I wish people would learn how to shoot proper video. When recording action look at the screen, NOT the action because most of the time all you're showing is the ground or the sky.

2. Student Films -- Having to wade through dozens of "documentaries," for example, about WWII or the 1929 Stock Market Crash that was part of someone's history class project. Either that or the Podunk High School production of Les Miserables.

3. Videos Filmed off a Screen.

4. Looking for a scene from a movie or TV show and the only ones available are dubbed in another language with the ones dubbed in Russian being the worst because one person does all the dialogue and it's recorded over the original audio.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Add to that people who post rare phonograph records or radio transcriptions via open-microphone recordings. I don't want to hear what that disc sounds like grinding thru your worn-out Califone that sounds like the one we had in my sixth-grade classroom, echoing around your concrete-walled cellar "hobby room." I don't want to hear your phone ringing in the background or your kids fighting. And I don't want to hear you blathering on for five minutes about what you're about to do before you play a three-minute record.

Things like that are why I have little use for Yoo Toob.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Add to that people who post rare phonograph records or radio transcriptions via open-microphone recordings. I don't want to hear what that disc sounds like grinding thru your worn-out Califone that sounds like the one we had in my sixth-grade classroom, echoing around your concrete-walled cellar "hobby room." I don't want to hear your phone ringing in the background or your kids fighting. And I don't want to hear you blathering on for five minutes about what you're about to do before you play a three-minute record.

Things like that are why I have little use for Yoo Toob.

You forgot these hundred-thousand of stupid unboxing-videos.

 

[Stearmen]

Well why didn't you say so in the vintage car thread? There you go, just for you. Order one for me while you are at it.
La Riviera.

As soon as I get my Flux Capacitor and head back in time, I will pick up two for you!

 

[GHT]

As soon as I get my Flux Capacitor and head back in time, I will pick up two for you!

Don't bother, but if you can get me this tractor.............................

 

[GHT]

Looking for a scene from a movie or TV show and the only ones available are dubbed in another language.

That is so annoying:

 

[Trenchfriend]

Simon's cat is the best. When I discovered them I binge-watched all I could find.

That kitty in the beginning:

 

[GHT]

If you are self employed in the UK, January 31st is the deadline to get your tax returns done by. Our tax system is draconian on the little guy but does sweet deals for the multi-nationals. Facebook paid less in corporation tax last year than one of their toilet cleaners paid in income tax. All the same, it's a grief that I could do without. Is January 31st some sort of deadline for the American tax system, or have I got that wrong?

 

[dh66]

April 15 is the dead line here, but otherwise you've about summed up the situation on this side as well.

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