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Land of the free?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:40 am
by next to nothing

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:34 am
by Zer
German users want to rerfer here:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/27/27398/1.html
But hey who cares...at least nobody is to chopping off your penis at the local market place because someone said you fucked his wife.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:51 am
by pollux
the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008
If they took the stats right after New Year's Eve, then half of them were only there for being drunk and left the morning after :lol:

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:45 am
by next to nothing
good point :D

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:25 am
by braincell
The sad thing is that 40% are there for non-violent drug related crimes. Those are political prisoners in my opinion.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:30 am
by kensuguro
education.. man, education. I think there are so many places outside the major metropolitan areas that are outside of the "scope" of the government, and they get neglected. Although most crimes may happen in the big cities... hard to say. Seems like education as a whole is completely neglected. It's no mystery I think. Dumb people do dumb things, and the average keeps dropping every year.

It's not about being booksmart at all, just that the people need to grow up in a well structured, systematic environment with good ideals, so that they can learn how a well regulated society may be like. (not that it has to be too rigid) If the schools are run like a zoo, then they'll perceive the world as such, and interact with it in the same way. Schools are neglected, and they're poorly maintained. Constantly understaffed, and supervision is poor. That's why kids learn to beat the system, take advantage of poor supervision, and learn that it really doesn't matter what they do, as long as the system doesn't catch up. Unfortunately, this is exactly how foolish people act in real society. I will never have my kids grow up here. (NYC)

It's horrible, teachers spending money out of their own pockets to buy books for kids, etc. That's why all the rich folks spend a lot of money putting their kids in private schools. (also with dropping averages) Unfortunately, it's all good as long as the ones in power are happy.

I hear so many excuses for why NY, or any other city in the US has record breaking crime rates.. but, I don't think there is an excuse. It's just neglected people neglecting each other. I mean, seriously, it's not this bad in most metropolitan areas in the world. (Of course, it doesn't matter because the white folks above the clouds don't see it, or don't care) Okay, so I lashed out one racist statement. But the social division is so clear here (NYC) it's frightening. I will never have my kids grow up here. I'm sure there are other cities in the US, or anywhere else in the world with better education system and better values.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:19 am
by Cochise
Here in Italy the overcrowding of prisons recently led to the placement of a certain number of offenders out the bars. With several negative consequences, besides.

Most of the people in jail here serve sentences related to drugs crimes or petty crimes and there's a high rate of immigrants in prisons.

Lot of political rants are about security here. Many of those petty criminals, however, are just the last ring of the chain inside organizations operating at intercontinental level.

Of course, recently lot of police operations hit the target against whole organizations (mostly were quite local ones) and it led to the confiscation of capitals having billionary amounts.
But it's quite a drop in the ocean

The other side of the coin is that frauds and financial crimes are often easily covered up. In general, powerfull people quite easily can commit crimes scott-free thanks to the mutual ties between them and thanks to the corruption.
The fraud of balance (just hope it's the right word) has even been decriminalized European wide AFAIK...

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:25 am
by Zer

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:43 am
by next to nothing
wrong topic Zer.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:37 am
by Cochise
It's a meaningfull example showing the maximum levels on a world scale. Similar things happen likewise in local context, having minor calibre protagonists.

@piddi

What do you think about the possible involvement of your government?

Looks like you're more than sceptical..

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:46 am
by BingoTheClowno
I think the problem is not only with education of the adolescents in US but also a problem with mandatory sentencing laws introduced in the 90 (I think). Those laws state that anyone (even with no prior offenses) caught with a certain amount of illegal substances has to serve a mandatory term of 10 years :o
Wiki wrote: "Three Strikes Law"
Some unusual scenarios have arisen, particularly in California — the state punishes shoplifting and similar crimes as felony petty theft if the person who committed the crime has a prior conviction for any form of theft, including robbery or burglary. As a result, some defendants have been given sentences of 25 years to life in prison for such crimes as shoplifting golf clubs (Gary Ewing, previous strikes for burglary and robbery with a knife), nine videotapes (Leandro Andrade, previous strikes for home burglary), or, along with a violent assault, a slice of pepperoni pizza from a group of children (Jerry Dewayne Williams, four previous non-violent felonies, sentence later reduced to six years). In one particularly notorious case, Kevin Weber was sentenced to 26 years to life for the crime of stealing four chocolate chip cookies (previous strikes of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon).[8] However, prosecutors said the six-time parole violator broke into the restaurant to rob the safe after a busy Mother's Day holiday, but he triggered the alarm system before he could do it. When arrested, his pockets were full of cookies he had taken from the restaurant.[9]


This is one documentary you can watch online.
When Kids Get Life

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:58 am
by next to nothing
i was reffering to the "hijack this threa" as it made for this purpose :)

its just that i know this is going to be a propper discussion, but it doesnt need to take away the whole point of the thread does it? Its not like the rockefellers are overflowing our jails, even if they should be :)

as far as my political view of things, lets just say im proud to live in a country that twice has voted against becoming a EU member, and that our population still is against it.

call it circus or whatever.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:07 pm
by next to nothing
@Cochise

Well, i dont have a clear opinion on this one. As the Book Ad linked to above concluded, time will tell what the main reason is. on one side, if i against all odds should survive a global catastrophic event, id rather have 1400 commercial seed vaults around me than none at all.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:51 pm
by garyb
piddi wrote:i was reffering to the "hijack this threa" as it made for this purpose :)

its just that i know this is going to be a propper discussion, but it doesnt need to take away the whole point of the thread does it? Its not like the rockefellers are overflowing our jails, even if they should be :)

as far as my political view of things, lets just say im proud to live in a country that twice has voted against becoming a EU member, and that our population still is against it.

call it circus or whatever.
it's a good move by your countrymen, piddi.


the jails here are overloaded with drug offenses and other victimless thought crimes. those prisons are often privately operated for profit(the prisoners work for a few dollars a day making televisions and other goods..).

Norway and the Rockefeller Foundation

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:01 pm
by at0m
Nowhere here on the news was said who paid for that seed vault - thanks for clearing that out :>

Strangle the worlds' food is now protected from "doomsday" by the people who refined Hilter's Aryan genetic purification (which resulted in the holocaust). The GMO seeds, like the ones imposed on the market in the States, Iraq and other infested countries are hybrids, to ensure annual income for the Rockefeller Foundation: farmer's can plant last year's seeds anymore, but are obliged to buy new ones.

Doesn't our future look bright? :D

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:26 pm
by Cochise
Sorry, now I'll go to totally hijack or to give a sense to something has been said here.

I've only just read on the pages of a National Geographic's report:

"The 2 richest persons in the world have incomes higher than overall GIP of the 45 poorest countries."

I can't say those peoples are criminals. But:
if most of the people enriched committing frauds, or however enriched exploiting the poverty, was in jail, then jails should be free of all those committing crimes due to the poverty.
Leaving apart that immorality coming from hi-ranking is a wide spreading example contributing to fill the prisons.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:33 am
by garyb
about that "seed vault", which includes information on all known genomes(noah's ark), it's not the only one. there's been much talk and speculation on destroying the world and remaking it in another image...

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:12 am
by Cochise
It definitely looks like we are an extremely evolute species.
But still kind of herd, chief having enormous power.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:52 am
by garyb
herd is right. and there ARE shepherds.
of course, the shepherds don't marry the sheep......

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:04 pm
by Cochise
Going by my current view about herd chiefs, I see them as dominant individuals belonging to the same species of the herd, rather than individuals belonging to a superior species...

And they aren't dominant in Darwinian sense, often neither in a correct social Darwinian sense (if there is one).
So 6 turned up to be 9, IMHO (NMOO).