i was planning on writing something up today, but i'm feeling pretty sick right now. it doesn't help either that my roommate's girlfriend woke up up from my nap with her shrill laughter. think hyena combined with a walrus in heat getting strangled by an anconda. yeah, it would wake the dead.
i'm sitting in my ancient philosophy class, having just finished a quiz on book three of plato's republic. unfortunately i have only read through book two. not knowing what to do, i looked to my wrist and saw my wwss bracelet. what would socrates say? i knew exactly what i needed to do.
i think i failed miserably.
sorry this is a little late and maybe a little short. i'm just going to reply to some of the comments to the previous post.
I think we should buy a REALLY nice island in the pacific somewhere and just drop off the prisoners there and let them fend for themselves.
do you REALLY want me to respond to this or should we all just admit that this is a rather silly proposition?
think CHINA here ....
yes, let us think CHINA for a moment. china, iran, vietnam, and the united states are the top four executing nations in the world. combined, we account for 97% of executions perfomed on this planet. yes, let's think china here. do we really want to look to them as our humanitarian allies? do we want to be like china? check out what amnesty international has to say about china. let us think china. and then let's not think about it anymore.
Or better yet, do what Fidal Castro is doing. Put all the criminals on a boat and aim it at Cuba.
wow. that's almost as bright as the island or china ideas. let's move on.
Could it not also be argued that the money used to support a "killer / rapist / pedophile", instead of for personal gain, be used to strengthen our great nation? fund schools, job training programs, ESL classes, etc. ????
because it costs much less to hold a prisoner for life than it does to take that life, the best option is then to hold the person in prison and use the money saved on such ventures. a great place to put the money would be into the police for to help with the 40% of homicides that go unsolved - a far better way to help out victims and their families.
it's also fact that there is NO KNOWN "therapy" that helps "cure" this problem either. No amount of counceling, or "talking and understanding them" has curbed this either.
there are plenty of things that can deter crime far better than the death penalty. the biggest of them being economic and societal reforms that will prevent poverty and broken homes that are breeding grounds for violence.
I remember one day some terrorist flew planes into a couple of tall buildings in New York, one crashed into a field in PN, and one hit the pentagon. However, that was a couple years ago, we have no proof that any terrorist are ever going to do anything to us ever again, so lets drop the whole military all together, cause unless someone is activly attacking us, what really is the point of having a military?
there is a major difference between having a preventative defense and having pre-emptive executions. just like it was immoral and wrong for our nation to attack iraq for and possible terrorists and possible weapons of mass destruction, it is immoral and wrong to kill someone because they may possibly kill again.
Just b/c they "might" do it again is no reason to be proactive. Especially when some guy in the neighborhood molest a child.
you do have a point. because a person has committed a certain crime, they have statistially raised the likeliness of them committing the same crime again. this should be taken into account and society should use some preventative measures. however, there is no reason why capital punishment should be necessary to do this. if capital punishment was merely a preventative measure to keep a person from committing another crime, then why not use it on any crime. by eliminating the repetative crime rate to zero, much can be said to be achieved! this however is a ludicrous idea (or at least should be) and should make it clear as to why capital punishment a preventative measure against repeat criminals is problematic.
I think the death penalty makes more sense from an atonement point of view. It's more of an eye-for-an-eye thing than any other reason.
wow. is that why christ suffered on the cross, so that humanity might be punished for their own sins? if anyone should have a disgust for the death penalty, it should be christians. the whole notion of the atonement is that people don't have to suffer for their actions, that forgiveness is possible? it's become cliche, but ask yourself what would jesus do? if you are still thinking death penalty, then you need to seriously rethinking christ and his message. as for the eye-for-an-eye thing, go home, open up your bible and read the sermon on the mount. jesus specifically mentions the eye-for-an-eye.
Surely murder is worst offense in our society, so those guilty of it should pay for it with their own lives.
how very christian of you.
to be continued tomorrow... maybe
my buddy jeff and i finally got his songs working on his myspace account. check it out and give him a listen.
for those who have been waiting, i'll write up part 3 of my capital punishment discussion either tonight or sometime tomorrow. if i don't you can kill me.
it's about economics. i don't want my money being spent keeping a murderer alive. kill them and save us some money
first of all, it is a fact that the cost of putting someone to death far exceeds the cost of keeping them imprisoned for life. on average the over-all cost of a single case of capital punishment is $3.2 million. on the otherhand, the over-all cost of keeping someone imprisoned for life is $600 thousand, less than one-fifth the cost of the former.
thats hogwash! give me a few bucks and i'll buy some shells or a few yards of rope and i'll do the deed for much less.
it's reality. wake up and accept it. capital punishment includes certain guaranteed appeals and processes that end up being quite costly. these are necessary to ensure that the innocent are not wrongly killed (a process that is very problematic and proven faulty).
lets take a trip and ride the trolley to the land of make-believe. along with king friday and lady platypus, we can pretend that it is much more cost efficient to kill someone off than to imprison them for life. by justifying the death of another to save money, you are becoming no different than many of those you are putting to death (a theme i'll elaborate on even more later). you are placing a dollar sign over a human life and killing that person for your own personal gain. you are killing someone so that you can have more money. like cain, you are becoming master mahan - holding the great secret - the secret of exchanging human life for money.
it deters crime.
there is no evidence whatsoever that such is the case. less than 11% of criminologists believe that capital punishment has any effect on the decision process of killing another person and that whatever effect it does have is quite minimal. furthermore studies have shown that states and nations which have dropped capital punishment have actually had a decrees in violent crimes and vice-versa, that states and nations which have reinstituted the death penalty have seen a subsequent rise in violent crimes.
they killed once. they might kill again!
might? so now we are going to punish someone for crimes they might commit? i'll give the benefit of the doubt that someone who has killed before is more likely to kill again than someone who has never killed before. this however does not answer the criticism that capital punishment as an eliminator of future crimes is a punishment imposed on crimes not committed. if we are going to begin punishing people for crimes which they might committ, where does the line stop? how do you know if someone is going to kill again? why not kill anyone who might kill someday? who can claim sanctuary from the possibility of someday becoming a killer? kill to prevent killing. does that not sound problematic to you?
to be continued tomorrow...
i really wanted to write up a post about the death penalty, but i should be studying right now. i'll try to jot one up in the next few days.
until then, here is one of several dozen awesome quotes from albert camus' reflections on the guillotine.
could not justice concede to the criminal the same weakness in which society finds a sort of permanent extenuating circumstance for itself? can the jury decently say: “if i kill you by mistake, you will forgive me when you consider the weaknesses of our common nature. but i am condemning you to death without considering those weaknesses or that nature"? there is a solidarity of ill men in error and aberration. must that solidarity operate for the tribunal and be denied the accused? no, and if justice has any meaning in this world, it means nothing but the recognition of that solidarity; it cannot, by its very essence, divorce itself from compassion. compassion, of course, can in this instance be but awareness of a common suffering and not a frivolous indulgence paying no attention to the sufferings and rights of the victim. compassion does not exclude punishment, but it suspends the final condemnation. compassion loathes the definitive, irreparable measure that does an injustice to mankind as a whole because of failing to take into account the wretchedness of the common condition.
i'm sure plenty of you looked at the collage of persons atop project mayhem and thought, "i know who that funny looking guy in the middle is, but who are everyone else?"
now you'll know.
(from left to right, top to bottom)
jake: my old roommate from crestwood. originally from boise. passionate about skiing. moved to utah state last year, met a girl, and is thinking about marrying her. works part-time with the logan fire department.
tory: another roommate from crestwood. grew up in mapleton. lives to fish and eat peanut butter- banana sandwhiches. married my friend melanie. they recently moved to st. george. hates working for a newspaper down there.
mel: from hurrican. married tory. got a graduate degree from utah state with something having to do with deaf education. used to help old lady's at nordstrom find bras that fit. she's currently working with deaf children.
bobby: my little brother. came home from a church mission in japan about a year ago. just professed his love to a girl he has liked for the last dozen years. he's moving to virginia in a few weeks.
koji: my nephew. loves to read. likes listening to rage against the machine.
kid sumo: my companion thoughout my mission. found him alongside the road one night. brought him home with me.
hyrum: originally from london. grew up mostly in pennsylvania. he was my roommmate in raintree for a summer. last i heard, he's shooting heroine in pittsburgh.
joe: my roommate. originally from ft. carson. likes guns and airplanes. i see him every now and then. spends most of the time with his girlfriend. (for more about her, read the first few lines of this post)
loyd smurf: no relation to papa.
me: me
the narrator: my existential self
eric cartman: short. fat. obnoxious. orginally from south park. he worships mel gibson.
tyler durden: the personified other
derek: from massachusetts. loves bmx. going to school to be a pilot. he's currently in egypt with the army reserves.
maggie: my old cuddle-buddy. recently married a med student. she's in oregon getting a degree in food-science or something.
jeff: from new hampshire. old roommate at crestwood. plays a guitar like a prodigy. recently began dating a girl which he has been pursuing for over a year.
casper: the friendliest ghost i know.
man with phallus: found this guy in the summum pyramid.
mike: roommate from crestwood. originally from the boise area. digs eighties synth-pop. moved to utah state to pursue a degree in computer animation. he's been dating a girl for a year or so that he'll be marrying some time.
i guess it's time to find some new faces to add.
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(((final update)))
thanks to those of you who made a pledge. your donation has been matched. and thanks for the opportunity to feel that maybe my life has some bit of significance in the world.
any pledges in the next couple days will also be matched (unless they are too big of course).
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...but i guess it's something.
i dunno if this will work, but i'll match the next five commentors who pledge to donate $10 to the katrina hurricane relief fund.
you can donate here.
(((((update #2)))))
i just remembered that some friends owe me money for some nine inch nails tickets. that means i've got a little more to match donations with. if you haven't yet, pledge to donate some to the katrina hurrican relief fund and i'll match it. if you don't have the money right now, but will be able to donate in the future, just promise you will
(((((update)))))
i got this e-mail yesterday
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: carudas
Date: Sep 4, 2005 11:55 AM
Subject: Matching Funds for Katrina Relief
To: Visitors 2
The below describes the beginning of a massive effort on the part of Hare Krishna Food for Life to bring relief in the form of vegetarian meals to those destitute by Hurricane Katrina.
³Meanwhile, courageous New Talavan (farm community on Mississippi) devotees are already venturing into the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf Coast, braving fields of debris, vast stretches of noxious quick mud, and crazed gas-hungry locals to distribute Lord Krishna's mercy in the form of sanctified vegetarian food. Despite reports of people being held up at gunpoint to feed gas-hungry SUVs and pickups, yesterday and today the devotees journeyed to Gulfport and Biloxi to bring hot meals of red beans and rice, chapattis and lemonade to the starving residents.
New Orleans devotee Ramakeli Prabhu, who lost everything in the hurricane, is collecting supplies in Memphis and transporting them to New Talavan, while New Talavan devotee Dvibhuja Prabhu, whose rental property lost its roof in the storm, is devoting full time to prasadam distribution in the Gulf Coast area.
They report a scene of almost total devastation with very little help for the victims. The aged and infirm are hardest hit, often immobilized with no one to help them. The devotees are going door-to-door in the affected areas near the coast, bringing back striking tales of devastation and woe.²
We¹re sending this message to give you the option to assist the world¹s largest vegetarian food distribution network (500,000 plates a day in normal times) to focus on the South. And the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork will match your donations dollar for dollar up to an preliminary limit of $ 2000.00. Please go to the Food for Life web site at www.ffl.org and either donate directly to them or donate to the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. For every dollar received here by paypal, check, or credit card, we will forward two dollars to the Food for Life effort in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Paypal credit to carudas@earthlink.net, checks to Krishna Temple, 8628 S. State Rd., Spanish Fork, Utah 84660, or call 801 787-1510 with Visa M/C. We¹ll send a receipt for every tax deductible donation.
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caru das heads the hare krishna temple in spanish fork. he has got to be one of the kindest and charitable guys i have ever met.
so far, i've only got one pledge for donations. i'm hoping to have four more soon before i make my donation. please help.
every now and then i'll come across something briliant. something ingenius. something that that slaps me across the face and makes me see the world in a whole new light. something like this fascinating quote from the thirty-ninth fragment of empedecles...
"wretches, utter wretches, keep your hands off the beans!"
amazing. i know.
"need help. got hurt
at work. need money for food,
gas, and rent. please
help. god bless you."
long dirty hair extending
to the middle of his back. shaggy
beard. sunburned. old shirt.
tattered jeans.
from south florida, he's been
here for about a year. tore
some ligaments carrying
ninety pound drill bits.
he doesn't want subway. he just ate
at mcdonalds. cheeseburger
and fries. he could use
some money for gas. i give
him two dollars.
his dog is some kind
of mutt. quiet and unafraid. tied
to a thick blue rope. likes to be scratched
behind the ears. i wonder
what his master is tied to.
"i don't even know where i am"
you're at village inn. you know... the place where you are working. so will you please get me a goddam refill on my coke!
i don't know why i bother going there late at night (or even during the day). everytime i go the service is absolutely terrible. one time i had a waitress that didn't bring us anything to drink until after we had already finised eating our meals. uggghhh... what's the deal with these people?
i think one of the problems is that i get dragged there too late at night when i'm too tired to protest against it. speaking of being tired.... this whole post probably doesn't make any sense. i guess i'll see when i wake up and have more mental functions available.
check one
i just got a call from the philosophy department a few minutes ago. they want to hire me as a teaching assistant. i'll help tutor, grade, and a bunch of other stufs and will pay me for about twenty hours a week. on the plus side, i'll be able to double up my hours that i do for the religious studies program (which isn't much), be able to study during much of the time, have a little more income, have a nice something extra on my vita, and get some good experience in.
on the downside, there really isn't much. it'll add a little more to my load which won't be much of an issue until the end of the sememester. i guess i could audit one of my classes if it looks like it'll be too much. i'm taking nietzsche for fun anways.
i've also been asked to be the representative for the philosophy department for student government. that won't be much of a time eater though. just a meeting once a week or so. i'll get a nice little title for little work. another plus on my vita.
a few months ago, i wrote a post about some lady standing outside of the walmart parking lot. i don't remember what her sign said. i drove by, ignored her, turned around, drove by again, and gave her five dollars. i really don't remember much about the whole event. i do remember her smile. it seemed so full of sincerity and gratitude. it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling inside. i try to play like i'm all charitable, but maybe that's a lie. maybe it's all selfish. maybe i didn't give a damn about her. maybe i just do it for the temporary high of being a good guy.
a couple nights ago i needed something to eat, so i took a walk over to subway to grab something. maybe i'd get lucky again and would score another free sandwhich. not so lucky this time. the damell sumbitches closed at seven. with a smudge of disappointment, i set off toward wendy's for something to fill my stomache. after an hour or so of them trying to swipe my aging debit card, i began my trek home with a fresh spring mix salad in my arsenal.
she was out there again that night. standing at the same parking lot exit she had been when i gave her a portrait of lincoln. standing at the same parking lot exit she has been standing at every day since i have given her a crisp five dollar bill. standing at the same parking lot exit she has been standing at every day for months. standing there. holding another sign. asking more people for money.
this time i remember what her sign said. single mother. need help to pay utilities. i didn't have any cash on me this time, so i offered her my salad. she gave me that grin and told me she and her kids had already eaten. she gave me that exact same smile she had given me months before and told me that her neighbors had treated her family to a wonderful meal. she smiled and said no thank you. i asked her for a copy of her utility bill and offered to pay it. same smile. same denile.
off in the distance, i could see a green van that she and her tattered sign had emerged from. in the drivers' seat was a man in his early to mid thirties. caucasion. small build. shaved/balding hair. he sat in the van and watched my interactions with her. creep, accomplice, or another in need? i couldn't tell.
i don't know what to think. i don't want to judge. i don't want to not help.
these people are everywhere. outside compusa, a middle-aged man holds up a sign. stranded in utah. any help would be appreciated. who doesn't feel stranded in utah? he wears a navy blue ball-cap, a while polo shirt, and jeans. he's been holding up this sign for at least six months now. stranded for this long? i drive by and think to myself get off your ass and start walking. you'd be home by now. i shouldn't judge.
my goal now is to do something i've always wanted to do, but never really had the guts to follow through with. i'm going to talk to them. find out their stories. find out who they are. find out what they are doing. victim, in need, or con-artist? the truth should come out. each story, probably just as interesting as the other.
haven't updated this things for a few days. as soon as i get settled back into school and life, posts should start flowing a little more. these last couple weeks have been full of surprises, studying, and other sorts of craziness.
