mad4u689

And even if you talk about socioeconomic differences in incidences of the death penalty, I think you can point to that as a flaw of having the death penalty without saying capitalism is stupid. Because although differences in lawyer's abilities makes sense (and they should get paid larger sums of money based on their better abilities), when someone's life is on the line, that changes the picture - then, you need the best lawyer you can get, and that DOESN'T happen. The aim of the judicial system is never to punish poorer people more than well-off people, but that happens anyway. But when you apply that to the death penalty, where there's no chance of getting any of your life back, it just... changes things. Without undermining capitalism entirely.

New York is "real" pizza. However, I like frozen junky pizzas and deep-dish styles better often. But New York still has the only real pizza :P

One might argue that there is a difference between murder and killing. For instance, in war, I hardly see the countries at war seeing the deaths as murders, but as killings? Not too sure, but the definition of such things, could make a difference about whether or not " 'murder' is wrong" (which is ironic coming from you :P). I think that killing in war is also murder, but I have rather extreme views, which is why I choose to approach the problems with the death penalty from more practical perspectives, especially since being something of a relativist, other people's moral systems are perfectly valid for themselves as well :P If someone came after you with a gun and was going to kill your whole family, and you could only stop them by killing them would you do it or would you let your family die? Like I said earlier, when the lives of other individuals are at stake, the situation changes (that gets into passive and active killing)

One might argue that there is a difference between murder and killing. For instance, in war, I hardly see the countries at war seeing the deaths as murders, but as killings? Not too sure, but the definition of such things, could make a difference about whether or not " 'murder' is wrong" (which is ironic coming from you :P). I think that killing in war is also murder, but I have rather extreme views, which is why I choose to approach the problems with the death penalty from more practical perspectives, especially since being something of a relativist, other people's moral systems are perfectly valid for themselves as well :P

FYI, Weird weird weird :| I met my boyfriend over Runescape... and that worked out fine :D And a fourteen year old boy might want to have sex, but probably not with a 38-year-old. It's still technically statuatory rape.

I'm a hardcore relativist; everything only exists in our perception of it, deep down, in the end. We just need to act like that's not the case. There is no real "evil." People are not good or evil. It's not like there's "some good" and "some evil" in everyone - they're born as a baby with certain genetic predispositions and then environmental factors change them. That means that no one starts out evil, and in a sense, everyone starts out somewhat innocent. There are things people do that can be percieved as morally wrong and thus evil (ie. Hitler) but that doesn't mean he himself is a person of pure evil; he's still a human being with feelings somewhere deep down there, and was merely corrupted over time. Each person may have their own (entirely correct) system of morals, but I may disagree with your system of morals and subsequently dismiss you as stupid and/or barbaric.

Alright, the death penalty is something I care deeply about, and am currently working to change. (Hopefully we can get the death penalty to be abolished in Connecticut within a few years :D) I am certain ly AGAINST the death penalty and FOR abolition of the death penalty. Moral Issues Murder is wrong. Murder (and treason) are the highest offenses possible in our state meaning most civilized countries) and recieve the most severe punishments within our judicial system. If killing people is so wrong, then why does the state find it necessary to continue the cycle of murder by LEGALLY murdering its own citizens? The counterargument is, of course, that the state assumes powers that cannot be trusted to the individual (ie. vigilante justice). However, in my system of morals, murder of another human being should never be tolerated (unless there are lives of other human beings at stake, but that's a separate issue, because if you look at records, prisoners do not tend to escape from prison.) HOWEVER, moral systems of people differ; thus, this is not the best way to attack the system of the death penalty. Economic Issues A great deal of studies conducted in MANY different states (Tennessee, Kansas, Indiana, North Carolia, Florida, California, Texas) (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article ... rom%20DPIC which has links to individual state reports) find that the costs of having the death penalty are extremely high. "Florida would save $51 million each year by punishing all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole, according to estimates by the Palm Beach Post. Based on the 44 executions Florida has carried out since 1976, that amounts to an approximate cost of $24 million for each execution." This translates to over a billion dollars the US government could have saved since 1976 by NOT having the death penalty as an option. These sobering statistics are even scarier if you consider states like Connecticut, which has only had one execution in the past forty years, but still maintains that high cost of keeping the death penalty open. Overall, this means that taxpayers are paying a LOT of money for executions that never occur - money that could be going to education, etc! Popular misconception holds that it's cheaper to execute someone than to put them in jail for life; this simply isn't true, because you can't only look at the cost of using an electric chair and the cost of food for life. The great bulk of costs are accumulated at trial level... and you can't just knock out the trial level, because we have a little something called the judicial system that does its best to make sure someone is guilty before punishing them for a crime they may not have committed. Which brings me to my next point... What about the innocent ones? There have been 21 people sentenced to death row and later exonerated before they were executed. I met one of these men a couple of weeks ago, and his story was sobering - the government offered him no compensation for the 21 years of his life spent locked up for a crime he did not commit. With new technologies, new evidence is always coming in and should always be up for review in old cases. If someone is executed, there's no turning back. In most cases, it's impossible to be entirely sure of guilt - most evidence is witness testimony (very faulty due to false memories; take intro psych) and other irreliable data. Prosecutional and police misconduct is more rampant than we'd like to think. While this isn't reason to overthrow our judicial system, it IS reason to not throw away a case with no chance of ever reviewing evidence. "Unfair" by class and race? 80% of the victims of crimes that land people on death row are white. 42% of the people currently on death row are black, and another 10% Hispanic. This is clearly disproportionate fr om the overall population. Yes, this also suggests that there may be class differences - from a sociological perspective, many blacks and hispanics are not as well-off monetarily as whites. When people can't afford good lawyers, the court appoints lawyers to them - often incompetent and not invested in the case for their own profit. This results in overwhelming unfairness in the proportion of blacks to whites being executed, especially compared to overall proportions in prison overall. Juries and judges are often subconsciously motivated by prejudice. Overall Consensus Whether or not the death penalty is objectively morally wrong, it is clearly impractical in modern society. All developed countries in the western world have abolished the death penalty except for the United States - we stand among undeveloped countries often with dictatorships. It's time to let modernity help us improve and finally abolish the death penalty.

I'm currently attending college AKA uni (Wesleyan University, amazing school :D). After I graduate with a degree in mathematics, I hope to teach for two years in a public school in New York with one of those "Math for America" programs, get a master's degree in education, and be a math teacher. Then I'll marry a wonderful husband at around age 25 and we'll have kids and then we'll move to an island where he'll do whatever he does, and I'll teach the underpriveleged children and then go relax and grade papers on the gorgeous beach while my kids play in the sand. Ah, what a life... (I'm half joking... I think... we'll see :P)

At my high school, there were also awards with small scholarships given out at graduation. I was one of the best math students and probably the best girl in my grade, but I suppose that's debatable... I participated in lots of math competitions and such. And then one of my good friends, who was higher in class rank than I was but not as good in math, got the department award. I was irrationally angry at her (she didn't choose it) and jealous and it made me sad. She also got a large scholarship for people intending to major in French that she applied for. She in no way intended to major in French >.> Sigh, whatever. So yeah, to answer your question, I get easily jealous. I'm a pretty shy and socially awkward chick, so when I see supersmart and bubbly people, even if they're friends of mine, I still can't help but get jealous.

Gross: 99 wpm accuracy: 96% Net: 96 wpm ew :( I thought I was faster :( I blame hard words >.> Because clearly it can't be me :D Also, I blame being on a stupid laptop keyboard. Edit: I felt bad so I took a different one, the Finland one, again and did a bit better. 108 wpm with 99 percent accuracy :D

Oh man, Matt, I forgot to warn you that today was Black Friday and that being in New York City for black friday means you have the best shopping experience at your disposal. People wake up at 4 am to get to stores before they open and it's cute. Hope you enjoyed :D

Tomato -.- No, seriously, people who are telling you to find new friends don't mean it. They wouldn't find new friends. They'd work it out in SOME manner (or at least push what happened under the table) instead of trying to find a new social circle. Punching and violence? Not cool, and sure as hell not going to solve anything. Clearly that would just make tensions worse. And hey... try going after the girl. If you ask her out and she says yes, that shows them... :P

*gives Your Mother a big super squeezy hug :D*

First things first: *big tight hug!!* Now, I know how that feels - just randomly crying all the time. Friend problems can often get you down, especially when you're young like us and rely on friendship for a lot of your fun, self-esteem, and support. Don't feel bad if you're a bit of a nerd - we're on tip.it forums, we all are, and you can be a nerd and still have a happy life, and even a hot girlfriend. (I'm a girl, perhaps not a hot one, and I totally go for nerdy guys! Well, one in particular right now, but yknow) I actually agree with the advice other people gave - are there any clubs at your school that you've never gotten involved in, that you might like to? It's awkward at first when you don't know anyone, but it's really a great way to meet people with similar interests and have fun doing something you enjoy. It also sounds to me like you might be imaging some of the things going on with these friends of yours. Are you sure this friend told people about the girl you like? And are you sure that they think that's pathetic? And that they are ignoring you because of it? You dont' know any of that, and it doesn't seem that likely to me. But if they are ignoring you, that's a really immature and middle school thing to do, so don't let that get to you. Finally: *another big tight hug!*

GEEKS OF THE WORLD UNITE! 8) There's a movie theatre about 3 blocks away from my 2700 student uni... at the midnight showing last night, there were four screens showing that and there were 100-200 students from my school there :D I had a 9 am class the next day :D I love how geeky my school is. Keep in mind, that's just the freaking midnight showing :|

Yeah, saw it at midnight last night - it surprisingly had some beautifully shot and directed scenes. However, I agree that a lot of it wouldn't have made sense without having read the book (Barty Crouch's death, for example??) Fred and George totally made the movie, however. :D

As a girl, here's my advice: Listen to her. You've let her know how you feel, and now the ball's in her court. If she's not comfortable being more than friends for now, don't pressure her. Just be a good friend and try not to always be looking for something more... and maybe she'll change her mind! But definitely, if she made a decision and gave it to you, don't try to change it. It might only make her resentful.

Daan :D Hook is one of my favourite movies of all time. It makes me cry each time I see it - it was the favourite movie of my childhood, and the whole movie is about forgetting who you were as a child and the loss of innocence, and so when I see it, that message just really hits me double... For a kid's movie, it's so well-done.

I'm Madeline '09 at Wesleyan University :D

I just saw Mysterious Skin last night, and it was literally the most well-done film I've ever seen. It's done by an independent label so it hasn't had that much publicity, but the filmmaking was ridiculous and amazing, though the content was slightly disturbing.

15-19 I play video games, and I believe in peace and love and lots and lots of hugs.

It is a "my space" sort of idea, but with FAR BETTER web design. It's also much more secure - you can't view profiles of people who aren't at your school or already confirmed as your friends, and you can only get in with an official school e-mail address. It's also only for college students, primarily at American schools, though some others have recently been included as well. It's not a blogging tool, but rather a medium through which students can look up useful information about others - like phone number and campus address and whether or not they're single and whether or not they are interested in your gender or not ;). It is used primarily intra-school, not to network with as many people as possible from the outside, unlike myspace and many other similar sites. It's also extremely popular among American college students. In my freshman class of 717 students, there are 670 facebook accounts. This seems like a ridiculously high percentage to me.

Hehe :D!!! *HUGS!! :D :D :D*

I hate to brag but this is all being written withn my ???????????(Jewish)? nose and tongue..,,. shifts included! n ow wijth m y mip;p;.,le

These are really interesting :D I just did the first three, and I think I got them, and now I'm posting, and then I'll do the next ones :D