Proportionality is worth considering when the effect of a crime is measurable. For shoplifting, you pay a relatively small fine. With repeated convict...
Or more likely, some ADA office. We inspect buildings and encourage, or force, building owners to make all sorts of changes that are just as expensive...
Psychopathy (which is the likely condition of the prisoner in the dock of your OP) isn't preventable at this point (before birth) and isn't treatable ...
What makes you think people give up their humanity by committing atrocities? The thing that makes life tragic is that it always ourselves who commit a...
In the wake of tragedy we feel all sorts of powerful emotions. It isn't "bad" to have feelings, even feelings of hatred, rage, and such. What is bad i...
Let me return the favor; this is a piece of a skit I heard on the radio a long time ago, probably before you were born. The end of times have arrived ...
Yes, I think it can safely be said that of us would feel good to see such a person subjected to the worst kinds of suffering... In the blesséd land of...
The "original intent" of the eye-for-an-eye rule was to keep vengeance proportionate. If, for instance, somebody stepped on your sore toe, you didn't ...
Not necessarily. The UK, vis a vis the EU, is in no way the equivalent of an American state vis a vis the federal government, but... The distant feder...
Yes, I agree with you here. The Christian life requires a community, (and a real community, not the larger diluted "Christiandom"). Actually, man can ...
So, at this time, what does political polling indicate would happen if the vote were held today? Which position (Stay or Exit) currently holds the bes...
By any chance, have you ever looked at a woman with carnal thoughts, possibly, just a little bit, just enough to incur divine wrath? Hmmmmm? Just the ...
Well, damned if I know. According to the Agnus Dei, the "Lamb of god, takes away the sins of the world; have mercy on us". If there was no sin, mercy ...
Jesus didn't come to eliminate sin; he came to bring salvation from sin. Sin remains, but salvation was created to conquer sin. That's the story, isn'...
Hey, the Lutheran Social Service lunch and meeting on homeless youth was quite good. They pried loose a donation I intended to not make. Anyone who co...
Repentance is an important part of this discussion, but I now have to go to a Lutheran Social Service meeting on homeless youth (my arm was twisted to...
The "bigger fish to fry" is pointed up in the terms of the Judgement in Matthew: I was hungry and you fed me, I was naked and you clothed me... I am s...
I am very grateful that I do not have to make a decision here in Minneapolis as to what you in the UK should do with respect to the EU. It is the busi...
You have used this term many times; I have in my mind several definitions of "intimate" or "intimacy". A sitting room can be "intimate" and intimacy c...
At the close of this passage, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." Presumably he had bigger fish to fry than every run of the mill sexual sin. J...
In western industrialized countries it is probably the case that gay people are no longer oppressed through legislation. Many gay people might be free...
I read about it either in the New York Times or the Guardian, and it may have been in the comments section as a personal testimony there, not a news s...
Of course Ciceronianus cares about the well being of others, in the same way that Mrs. Campbell did: Reply to a young actress who asserted that an old...
The issue is more complicated than who uses which toilet. First of all, I want to make an-always-unpopular distinction between "transgender" and "gay"...
I'm not suffering from white privilege. The trouble with “white privilege” is the same as “blackness” — it is a condition which one can do nothing to ...
Well... hmmm, drums fingers on table... Ok: right. We are trapped in our world-view, western-method-of-looking-at-the-world, and all that. We have som...
I am reading Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. t's about Dr. Ossian Sweet, a descendent slaves ...
This in the New York Times today... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9v7b6Yfhc "Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files" Kn...
I would hope not -- since your definition of "privilege"... You're not just painting with a broad brush, you're using a yard wide paint roller here, p...
You want to fix people. Fortunately we aren't code. A lot of the whining, bitching, carping, complaining, and so forth about race, gender, ethnicity, ...
Very thoughtful post. So, I'm free of white stigma on 5 of 7 counts, being a white male but single, atheist, working class, gay, and a leftist. I gues...
Interesting thing about Boston -- some people from the north side of Boston (and some of the suburbs to the north) use a glottal stop when pronouncing...
Great passage. Thank you. You might like "Original Pronunciation" more than "Received Pronunciation". I might prefer it too except that I have heard n...
Yes, it does. The Establishment, once comprising The State, The Church, The Local Wealth Elite, and The Academy. The State counts for less now. The Ch...
You're being satirical I assume, but there are people who actually mean it when they say things like this. I know of no reason to think such a strateg...
Maybe he always used DOS -- no mouse. Out of date, but.... More likely he, like a cat, "has staff". G. William Domhoff, sociologist, has spent much of...
IMHO, it is getting more and more difficult to use terms we could once deploy with confidence, like "The Establishment". If Sanders was more precise, ...
Now that Trump should have clear sailing into Port Cleveland this summer (the Republican nominating convention) the New York Times took a few inches o...
ahhh, I see. You played the race card (a spade, naturally). The reputation of the black member is largely due to selection bias on the part of photogr...
Presumably having sex with a disabled person (a gimp) is not all that different than having sex with an able-bodied person. Disabled people tend to be...
I was at a mission committee meeting tonight and the chair brought up a plea for funds for a conference about racism that needed some money to get off...
On page 2 you say you are not assuming that "morality" exists. Can "morality" (a codified system) exist without producing what is good? Maybe Adolf Hi...
How do unionized work places become non-unionized? Take Hormel's Austin, MN plant -- core of the $9 bn meat processing and food business, home of SPAM...
Anti-TTIP info here: https://stop-ttip.org/what-is-the-problem-ttip-ceta/faqs/ Elizabeth Warren on the TPP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzfxv2XQoP...
One of the biggest problems with TTIP, and treaties governing trade (NAFTA and the TPP -Trans-Pacific Partnership which is being negotiated) is that t...
Sorry you're having these experiences. People don't get 'addicted' to antidepressants, but they do get acclimated. I take a small dose daily -- been o...
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