* Posts by James Monnett

38 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2008

Ex-Verizon techie cuffed for 5,000 'chat' line calls

James Monnett

Gilbert Wham

Gilbert may I interest you in my tasercomp design, which features a built in taser with leads to the power button.

I should wanr you given the fact it pulls from a 850 wat power supply as opposed to the standard 9 volt battery there is a chance of overcharge which might include minor side effects to users such as permanant mental or physical impairment, various dysfuntions, retardation (which would be redundant in the case of users anyway) or death.

JM takes NO liability for accidental overcharges or misuse.

Mines the one with the taser and "unique" internal wiring

Russian push into Georgia could knock Nasa off ISS

James Monnett

@in general

3/4 of this board America Bashes on a daily basis. Whats bad you cant even get the things that we deserve to be bashed on. Most you then proceed to state how inferior America is, blah blah....

Wanna bash us and have us actually agree with you? Hit the points that are right instead of the ones that are because you THINK you're superior being from X.

Heres a few ideas...

Money wasted on locking people up for Marijuana

Pilots who end up on no fly lists

the idiocy of voluntary deportation programs for illegal aliens

Money we waste on foreign aid

There's plenty of things we screw up. Iraq wasn't one of them. Afghanistan wasn't one of them. The space shuttle.... arguable. Backing Georgia's territorial rights? Not one of the things we should be getting our chop's busted over. Our citizens having guns? guess what so do yours, difference is, over here it isn't JUST criminals who have them, and personally given a choice of me having one being ex military and a criminal having them as well, versus ONLY the criminal having them I think I'd rather be able to shoot back ladies and gentlemen. If you don't want to in the same situation that's your choice, allow me mine.

In short gentlemen and ladies, wanna gripe about Americans do so honestly and on the right topics. Stating half truths such as "Iraq didn't have WMD's" when it is proven fact they had significant stockpiles of nuclear and other materials for various WMD's even if they hadn't been built/enriched yet is going to piss us off, same as if I said "France makes shitty wine" it would piss off a Frenchman. Guess what though, gripe about what we do right, or atleast not wrong, and yah, we're gonna gripe about how many times we've saved Euroass and how little gratitude anyone except the British have about it or ever did have about it.

For those who wish to doubt Russia's intentions. Look to History, cause otherwise we'll ALL be repeating it.

James Monnett

A Jon Kale

Britain a superpower? Not since about 1890 or so.

Britain and France combined were stalemated against Germany in WW1, and in WW2 Britain was, frankly getting its arse bombed back into the stone age. For all the courage of the RAF (and I grant it was a HELL of a lot of courage) by the time the battle of Britain was over they had less functioning equipment than some crop dusting companies.

Point blank, the average Brit has never lacked courage, nor has Britain lacked tactically very often either, what Britain has lacked as its empire slowly dwindled is the resources in both numbers and supplies to claim superpower status. Was it not only a superpower but arguably THE power for a long time? Yes. But as the empire dwindled due to revolutions, economics, or the corruption of the East India Company it has slowly lost that status over the years.

Too bad too, cause honestly I rather would prefer to see Britain in all her glory again from that standpoint.

James Monnett

@ ac " Iraq did not have WMD's"

"period."

No they had several tons of nuclear material. Would you rather we have waited till Saddam managed to hide a centrifuge from the UN inspectors as well and built some bombs? Cause that is the only reason he could possibly have for possessing the radioactive material he had.

James Monnett

@ AC @James

"you do not know nothing "

And you sir, apparently do not know grammer. I on the other hand happen to know history and grammar both quite well.

James Monnett

@ Dalen

I'll grant the USSR occupied a large portion of the German army during WW2 ----- ONLY after Hitler invaded the USSR, until that point the USSR was PERFECTLY content to let Germany roll over everyone else.

As to Germany winning the war without the Russians? VERY possibly correct, same could be said about them winning the war without the US, or Winning the war had England fallen, no ONE country possessed the industrial might, manpower, and technology to defeat them. England lacked the industrial ability, America and Russia lacked the technology, and Russia lacked the Military leadership no thanks to Stalins constant purges of his Generals.

In fact had the Italian leadership been HALF as competent as Germany's then things would likely have been very different too. HItler spent a HUGE amount of resources covering Italian Mismanagement and blunders.

James Monnett

@RobbDunfy

We used up our good will over keeping your nation in existance?

Perhaps we should remember your nations good will is short term only next time its threatened.... by Russia in all likelihood... within 15 years if someone doesn't put them in check now.

James Monnett

@Anon Coward

Ever heard of Lend Lease? FDR pushed it through to keep the Birts alive before we officially entered the war because he KNEW congress wouldn't give him a declaration of war. Had it not been for that program, and the equipment and supplies it provided COURTESY of a US President, England would not have survived the battle of Britain, further even in normal sales Britain at the time could not have purchased, in cash, even a quarter of what they got under lend/lease.

James Monnett

@ anon coward #2

What you dont call several tons of yellow cake and other radioactive materials indicative of a WMD program? one in its early stages maybe, but the intent to develope was CLEARLY there and that WAS proven.

James Monnett

@ Chris

"Clearly a case of the US's foreign policy coming back to bite them in arse now!

How on Earth can they even consider complaining about Russia's actions when they have been trampling all over 'sovereign' countries for their own gains/agendas?!

The US really is the spoilt brat of the world..."

Dude, grow up. There is a HUGE difference between the US going into coutries where Dictators or Theocracies have KILLED THOUSANDS OF THEIR OWN CITIZENS and in Iraqs case invaded neighboring countries, to put in Democratic governments (granted yes Democracy isn't perfect either, but better than someone who uses Mustard gas on his own civilians) and Russia invading small neighboring Democratically elected governments under the guise of "peacekeepers".

Further, since English is fairly obviously a language you are very familiar with I'd remind you this "spoled brat" of a nation has very likely, in fact almost assuredly, saved your countries ass at least once, probably twice, by "trampling the rights" of another sovereign nation. Unless I miss my guess I'd say Germany would be a safe bet on the nation we trampled in that instance. Point blank, wars aren't pretty, they aren't fun, as was once said though, once war starts "war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt". That said the ONLY justification for war that weighs in historically is to end regimes such as Nazi Germany, Iraq, the Taliban, and, it must be said others which are by their very nature abusive, aggressive, and threaten the lives and freedom of their own people, and given teh opportunity their neighbors as well.

Anything else is merely Expansionism.

Which I would point out Europe is even more famous for than the US is Historically speaking.

Expansionism is not what the US has done in Iraq, or in Afghanistan. What we have done is to replace governments which were - granted - opposed to us, and were abusive of their own people, and aggressive within the limits of their abilities with their neighbors, and replaced them with fledgling democracies.

So them, big difference, open your eyes and realize it. The US may interfere in other countries affairs, true. But when we do it their citizens end up with MORE rights.. when the Russians do it their citizens end up in siberian work camps. Just ask whats left of Yugoslavia, Poland, the Ukraine.... oh wait.... their Leaders are in Georgia too, criticising the Russian INVASION for what it is, rather than hiding behind rose colored glasses that were bought by the blood of British and American fighting men (and French... umm.. wine makers) for over half a century.

NASA to brief on manned spaceship 'concerns'

James Monnett

@ AC's again (if one has the courage of their convictions why be anon?)

Yes PROPPING UP western Europe as in rescuing it from Nazi occupation, then proceeding to be the ONLY thing that stopped Russia from rolling over Western Europe in the 50's and 60's (and right up till the Soviet Union collapsed).

Our intervention in Vietnam came at the request of the French... who wanted out and couldnt get themselves out. We should have been smart enough to say no.. but helping Europeans out is a mistake we seem to just keep making.

As for me worshipping America? Wrong answer. I've lived in Europe as well (mostly England and France) and appreciate locations for what they have to offer. In the case of America its strength, freedom, and MOSTLY decent people. In England it was fun conversations at the pub and freedom (mostly) wonderful weather and rich culture. In France it was decent wine, wonderful art, HALF decent food, and women who REALLY needed to shave/bathe a bit more. Germany (at the time West Germany) had some wonderful scenery, and good natured people who from what I saw worked their asses off but knew how to relax too. Each country I have ever been to had its own charms and strengths, granted the French strength is in having the best white flags.. but its still a strength.

for the second AC....

"Stop right there, you are commenting something that you do not know,"

Assuming what someone else knows, or doesn't know is rather foolish. Historically speaking Ossetia was a part of Georgia prior to the Russian take over. They got along before the Russians as well as any two ethnic groups sharing the same country did in the middle ages, and would likely get along now without Russian immigrants, and Russian politics fanning every little flame. Yes they had their own identity, but they were part of Georgia none the less, and that dual or plural identity for citizens of the same country was quite common in Eastern and Central Europe in the Middle ages, and in MOST cases barring outside interference was worked out in one way or another. the main cases where it's BEEN a problem in recent years are former Soviet states where things never got worked out because the central government in Moscow had the power, whereas the regional governments which is where such things NEEDED to be addressed were powerLESS. Now those same regional governments are National Goverments in their own right fully and those nations more established should, barring truly horrific problems let them have the time it takes to work through things.

As for Stalin, yes he was Georgian by birth, but heart and soul he was Soviet Communist, and firmly believed in the Soviet dreams of Empire by Nature. Imperialists dont necessarily care about their home nation, so much as their dreams of empire. Further relocation programs which Stalin was notious for, continued LONG after his death and most Premiers after him weren't Georgian.

James Monnett

@Sean

You'd better get a dose of reality. Will the US fall? eventually yes, happens to all republics or democracies over time. Will it happen during your or my lifetime? Not likely. As for racist, look to Europe for that one, Europe seems to be having more issues or racism than the US the last decade or two, or have you forgotten this little thing in France a couple years ago?

As for the Chinese or Russians either one running us.... well, let me put it this way... SINCE THE US HAS SPENT THE LAST HALF CENTURY propping western Europe up... ya'll will go down with us if/when it happens. So if I were you, considering how little freedom you'll have under either regime... I would ferverently pray the US has atleast another 50 years in it.

Oh yah, btw our deficit, when you do the math for inflation and such? Over half of it comes from bailing out the French in Vietnam alone.

James Monnett
Paris Hilton

@ no name

"under the CCCP South Ossetia was an autonomous region"

An autonomous region which had previously been part of Georgia prior to the Russian take over several hundred years ago, and which, were it not for settlement programs introducing large numbers of ethnic Russians would probably still be unquestionably Georgian territory. Fact of the matter is, inserting your own people into conquered territory and then declaring it independant of the nation you took it from is still theft.

As for your remark about Kosovo TOTALLY different situation. Serbia was in a brutal civil war, not a minor territorial dispute. Further the known human rights violations in Serbia by the various factions in any given day outweigh those in Ossetia for a month at its worst. Apples and oranges... learn the difference.

As for your allusions to the US entry in Afghanistan being equivalent to the Soviet entry, bullshit.

The Soviets invaded with the intent of conquest. We attacked AFTER 9-11, when ALL INTELLIGENCE showed Bin Laden as being present in country, and even then only after extensive attempts to get the Taliban to extradite him. When you knowingly harbor someone who is known to have killed a few thousand of another nations innocent civilians you should logically expect that they are going to rain all over your theocratic little parade for it. If the Taliban had chosen to hand over Bin Laden, who is arguably one of the worst mass murderers of our generation, and who took "credit" for the 9-11 attacks then the Taliban would still be in power and Afghanistan wouldnt have been invaded.

Ally of my enemy, is also my enemy. Defacto.

As for referring to Desert Storm as equivalent to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Learn some History. Desert Storm Iraq invaded Kuwait and the US, Britain, and other countries pushed them OUT of Kuwait. Iraq itself was not occupied. Nice try, get the facts next time.

If on the other hand you meant operation Iraqi Freedom..... again you compare apples to oranges. In Iraqi Freedom yes Iraq was invaded and occupied, based on NUMEROUS violations of the ceasefire agreement it signed and UN sanctions, most of which the US was a primary party to, after Desert Storm. Iraq had established a decade of defiance to UN sanctions as well as more violations to the cease fire terms in a decade than the DMZ in Korea has seen in 5 times that long. Further, Iraq was obviously atleast attempting to reinstate its WMD research, as evidenced by the fact that several TONS of radioactive materials WERE recovered from hidden caches. This also is in defiance of agreements it had signed with both the UN and the US. Whether or not they were having SUCCESS is irrelevant, the fact they were trying alone and in possession of the key materials violates UN sanctions, and the cease fire agreement.

In short. Look up the FACTS and actually read them before drawing comparisons, it wont be so easy to completely destroy the credibility of the comparisons you draw. You want to US bash, go for it. But get the correct facts and bash us where we DESERVE it, such as the companies who have contracts in Iraq, not in military actions which were wholly justifiable.

Paris, do I need to explain it?

James Monnett

@ Nasa dropped the ball

Yep. After Columbia NASA seems to be locked into reorganization and such rather than moving forward.

James Monnett
Paris Hilton

@ the cowards

“... stop bullying the world and accept help from the Russians?”

So Russia invading a small neighboring country that only recently broke free from centuries of Russian domination = the US bullying the world? Nice Logic.

“Another attempt by the Neocon / Zionist press to trash the Russians and sideline them for political reasons.

What the hell has a South Ossetian rescue mission got to do with the space program?”

I suppose now you’ll call the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 80’s and Afghan Rescue Mission?

Paris, cause anyone who thinks Russia is NOT trying to rebuild the Soviet Union is as dumb as she is.

Boeing gets new raygun-on-a-lorry contract

James Monnett
Coat

CHEATED!!!!!!

I want a friggin truck with a laser cannon on it.....

No fair!

Mines the one with the Lasercannon mounted on the roof and NO traffic worries.....

Hasbro kills Colonel Mustard in the corporate office with the marketing ploy

James Monnett

this bites

but it was the Moderatrix, in the forums with the ban button

Someone bring back the REAL clue

COBOL thwarts California's Governator

James Monnett

ROFLMAO

Hey Governator...

I can find you and entire reitrement home full of programmers who will be happy to do the work, will cost you 12 Bn, 10 BN for me, and 2 Bn for the meds to keep them ALIVE long enough to do it........

Shouldn't take more than 4 months if we give them extra prune juice and make them skip naptime....

US Air Force halts plans to establish a Cyber Command

James Monnett

@ AC

Why bother with a cable when a few lines of code can make the server send you all it knows, and modify it any way you please, using someone ELSE's cable.

Make the otehr Sod by the hardware.

Filesharing teen gets damages reduced in ignorance claim

James Monnett
Black Helicopters

ok lets be honest

1) Did she PROBABLY realize she was doing something questionable? Yah.

2) Did she in fact break the law? Technically as long as she IMMEDIATELY moved the items to a NON shared folder, NO. Copyright law technically is only violated by the person allowing download, not the downloader. (nice little technicallity but it is true.)

3) Is the law completely screwed up? OH YES!!

Lets face it 200-750 dollars a SONG is ridiculous as a fine, the whole CD's dont cost a tenth of that. The music industry has gotten ridiculously greedy in these cases and needs to STFU.

Congress needs to make this law make some sense

Someone downloads a song illegally and you catch them? Fine they pay 3x the market value OF THAT SONG - IE 16 songs 15 dollar CD, they pay three bucks a song. They allow downloads? Fine they pay 4x market value PER COPY of per song downloaded (IE 15 songs downloaded an average of 30 times each, fines = 1800.00) this puts the weight of the problem where it belongs, on the people who allow downloads of massive libraries, not the people who download a few songs.

Black Chopper - cause after this the RIAA will be out to get me

Date bug kills VMware systems

James Monnett
Alert

testing

I doubt strongly that testing would be effective in this case.

That said.......

It is important to always test things before putting them into use on production servers. My thought has always been test it for a couple days, then hook up a couple of test computers (or a small somewhat ISOLATED segment of the network) and let (L)users brea... err test it some more. If it isn't COMPLETELY ballsed bup by a day or two of that then push it to production machines. All told a week or less from download to production or the round file bin aka file 13.

Since this has been out two weeks, that wouldn't have prevented this. I agree with other posters that claiming a test program would prevent this is at best debateable (unless you are running some REALLY protracted testing).

That said, if you have a network environment and aren't testing updates from all vendors before implementing then you are asking for trouble.

All hands, cause given the wide implementation of VMware we are all in for shit for a couple days I suspect.

iPhone apps selling like hot cakes

James Monnett
Pirate

ahhh but the apple defense

They should be sued. Is that possible? I don't know. In a decent society it should be. Nobody should have the power to remotely control my computer (these things are computers, of course), specially to destroy data, no matter the reason.----

Apple will no doubt note that jesus phone users don't actually OWN the phone, therefore since APPLE still owns the phone, atleast based on my understanding - I never buy crapple products - then they have the right to maintain it in such manner as they see fit. A nice little scam Apple has going there, and one that pretty much ensures that they can charge for "upgraded" software when they decide original versions are no longer in compliance. Of course you'll get the upgrade at a discount since you had the original version - oh wait, you dont have it anymore? Too bad, full price for you as we don't have a record of your purchase......

nice scam, jolly roger as Jobs is once again proving Priacy is alive and well in the 21st

Yes! It's Joyce McKinney, admits Joyce McKinney

James Monnett

roflmao

the title says it all

Man buys $1,000 worth of iPhone pixels by accident

James Monnett

New (cr)app(les)

Now available -----

Bouncy Bling - a bouncing image of a random jewel - $2500.00

BounceBounceBling - Bouncy not enough Bling? this one randomly shows several different jewels and bounces faster - $4000.00

the iPink - you can guess, since you'll never get it any other way - $500.00

the iPinklite - cheap version of iPink, commonly found on st.... nm - $20.00

and for thos of you who think you're uber gamers----------------------

the iSword - image of rusty short sword much like the one your character is still using at level 200

James Monnett
Jobs Horns

No sympathy

But a good laugh.

Seriously, if someone is retarded enough to spend a grad on it, and goes to a "store" to buy it, clicks buy, and then cant understand why their mortgage money is suddenly gone..... they got what they asked for (and deserved)

/wanders off to start creating a bouceybling app for the iphone to sell for 2500 a pop.

Google's $1bn AOL stake turns to dust

James Monnett

AOL

Maybe Microsoft should buy them instead of Yahoo and resurrect AOL's own search and other services......................

CERN: LHC to fire first proton-smash ray next month

James Monnett
Alien

a worse possibility

Terrible, terrible possibility! Imagine Earth catapulted to a dimension where politicians are honest, people are paid for the work they actually do and motorists are curteous and understanding with each other ......

Hmmmm. OK, so when can we flash this thing up again?!

worse yet,

What if we were transported into a alternate dimension filled with millions of Paris Hilton and Hillary Clinton Clones......................

/shudders

take your pick, dumb and vain or ugly and manipulative

Alien, cause this one is right bloody out there

BOFH: Smash + grab

James Monnett

Brilliant

Outstanding...... I only hope to someday be half as twisted.

Bravo

American man too fat for execution

James Monnett

Chris W

Obviously you don't understand mathematics, rates nor percentages.

Nevertheless I can only admire the unquestionable blind faith you have in in your beliefs.

Look a the murders in terms of percentage or population we are at the same level as or lower than a lot of European nations. We are only SLIGHTLY higher than other European nations. Keep in mind in the US one of our most cherished rights is the Second Amendment, which means that Joe Citizen can go to ye olde corner gunshoppe and buy pretty damn near anything he wants short of a machine gun. If he has a FFL he can even buy that. Most European countries dont allow citizens to own guns in anywhere near so unrestricted a manner.

More guns = more ease of idiot010110 going out and doing something stupid with a gun. Worth the price though since it also acts as a critical balance against government abuse, as the founding fathers intended.

Also keep in mind, sadly a Disproportionately LARGE percentage of murders in the US can be traced to 3 or 4 Metropolitan areas, eliminate those handful of abberations.... you get the idea.

Personally since I had finish my degree with honors in a couple weeks I really don't give a rats @$$ what you think of my math skills. But how bout a history lesson for you, Europe, which you seem to think is so great, (and which I dont have a particulaar problem, I've always enjoyed Britain especially, wonderful weather, friendly pubs, and Scotland is especially wonderful) but back to the subject of Europe in general.....

1) Would have gone to hell twice in the 20th century if not for US intervention

2) Was home to such wonderfully civilized blokes as Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Gerbels, Himmler, Lenin, Vlad Tepes, et al. I could go on for hours here, but I wont...

3) Gave the world such civilized notions as final solutions, racial cleansing, indentured service, the guillotine, gas chambers, concentration camps etc. And all when the European countries in question were much "older" as nations than the US. Come on, you have to give us a few centuries to catch up, we're only 230, most of the nations responsible for what I just mentioned were well over 500 when they gave us those wonderful things and ideas....

4) and most amusingly..... Europe is so civilized that one European country just invaded another, because that European country was enforcing its sovereign rights over its own lawful territory...

So..... whats that going to do to that precious veneer of civilization? Civilization is a process, a goal if you will, it is not something ANY nation ever has, or ever will, completely achieve.

James Monnett

Chris W

But it doesn't. You still have one of the highest murder rates outside third world countries.-----

We also have one of the largest national populations. over 250 MILLION people which is several times that of most European nations. Duh we'll have more murders. We also allow out citizens to own guns, which many countries have outlawed or curtailed a LOT more than the US has. It has its purpose, and its cost as well.

As for putting murderers to death not saving lives? Well that Murderer DEFINATELY wont kill anyone else now will they? Why dont you look up how many people are on Death Row for SINGLE murders that DONT involve children, rape, or some other factor to make the crime more heinous? I will wager you the numbers NATIONALLY dont even make it to 100. So then since we established even by your own numbers, which I suspect are inflated, that 97% of death row is guilty, and can demonstrably prove that the majority, VAST Majority of those I suspect are guilty of MULTIPLE murders, how then can you say that they wouldn't kill again? All it takes is getting out of prison for a few hours depending on how picky they are about victims.

As I, and others have said before......

If you love the murdering sods so much we'll be bloody well happy to send them to live with you....

otherwise accept that even the figure you give is a very reasonable margin of error (less than 3%) for ANY large scale undertaking be it legal, buisness, scientific, or anything else you name. Can it be better? Yah. Do I mourn the innocent? Yes. Would I gladly hold the needle myself for MOST of the killers? Yep. WOuld I gladly take the needle myself if it meant that 45 guilty bastards went with me? In a heartbeat.

James Monnett

Anonymous Coward

Insults only apply when the shoe fits IMO......

That said if the number of years is equal yes, but in the case of someone in their 20's when they are convicted, no. Death row for 10 years is NOT more expensive than housing them for 50 years. You also fail utterly to address the safety issue of the fact that no prison is escape proof and the longer someone is in prison the higher the chances become of them successfully escaping.

Those points aside.....

In most cases in which the Death penalty is invoked it is justice, plain and simple as well as the most practical means of ensuring the offense is not repeated.

I do agree after a fashion that death row costs too much.. it costs too much because the prisoners are allowed to appeal everything down to what kind of gum the arresting officer chewed that day. They should be limited to three appeals, based on pertinent facts of the case, and then executed within 1 year of the last one failing. Keeping them in prison longer than that is unfair to the families of their victims and serves no purpose whatsoever other than to cost tax payers more money. Further, even if they exhaust their appeals SHOULD (by some miracle since this is a REALLY rare occurence in Death Penalty cases) new evidence come to light that drastically changes the case, the Governor could always simply pardon them.

James Monnett

Chris W

One innocent man of HOW MANY? what percentage are innocent? .2%, MAYBE .5%? Yes Mistakes happen, they are the exception which PROVES the rule.

Phrase it this way.... when your doctor operates to remove a tumor, he is killing a living thing to let a bigger and more important living thing survive. will some healthy cells be killed in the process? Yes, EVERY time, but it is a acceptable if regreattable price to pay to saver the body as a whole.

Murderers, rapists, child molesters..... ARE a CANCER in society. They are a malignant tumor which has to be removed for the survival of the greater body. Will some innocents be wrongfully convicted? As with any crime yes, no human institution is perfect. But the VAST majority of those convicted and sentenced, especially in Death Penalty cases, have never managed to provide any evidence significant to cause doubt of their guilt.

Is the loss of even 1 innocent life tragic? Yes.

Is that tragedy an acceptable cost to protect dozens or hundreds of others? Yes.

And before you go asking if I'd pay the price, yeah, I would, and I have the blown knee and discharge to prove it .

James Monnett

How to make everybody happy....

Atleast some states do allow the condemned to choose between a few methods of execution or waive their right to appeal, and appellate courts ALWAYS have the option, in the US atleast of ordering resentencing or overturning a verdict all together. The reason they usually don't is because the death penalty is handed down relatively rarely as is, only a small percentage of those cases where it can be applied actually see it applied, therefore those are usually the truly heinous cases that likely will get the same punishment assigned by the new jury as by the first one.

If you look at the facts almost no one gets the death penalty anymore for a simple murder, in the vast majority of cases it has to be multiple (2 or more) premeditated murders, murder including rape, something along those lines. go blast joe clerk while robbing a 7-11 usually gets either a sentence in years (20-30 being fairly common) or life.

For those abroad who still want to criticise it... let me restate... these are not people who made a mistake. These are people who WILLINGLY CHOSE to kill another person either for pleasure or their own gain, more often than not they have done it more than once or they wouldn't have the death penalty. No prison ever built is 100% escape proof. As prisoners they are a CONSTANT burden on the same society they threaten. There is little to no reason to believe that if they were ever released they wouldn't, given the chance, repeat their crimes.

Yes there are RARE exceptions to those rules. There are RARE cases where someone TRULY changes for the better once in prison. These are the exception and not the rule, and since there is no foolproof way to measure someones heart then it is owed to society to ENSURE, beyond any doubt, that these violent individuals NEVER have the opportunity to repeat their offenses. The only way to be 100% sure of that is to put them down.

You can whine like little PC (self moderated) all you want. but those are facts. In the US because of the rules we follow to keep prison conditions sanitary and humane it DOES cost more to house an inmate than to send a child to a decent college each year. For people who have no respect for the lives of others this is a wholly ridiculous price to pay.

James Monnett

Sarah Bee

Rehabilitation is only possible when the individual in question WANTS to be rehabilitated. In the main, and I have some personal experience as well as a number of friends in Law Enforcement and/or Detentions the majority of violent offenders dont want rehabilitation. Note, I said the majority, there are exceptions.

For relatively minor offenses, rehabilitation is a good idea to try, for the insane, there is no solution other than attempts at treatment and incarceration. But for those who willfully, brutally attack an innocent person, ie rapists, child molesters/(severe)child abusers, and many murderers I have to say my honest opinion is that the only effective just end is to put them down.

No matter the security level of a prison escape is always possible, if highly unlikely. Long term detention is expensive and serves at best dubious purpose since many cannot be reformed, especially given the over crowding in prisons. It is safer for the public, for other inmates, and more cost effective in the case of those where there is NO reasonable doubt, to execute them, as quickly as possible.

That said I do believe that the condemned should get a choice of method, much as in a Utah man who chose firing squad. I dont believe this is a right per se, so much as an opportunity to grant one last choice to the condemned.

James Monnett
Paris Hilton

uncivilized Europeans

Such as the French who just got MAJORLY busted for assisting in genocidal activities to the tune of killing 800,000 people in a hundred days in Rwanda?

Yah the US is so much worse for executing 50-60 MURDERERS a year than the French who kill 8000 innocent people a DAY.

Fact, Murderers CHOSE to kill someone else, they took it upon themselves to end the life of someone who may or may not have ever even said a unkind word to them. They are NOT decent people, they do not belong in society, and if anyone really loves them that much then why not rent them rooms in your home, we will happily deport them (with the weapon of their choice) to your home country just for the laughs I'm sure.

Paris, cause she makes as much sense as Amnesty International

Hard 'core'? Birmingham City Council's net filtering

James Monnett
Pirate

blocking

Blocking porn, yes

Blocking EXTREME sights ie cannibalism or beastiaility yes

blocking religious sites - block all or none, anything else violates freedom of religion

blocking "offensive" sites - impractical, everyone has different things that offend them, for example Joe is right wing christian and is offended by judaism and wicca, therefore you block those sites as offensive, but wait, Joes christian site is still ok therefore you are 1) favoring 1 religion over others as a governmental body, and 2) interfering with the freedom of Jacks right to the same sort of Wiccan site as Joe visits for christian purposes.

What is or is not offensive is a personal matter. set guidelines based on realisitc expectations of workplace behavior, if you block any religious site then realistically you have to block them all, or risk a lawsuit, this is DOUBLY true of a governmental body in a nation where separation of church and state, and freedom of religion are guaranteed.

Jolly Roger, cause this one should have died ages ago

DDoS attack floors Georgia prez website

James Monnett

Response to Destroy all Monsters

Quote -- "risk a war he knows he can't win"

I'm sure there won't be war, but I would not be so sure about the "can't win".

Russia is at the fuel spigot. We are not. NATO is busy losing hearts and minds in Afghanistan, the US military is down the tubes and probably soon embroiled in its third (Iran)/fourth (Pakistan) war, the US economy is tanking bigtime already. Let's not forget that Russia is directly adjacent to Georgia and does not need Diego Garcia to do bombing runs. And they like to flatten things.

And what the hell do we care about Georgia anyway? Remember that there was an understanding that NATO would not be extended eastwards if the wall came down? And now, NATO is angling for Georgia! The question of who actually is the megalomaniacal is very open indeed." --- END QUOTE

First off the US Military is a LONG way from down the tubes. While we are heavily committed elsewhere it is within our capabilities to shift assets far more quickly that most people realize.

As for Russia being at the fuel spigot, true, but what MOST people tend to forget is that the Alaskan oil reserve alone is almost as much oil as the entire Middle east possesses, when you add in the reserves under Texas, Oklahoma, etc we are capable of EASILY pumping enough to meet our needs and then some for well over a decade and the infrastucture is in place to start that kind of production fairly quickly (it takes about 3 months to bring an old well back online with limited production, 6 to be producing at capacity and there are THOUSANDS of old wells that were capped off in the 80's in Texas alone.) The fact of the matter is we dont NEED foreign oil at all, its just more convient, and in the long term more strategically sound to use someone elses reserve than to use our own.

As for Nato expanding, MOST of the countries that have been added or are under consideration came to NATO, NATO didnt seek them out. The reason they came to NATO is BECAUSE of Putin's and Russia's resurgence in expansionist attitude. These coutries WANT freedom from Russian domination. Should we tell them no? Gee thats a great way to reinforce Russia at a time when the return of cold war is a very real possibility, GREAT PLAN that.

In response to problems in the US economy, yes economically we aren't in the best of shape atm, NO ONE outside the member states of OPEC is really and that includes Russia and China. High oil prices have hurt everyone, devaluation of the US dollar or for that matter any other MAJOR currency affects global markets.

I stand by my statement, IF it came to a war, Putin COULDN'T win. Not JUST because of the US though we would likely play a key role, but also because many former soviet satellites would jump Russia in a heartbeat, both for their own security, and also in many cases for a bit of revenge. Putin would be giving them the excuse they need and the allies they would have to have all in one fell swoop and I seriously doubt he is stupid enough to not realize it.

As for someone else blaming the resurgence in cold war politics on Bush in part, I would remind them that Bush has been very much busy elsewhere. The vast majority of THIS can be laid directly on Mr Putins power hungry little lap TYVM.

James Monnett

Putin

Are we ready to "rub up" against the bear?

In a word, yes. First off Russia is REBUILDING its Military, it is however still a LONG way from done, further it WOULDN'T just be the US in opposition if Russia decided to invade Georgia, by treaty ALL of NATO, including Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, the US, etc would be up in Russia's face. So would quite a few of the breakaway republics.

Franklly Putin represents a return to old school communism in many ways to Russia and MOST of the breakaway republics realize this and want nothing to do with him because of it.

In terms of Russia's economic recovery, remember a LARGE part of that has to do with two factors, western aid (MOSTLY the US and Britain) and the strength of the Euro. A major war in Europe against Nato would cut off that aid, and pretty much demolish the value of the Euro, atleast temporarily.

Putin is foolish, and arrogant, possibly even megamoniacal, but he isn't stupid. He'll flex muscle, bluster and bluff, but I doubt VERY seriously that he will risk a war he knows he can't win.