Gyroscopic Investing

Mountaineer wrote: On a third level, I really wonder if it is more humane to kill than to lock them up and throw away the key - that way, there would always be time for the convicted to repent and not lose his life eternally.

I can't comment on the 'eternally'/afterlife part, but I think in some cases being on death row for decades must be worse than just getting the execution over with on day one like they do with drug dealers in China.

I realize that costs society more than the killing

It depends. Appeals can be very expensive on both sides.

Desert: it's off-topic here, but maybe we could have a thread on how you found religion. I'd be interested to hear how and when (at what point in your life) it came about. If you're interested.
Cheers.

Desert wrote: On one hand, I'm pretty embarrassed to share my life story, because it's kind of weird and non-typical

I would be very surprised if that didn't describe most of us nutrition-obsessed polite-religion-discussing beans-and-bullets-hoarding libertarian-leaning permanent-portfolio-investing weirdos.

My story's pretty damn boring, Desert. Aside from the fact that I spent many years overseas teaching English, I've got a pleasant life and a vivid imagination but nothing that would make a broadway play.  Well, the imagination might, but the life would not.  No Presidential Medal of Freedom, nor any scandals.

moda0306 wrote: So I really DO care what you think... cuz what YOU think aligns with those who vote yahoos into office that won't allow a change of policy towards end-of life decisions.  And these yahoos, IMO, are "gullible" followers of organized religion... usually the one their parents picked for them... or in some cases (Barack Obama), the one they thought would help their political/economic career.

Those yahoos don't live in reality with the consequences of their religious mysticism beliefs, like the yahoo that said women can't get pregnant if they are raped.  I mean, what do you expect from yahoos that engage in the cognitive bias of appealing to authority?  They wash their hands of any critical thinking.  It's a position of weakness and weakness corrupts absolutely.

Anyway, time for a dose of reality: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-death/

Oh my! So very very sad.

Desert wrote:This is a very old thread, but I didn't want to start a new one. I hate discussing this topic, because it's terribly depressing. But it's probably the most important moral issue of our time, so it deserves discussion...

Abortion is the great moral issue of our age, in the same way that slavery was in the 19th century. And the similarities are stark. In both instances you have one group of people trying to strip another group of people of their basic identity as human beings in order to reduce them to the status of property, that can then be disposed of in whatever manner is convenient to the owner. I believe that with the general acceptance of prenatal infanticide on an industrial scale, even to the point of elevating it to the status of a "human right," that we have crossed over into a new Dark Age. An era of barbarism that would make the ancient Roman's and their fondness for blood sports seem quite civilized by comparison. I know there are a lot of folks on this forum who don't believe in God. And at times I almost hope they are right. Because if there is a God, one has to wonder how much more of this He is going to put up with before dropping the hammer. I note that in Britain today there is a hospital that together with the courts are trying desperately to kill a small boy against the wishes of his parents. It's as if the entire world has gone mad, or alternatively been given over to demonic possession.

The world desperately needs a moral reawakening and a revived abolitionist movement.