[spdrun]

That’s why I said that the sentencing judge should have some discretion. This being said, I don’t actually think that killing a cop should be considered worse than any other murder. Not until cops are routinely subjected to much higher punishments for crimes committed by them in the line of duty, which isn’t the case right now. Fair is fair.

Personally, I’d be OK with a general sentence of say 15 (25 in particularly heinous cases) to life for murder, with parole boards having discretion to decide on release depending on how the convict’s rehabilitation is going.

Death penalty should either be abolished or reserved for military, police, and government officials who misbehave flagrantly. (i.e. the cops in NM who were basically party to the repeated rape of some poor man, or people like Lt. Calley of My Lai infamy) Maybe also for convicts that murder a guard or kill during an escape attempt, but that’s about it.

[spdrun]

Speaking for myself personally, I don’t think the legal concept of “hate crimes” should exist at all. I think whatever happens (assault, mayhem, murder, etc) should be tried as the offense itself and punished appropriately, subject to a judge’s discretion. Motives are less important than actions, and the actions should be punished.

[spdrun]

Speaking for myself, I’d be opposed to any sort of affirmative action to get more gays into workplaces/schools/”certified LGBTQ-owned businesses”/whatever. However, I’m opposed to this for ALL minorities, women, etc. Let applicants stand on their merits, with some exceptions given for economic status.

If I’m a child of poor immigrants, I should be treated any better or worse if I’m Bulgarian or from Botswana, but my economic status and schools I grew up with should be taken into account when applying to university.

In short, I’m against all institutionalized discrimination, whether reverse, forward, sideways, or upside-down. I might be a universal bigot in this regard, don’t know 🙂

[spdrun]

..

[spdrun]

Although not an absolute, sunshine and pretty people to look at kind of takes the hate out of you. Name the last car-flipping riot in San Diego.

Except that L.A. has similar climate and access to pretty people, yet it had BRUTAL riots in 1968(?) and 1991.

The Katrina evacuation vs San Diego were two different cans of worms. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most of the areas affected by the bushfires were far wealthier and less densely populated than large parts of NOLA, and also SD city government isn’t nearly as corrupt and incompetent as NOLA’s.

[spdrun]

Frankly, I’m less bothered by crime, which has gone down a lot since the 80s than by intrusive and outright abusive government. (Environmental factors may be in play here — there’s an interesting study about leaded gas use and crime out there.)

In fact, I consider some crime and violence to be the price we pay for living in a free society. But if we really want to fight it, we need to fix our schools, end the stupid “war on drugs”, guarantee higher educational opportunity to all who are smart enough, etc. Wholesale abuse of civil liberties by state-employed thugs is an unacceptable solution. This goes for every government agency, from the NSA to the Podunk, Pennsylvania police force.

As far as terrorism, think about this one… A few thousand people died on 9/11, and we’ve turned our Constitution into toilet paper as a result. Yet, 8 to 10,000 people per annum are murdered with firearms in the US, and we’re unwilling to enact reasonable laws because of the “Constitution.” Tell me, where’s the fucking logic?

[spdrun]

At least the assistant chief guy owned up to it and didn’t try to protect the cops.

[spdrun]

If anything, I thought the industry was going the other way. Mercedes used to have free roadside assistance for all of their cars in the US, no matter how old. Now you have to have had a dealer appointment and spent a minimum price to be “covered.”

[spdrun]

^^^

I’d tell the cops … “I’ll certainly meet with you. In court in a few months. After my attorney has filed my lawsuit against you.”

“Have a nice day, and remember that I will press criminal charges with the D.A. if any further harassment ensues from this incident.”

And no, I wouldn’t be rude because it doesn’t pay to be rude to someone who’ll be paying you shortly. At this point, they’re basically customers, though they don’t know it yet.

[spdrun]

The reality is that homes around a high paying job center are always going to be more expensive no matter what kind of shape they are in because there’s always going to be some workaholic that’s willing to pay 50% of his/her gross to be close to work.

Why workaholic? Any sane person shouldn’t want to live more than 15-20 min from work, since time is a limited resource, and “I wish I had spent more time commuting” is said by exactly nobody as their last words.

[spdrun]

What the FUCK? $704/sf is practically NYC/Brooklyn pricing, not “suburb” pricing. Insane.

[spdrun]

^^^

I think you missed a little bit of good old fashioned sarcasm there 🙂 This being said, I was never fingerprinted for any driver’s license I’ve had (NY, NJ, PA).

[spdrun]

All I’m asking is … Does the broker in the ad have a 1970s pornstache? And how much hair gel was required to look like that?

[spdrun]

“taMper?” is that a freudian slip?

[spdrun]

I don’t try to predict the future…But I figure, if it comes to the point that I get screwed, other people will be even more screwed. So, relatively speaking, I think there would be bigger issues to worry about and I wouldn’t be the most screwed person… 🙂 With that, I don’t bother to worry about the state of the economy. I’m sure someone else will fix it…. Or maybe not….

Agreed!

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