[Jenae LaTorque]

To start off with; I agree pretty much with Robert Heinlein's quote:

"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid)."


and one of his for Bionca:

"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable."


So you do have a "mountain to climb" and what better place than here where at least some of us have some empathy with what you are saying. Yup, I am a Bionca fan now. It's gonna take some time to get it right. Look how long it took to get where we are today on the "racial thing". We are not at the top of the mountain there yet, but we, as a society, are a lot closer than we were in the 1950s. And we need our pioneers who blaze the way. It is important that we have those who stand by their convictions and inspire others to re-examine their beliefs. I realize that we have some bad apples in this category ie. Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Pat Robertson but those who endure are the ones that count. Like Jesus of Nazareth, Ghandi, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, etc. All of them had their detractors, but who remembers their names. So please Bionca, "endeavor to persevere!"

Death Penalty? Yes, for those who have shown a complete disregard for human life themselves and there is absolutely no doubt that they are guilty. The only other option I could see for such, would be to have a escape proof reservation or island where we could just toss em in and let them live, or not live, in a society of like minded folks. No justice will ever bring back a murdered person, it's not about revenge. It is what can we do to protect society from further acts by these murderers. If it is by killing them in turn, then I would say so be it. Have there been miscarriages of justice in the US where innocent people were executed. Read:

http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html

and you will see that like many other issues, misrepresentations are made by the anti death penalty people regarding the actual facts.

To SweetCharmer who doesn't believe the death Penalty "gets us anywhere", I say that at least they won't kill again. And there are many cases of released criminal offenders who commit the very same crime they were NOT rehabilitated of, including murderers.

Speaking of Crime and Punishment; I read a SciFi story once where once a criminal was convicted of a crime, a mind block was put in his brain that suppressed all upper brain activity. The convict was able to function only on a very simple level where he was able to perform some simple work that would defray the expense of his incarcaration. One month before the end of his sentance, the mind block would be removed and he would spend his last month in solitary with periodic sessions with a therapist. He would have that time to reflect on the fact that he had just lost a portion of his life that he would never have any memory of. So a man who received a ten year term at the age of 20 would be 20 years old one day, and thirty the next, at least in his memory. Think about the deterrant that would be! Thoughts anyone?