SENSITIVE SUBJECTS AND COLOUR RATINGS.

[Em Ken]

This is as simple as.

Red= Strongly Disagree
Orange= Just Disagree
Yellow= More Disagree than Agree
Green= Neutral on the subject
Light Blue= More Agree than Disagree
Blue= Just Agree
Purple= Strongly Agree

Someone will comment on a subject, lets take Euthanasia for example, and others will reply with a colour that corresponds to their view.
Oh, added to that, a comment or reason for the colour is always nice.

RIGHT.
YOU HEARD THAT.
WELL, YOU BETTER GET STARTED NOW!
CHOP, CHOP.

And, to be completely unimaginative, why don't we with Euthanasia.

[Em Ken]

Stem cell research? Purple, the deepest you can fund. Without it the medical world would be stunted in its development. I honestly see no logical reason not to.

[XOX]

Thank you! Red as well.

[Gabrielle]

::applause::

[thad]

death penalty - quite, quite red

again, beyond "all life is sacred", even beyond the potential problems of any judicial system -- no government should have the right to take the life of one of its citizens. period.

if you volunteer for military duty, you have the choice. you know the risk of what you are engaging in. which i guess brings me to the one i'd address -- the draft/conscripted military service -- orangey red.

in most cases, if you can't find people willing to stand up for the ideals of a country, how much is it worth standing up for? and we've seen how this can be manipulated. if you haven't, go to the vietnam veterans memorial in DC. or talk to someone who was "in the shit".

the only reason i mix in a bit of anything but red is a case like World War 2. again, there were plenty of volunteers -- plenty of boys lying about their age so they could go fight before they were 18. but there are some goals where a national identity, presence, budget and intervention is necessary to make them happen.

which brings me to a second point: human space exploration -- as purple as i was red on the death penalty.

[Kenny]

When a person rapes someone, and that someone kills the fuck, I don't see any remorse for that rapist, however the government somehow fucks up that morality.

I agree. All crimes should be treated on a case by case basis; not all murderers deserve 20 to life.

As for giving prisoners the freedom to end their own lives, i'm down with that.

However i will always be against the death penalty because we will continue to execute innocent people.

[Kenny]

Fuck that. I personally feel that if anyone, for any reason, wants to end their own life, the government should supply them with a razor. But i don't expect a whole lot of people to agree with me there :-P

[Gabrielle]

Isn't the point of lifetime incarceration to take away free will? I dunno, I personally would prefer to make them rot, and especially if they would rather have the "easy way out" and be executed. I don't think the state should take that person's life, no, but since that person chose to take someone else's, I don't like the idea of them being able to choose their sentence, no matter what it is they choose.

[Gabrielle]

I put that a little poorly. I don't think they should be tortured the rest of their lives, but I don't think they should be allowed the free will to decide what goes on with said lives any longer- yeah, keep them away from the innocent citizens they have wronged, but don't go so far as to killing them for whatever they have done, and don't let them choose what happens to them overall.

I've studied Mill intensely, and I think he'd lean toward life sentencing, if only because execution is too close to eye for an eye AND because you'd be completely taking away their free will by killing them, even if they said they want you to. So I don't think he'd agree with state-funded-and-assisted suicide, especially since the person is, when you think about it, under a form of duress if they have been convicted, so they wouldn't be 100% rational (their subconscious is still there, even if they consciously appear just fine). Plus, unfortunately, whether it really IS better overall to execute them is a tough call because the statistics on costs and stuff vary from study to study- one will say it's cheaper to have them in forever, another will say it's cheaper to execute them, and I swear, a new "study" comes out every couple months, it sometimes feels like. Really, since having them locked up gets them away from other people, that's probably enough good for the whole for him. Their other-regarding behavior of taking a life would need to be prevented from recurring, but taking theirs would just be too reactionary.

Now, keep in mind my definition of "utilitarianism" comes from the originals, Bentham and especially Mill, but its meaning and application has evolved and changed since they were around. Looking at the bottom line, execution is retributionism and revenge, based on those older, original definitions. I understand how your position would be a utilitarian one, but mine is, too- just different branches and interpretations of it. That's fine, I'm cool with it. I just wanted to share with you my own perspective. I hope I haven't offended or upset you or anything like that.

[Kenny]

Why am i the only person who seems to care that we have executed innocent people? And since i'm sure someone is going to ask how many innocent people we've executed, i'll answer that now: more than 0. I personally feel that that is more than enough innocent lives taken to do away with capital punishment altogether.

[XOX]

@Kenny

Total agreement. You are not the only one who are against death penalty.

[Gabrielle]

Kenny, believe me, you aren't the only one that cares about the innocent people that have been executed, and I'm sorry you feel that way. What Karl and I were talking about was guilty people that choose to be executed, and we were trying to stay focused on that aspect of the discussion. I wasn't ignoring what you point out, it just wasn't applicable specifically there.

And this isn't like the other discussions where, say, Matt brought up reverse-racism in a discussion about racism. For the overall pro v. against capital punishment, yes, the innocents apply- but when discussing guilty people specifically, they don't.

We cool now?

[Kenny]

we're cool, it's just that i'm pretty sure that in arguments for or against capital punishment, i''m pretty sure that i'm the only person who's mentioned wrongly executed innocents. The "oh, it doesnt happen that often" mentality really pisses me off. It happens, why isn't that enough? (this isn't directed at you Gabrielle (at least not specifically))