Matthew Perry's adorability, etc.

[coffeesnob318]

I have nothing spoilery to say about Studio 60. But it merits mention. I watch this show. I love this show. Matthew Perry is adorable. That is all.

I feel detached these days. I'm not sure that I'm fighting it. Mainly because when I don't detach, life is really intense lately. Things at work have been a little crazy. The two jobs are different kinds of crazy, but crazy nonetheless. Several friends have serious business going down, and I don't know the first thing about how to help them or even if I can. I need a vacation, but I guess if I can't take a vacation for real, I'll take one in my head to tide me over. Maybe Thanksgiving will be enough.

I'm sitting here at the front desk listening to Son of a Preacher Man, which has to be one of the sexiest songs ever. Or maybe it's just the memories associated with it.

Speaking of sexy, these boots I'm wearing? Hot. I am very much in danger of falling in deep smit with my boots. This is the first time I've worn them since last winter. I forgot how cute they are. They're just standard black knee high boots, but I love them.

My mom and dad were going to trade in her car for a newer one so that she could pay it off before she retires. Instead, they offered to trade in my car and give me hers. So I took them up on it. I love my car, but goodbye $1700 in engine trouble, hello car (which I have named Ruby) with 60,000 fewer miles, leather seats and a CD player. I've never had a CD player in my car before (I know - welcome to the 21st century already). It needs new tires (an expense I wasn't particularly counting on, but the big picture outweighs that, I guess) and an oil change pretty soon, but it uses less gas and will pass inspection next year, so I'm happy with the change.

Steph and I are getting along really well these days. That's been a blessing.

Sleeping and eating habits have been really shitty, and I didn't have time (or the energy, for that matter) to run all last week. So I'm probably going to have to start the reconditioning-of-the-recently-injured-but-finally-better-ankle process anew. That pisses me off.

I finally heard a group presentation last week on the death penalty that didn't make me want to throw things. They presented both sides of the argument respectfully with the weight that such a topic requires. That has never happened before in my class with that topic, which is why I usually ban it (well, that and I have such strong opinions on the subject that I have a hard taking the side I disagree with seriously). And they did it with one of their group members dropping out at the last minute. They are definitely my favorites right now.

I really just want to go clubbing right now. Well, not right now, but these days. Yeah.

I think I'll pour another cup of coffee and type madly in the general direction of this pesky novel(la) I'm supposed to be writing.

Comments

[gradeafan.livejournal.com]

{{hugs u}}

g

[coffeesnob.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* Thanks, friend. :)

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

welcome, Ruby! yay!


hmmmm.....is it strange that I just welcomed a car?

[wingsonwind.livejournal.com]

You! Post! Now!

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

Post!

:p

[wingsonwind.livejournal.com]

I meant in your journal about your move and if everything is OK.

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

I know :p and I even went and did it!

see, I listen.

sometimes........

[coffeesnob.livejournal.com]

No, not strange at all. I greet her all the time.

Of course, doing something that I do does not necessarily mean it isn't strange. In fact, the odds are against you here. So maybe it's strange, but I find it charming. :)

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

hee! I'm charming!

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

well, that and I have such strong opinions on the subject that I have a hard taking the side I disagree with seriously). }

Oh, fascinating. I am the opposite in that I do not have a strong opinion on the death penalty, and I'm very willing to be swayed in one direction or another by a good argument put forth reasonably. Wanna share your opinion and reasons? If not, that's okay. I understand not wanting to get into it.

[coffeesnob.livejournal.com]

I don't mind sharing it. It's not something that I usually talk about, because although a lot of my perspective is based on facts, it's based more on what I value, and if the person I'm talking to doesn't value those things, the only place to go from there is agreeing to disagree or bickering about whose values are better, which is pretty pointless. So if well-reasoned, factual arguments are what you’re looking for, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

I'll try to keep it organized. I doubt I will keep it short, though. Heh. In fact, lj won't let me post it all in one reply, so I'll have to divide it by two.

The main criteria I use for gauging how worthwhile a punishment is are these:

- Is it a deterrent for crime? Does the threat of the punishment lessen the occurrence rate of the crime?
- Does the punishment fit the crime? Does it offer justice to victims?
- Is the punishment humane? Is it a decision that a civilized society can condone?
- Does the punishment weigh positively enough on these three factors to justify the cost to taxpayers?

1. Deterrence - Capital punishment has not been proven consistently as a deterrent for murder. Sure, putting people to death definitely keeps them from killing more innocent victims, but so would life in prison. The threat of the death penalty does not lower the murder rate. In states that have instituted the death penalty after a period of not having it, the homicide rate has not necessarily decreased. In fact, in some cases, the homicide rate has increased. Now, there are many factors that could lead to this increase, but to claim deterrence, they would need to show either a decrease in most cases (which they don’t) or at least that the homicide rate per capita is lower in states with the death penalty than those without it (which it isn’t). Actually, the homicide rater per capita is consistently reported as higher in states with the death penalty than those without it, which leads me to believe that not only is it not a deterrent but could possibly lead to an increase in crime. It makes sense to me that this would be a natural consequence of sending the message that there are some lives that aren’t worth preserving.

2. Justice – on the surface, this seems like an open-and-shut case for the affirmative. If you kill, you deserve death. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I get that quote a lot in class, and historically it has been a part of many successful codes of law [tangent rant –in class, this quote is usually followed by, “I’m a Christian, and I found this in the Bible.” Never mind the fact that we have this little thing called separation of church and state, which, as much as I love the Bible, completely invalidates it as a useful source when building an argument about U.S. law. But they also fail to realize that the passage they’re quoting from is Mosaic law, which they as Christians aren’t bound to follow. In fact, that particular law is one that Jesus himself specifically denounced. Grrr…anyway…]. But just below the surface, an eye for an eye is nothing but a “they started it” defense. When I was little, if my sister got into a fight, my mom didn’t accept “she hit me first” as a justification. Two wrongs do not make a right. Being abused does not excuse abuse. I wouldn’t accept this reason from a five-year-old; why would I accept it from my government?

[coffeesnob.livejournal.com]

Justice, cont.:

Even worse, the death penalty does not provide justice for the victim’s family. Again, it seems as if it would. Many families want to see the person pay for their loved one’s life with his/her own life. I understand this desire for revenge, and I certainly don’t want to diminish their pain. But that’s exactly what the death penalty ultimately does. It gives the person who committed this crime a relatively easy out. Sure, the appeals process and the fear of dying may be emotionally draining. But once it’s done, it’s done. The debt is paid. But the anguish is far from over for the victim’s grieving family. They still have to live with the loss of their loved one. And ten or twenty years down the line, what if they decide that they want to forgive? How do you express forgiveness to a dead person? There’s no room for healing there. Victims will always remain victims. Add to that the anguish of the murderer’s family, and we have a law that, instead of providing victims comfort and closure, only produces more victims.

3. Humane – this criterion falls mostly to opinion. Personally, I find capital punishment (or killing for any reason, for that matter) barbaric. I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that most industrialized nations in the world have abolished it completely. Instead of holding government to the standard of the law, it gives the government license to act out and justify fantasies of vigilante justice. If I see a guy shoot and kill my mom, and I take it upon myself to shoot and kill him in return (no appeals process needed to determine guilt when I witness it firsthand), it would be called retaliation and I would be arrested and charged with murder. If I had accomplices, it would be called gang violence. But if the government adds in the emotional trauma of a lengthy appeals process and kills the guy, they call it justice. This seems incongruent to me.

What I find most appalling about capital punishment is that there is even the slightest possibility of the execution of innocent people. Even with our exhaustive appeals process, there have been over twenty such cases in the United States. Even one would be too many, but over twenty? Inexcusable. It would be bad enough to have to release them from prison after making such a mistake. But we can’t release them from death. How do we even begin to answer for that?

4. Cost - execution consistently costs taxpayers more than life in prison. The average cost per year of one inmate is between $16,000 and $20,000. Say the inmate lives a life sentence in prison for fifty years at $20,000 a year – that’s one million dollars that said inmate costs the state. The lowest figure I’ve read in any article for taking a prisoner through the process from incarceration to appeals to execution is two million dollars, and that was at the lower end of the range given. The most conservative estimates still leave the death penalty costing us double what life in prison would cost. It may be callous to take money into consideration at all in matters of life and death, but I can’t help thinking that, given how short capital punishment falls of my other criteria, this money might be put to better uses. Education, community development (especially in poverty-stricken or crime-laden areas), programs that equip and support parents (whether it be in education or job placement) – these things show promise of helping prevent crime in the first place. I think that that possibility makes redistributing funds at least worth a try.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a cd player till last summer when I got my new(er) car as well. It sure is nice to have when there's nothing good on the radio.

[coffeesnob.livejournal.com]

I like it a lot. I may be a hazard to the road, though. I'm going to have to learn how to change the CD more efficiently while driving or just wait until I pull over to do so.