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Kovnik Obama wrote:I can admit that it's addictive. In about the same level of addiction as caffeine.

I currently cutting down on my usage, and there are a few bad side effects. The vivid nightmares, for starters. But talking about a 'human cost' or 'ruining lives' is fething ridiculous.

I'd agree, on both counts.
Recently gave up myself, after years of smoking, at my lowest an eigth every two days - at my worst 2 or 3 ounces a week. I still have friends who can't really function without it, but refuse to acknowledge this. I also started again after losing my job - and blew most of my last paycheque on it. I think I'm good now.
So yeah - it's not harmless by any means, but it sure as hell isn't heroin or cocaine - or alcohol.

azazel the cat wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Start real life Gladiators fight in the coliseum. GLORY FOR ROME!!!

One of the surest signs of a decaying society is when its criminal justice system becomes its entertainment.

Agreed...but public executions are not entertainment. They are examples.

Testify wrote:
That's pretty cool man. Always nice to hear some personal family history.
But anyway - sounds more like a political prisoner than a criminal to me, so I think my point still stands.

I'll agree with you, since it's true that it wasn't exactly heinous crimes, although at the time most english-canadian thought he was an insane psychopath (Riel's lawyer told him that he should try the insanity plea. Riel's answer was pretty awesome : ''Life, without the dignity of reason, isn't worth living'')

My ancestor was pretty psycho, tho. He was the one who pressured for Thomas Scotts execution, and when the dude survived the firing squad, he personnaly put a bullet in his face. Seeing as Scott survived that one too, he then dragged him to his prepared coffin, encased him, and then buried him alive and screaming. Knowing Scott for the utter donkey-cave he was, I think it's pretty badass of him.

Speak for yourself.

Yeah, some users definitly go overboard in ways I never could. Still, I think it's more common for cigarette users to goe through 2 packs a day then for pot smokers to go through 24 joints a day (God would that put me in a coma )

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Testify wrote:
That's pretty cool man. Always nice to hear some personal family history.
But anyway - sounds more like a political prisoner than a criminal to me, so I think my point still stands.

I'll agree with you, since it's true that it wasn't exactly heinous crimes, although at the time most english-canadian thought he was an insane psychopath (Riel's lawyer told him that he should try the insanity plea. Riel's answer was pretty awesome : ''Life, without the dignity of reason, isn't worth living'')

My ancestor was pretty psycho, tho. He was the one who pressured for Thomas Scotts execution, and when the dude survived the firing squad, he personnaly put a bullet in his face. Seeing as Scott survived that one too, he then dragged him to his prepared coffin, encased him, and then buried him alive and screaming. Knowing Scott for the utter donkey-cave he was, I think it's pretty badass of him.

You had my symapathy until I googled him - turns out he's an Orangeman

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Speak for yourself.

Yeah, some users definitly go overboard in ways I never could. Still, I think it's more common for cigarette users to goe through 2 packs a day then for pot smokers to go through 24 joints a day (God would that put me in a coma )

Day 1 - smoke until you make yourself comatose and sick
Day 2 - do the same
Carry on about about 7-10 days.
After that, your resistance is gone - you can basically smoke an infinite amount without being sick or going comatose.
Depressing thing is, I found this out when I should have been in lectures. Shockingly, I failed



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Tadashi wrote:

azazel the cat wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Start real life Gladiators fight in the coliseum. GLORY FOR ROME!!!

One of the surest signs of a decaying society is when its criminal justice system becomes its entertainment.

Agreed...but public executions are not entertainment. They are examples.

Show someone being killed in public, and they will enjoy it. People like blood. Public executions feed that urge. Much as I disagree with capital punishment, in the USA (and in most countries actually) at least it's carried out in private.

azazel the cat wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Start real life Gladiators fight in the coliseum. GLORY FOR ROME!!!

One of the surest signs of a decaying society is when its criminal justice system becomes its entertainment.

What about when all their entertainers end up in the criminal justice system

Testify wrote:
Show someone being killed in public, and they will enjoy it. People like blood. Public executions feed that urge. Much as I disagree with capital punishment, in the USA (and in most countries actually) at least it's carried out in private.

Not if you announce their crimes first...

Testify wrote:You had my symapathy until I googled him - turns out he's an Orangeman

Thomas Scott was an Orangist. My ancestor was the one who executed him. His name was Ambroise-Dydime Lépine. Or are people sympathetic to Orangist, now? Humm.. Oranges...

Tadashi wrote:

Testify wrote:
Show someone being killed in public, and they will enjoy it. People like blood. Public executions feed that urge. Much as I disagree with capital punishment, in the USA (and in most countries actually) at least it's carried out in private.

Not if you announce their crimes first...

No. Violence is violence. The Romans used it to pacify people - we in more civilised times try to repress that instinct.
Fun fact - the same thing that makes people watch murderers be executed, is the same instinct that made them kill in the first place. We're better than that - you're better than that.

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Testify wrote:You had my symapathy until I googled him - turns out he's an Orangeman

Thomas Scott was an Orangist. My ancestor was the one who executed him. His name was Ambroise-Dydime Lépine. Or are people sympathetic to Orangist, now? Humm.. Oranges...

Then I may have understood - I am completely hammered. I hate Orangemen

Testify wrote:Day 1 - smoke until you make yourself comatose and sick
Day 2 - do the same
Carry on about about 7-10 days.
After that, your resistance is gone - you can basically smoke an infinite amount without being sick or going comatose.
Depressing thing is, I found this out when I should have been in lectures. Shockingly, I failed

I'm happy I always remained a lightweight, even tho my usage was pretty constant. Oh and I went through my Law certificate completely hazed, just don't do that during the exams.

Now if the damn nightmares could just feth off, I'd be happy. Last night I killed an entire village with a pitchfork. And there wasn't any detail missing ; HD quality, surround sound, the works. Wasn't fun.


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Testify wrote:
Then I may have understood - I am completely hammered. I hate Orangemen

They seem pretty hateful. Wasn't there a story about a stoning of school kids a few years ago. Or was that the Catholics... Growing up, Northern Ireland seems a bit fethed up to me...

Testify wrote:

Tadashi wrote:

Testify wrote:
Show someone being killed in public, and they will enjoy it. People like blood. Public executions feed that urge. Much as I disagree with capital punishment, in the USA (and in most countries actually) at least it's carried out in private.

Not if you announce their crimes first...

No. Violence is violence. The Romans used it to pacify people - we in more civilised times try to repress that instinct.
Fun fact - the same thing that makes people watch murderers be executed, is the same instinct that made them kill in the first place. We're better than that - you're better than that.

It certainly seems a lot better than wasting tax money on the dregs of society.

Seems to be working in the middle east...beheading...losing a hand....caning...few stoning...and its 2012

Rehabilitating those who can be and ostracising those who can't seems like a waste of money? Making a better society is a waste of money?

Yeah, file that under Tadashi's droppings of pure wisdom.

Jihadin wrote:Seems to be working in the middle east...beheading...losing a hand....caning...few stoning...and its 2012

Yeah...and they hang people in Japan too. Not to mention gas chambers and electric chairs in a few states.

Kovnik Obama wrote:Rehabilitating those who can be and ostracising those who can't seems like a waste of money? Making a better society is a waste of money?

Yeah, file that under Tadashi's droppings of pure wisdom.

The stability of a state depends on harsh punishment.

Jihadin wrote:Seems to be working in the middle east...beheading...losing a hand....caning...few stoning...and its 2012

I would venture that those middle-east countries your refering to are at about the same social developpment level as we were 2500 years ago, and would be rather much more violent then ours.

Modernity isn't proportionnaly distributed across the world.

Oh, but wait, that's gonna be interpreted as Western elitism. Oh but wait, the West IS the elite.


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Tadashi wrote:
The stability of a state depends on harsh punishment.

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

Tadashi wrote:
It certainly seems a lot better than wasting tax money on the dregs of society.

A modern capitalist society is incredibly good at generating wealth. If you are not prepared to expand some of that in order to preserve the life of a human being, then I don't want to live in the same society as you.

Kovnik Obama wrote:
I'm happy I always remained a lightweight, even tho my usage was pretty constant. Oh and I went through my Law certificate completely hazed, just don't do that during the exams.

Now if the damn nightmares could just feth off, I'd be happy. Last night I killed an entire village with a pitchfork. And there wasn't any detail missing ; HD quality, surround sound, the works. Wasn't fun.

Yeah I have plenty of friends who've succeeded while smoking lots of weed...I just like to blame my own lack of success on it

I'm guessing that you're a young man of a certain age. Violent thoughts/impulses are a part of growing up. Has less to do with weed and more to do with being, fundamentally, an animal.

Kovnik Obama wrote:
They seem pretty hateful. Wasn't there a story about a stoning of school kids a few years ago. Or was that the Catholics... Growing up, Northern Ireland seems a bit fethed up to me...

Nope, that was them. Throwing rocks at schoolkids.

Saudi beheading a drifter....another one got life and 3K worth of the cane...Pretty modern there. Execution is determined by the culture. Who are we to judge Might be barbaric to us but then its not to them

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

A vast military and information control are the keys to suppressing 'anti-government' forces. As long as the public has no problems to complain about, you have order, stability, and peace.

Tadashi wrote:

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

A vast military and information control are the keys to suppressing 'anti-government' forces. As long as the public has no problems to complain about, you have order, stability, and peace.

Or, you know...a democratic state of government that's capable of responding to the wishes and changing attitudes of citizens.

Testify wrote:

Tadashi wrote:

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

A vast military and information control are the keys to suppressing 'anti-government' forces. As long as the public has no problems to complain about, you have order, stability, and peace.

Or, you know...a democratic state of government that's capable of responding to the wishes and changing attitudes of citizens.

Except it would take longer to get anything done. With a vast military and information control, you don't need to negotiate. 'Suppression', orbital weaponry, garrisons and provisional governments, deportation of subversives to space colonies, we could unite the world in a matter of years as opposed to a century.

And its not like the UN/Federation/World Parliament/Congress wasn't democratically elected. Granted, it would be dominated by the 'sponsor nations' and their allies, but hey, its for a good cause.

Tadashi...you related to BaronVeigh?

Tadashi wrote:

Testify wrote:

Tadashi wrote:

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

A vast military and information control are the keys to suppressing 'anti-government' forces. As long as the public has no problems to complain about, you have order, stability, and peace.

Or, you know...a democratic state of government that's capable of responding to the wishes and changing attitudes of citizens.

Except it would take longer to get anything done. With a vast military and information control, you don't need to negotiate. 'Suppression', orbital weaponry, garrisons and provisional governments, deportation of subversives to space colonies, we could unite the world in a matter of years as opposed to a century.

The West threw in their lot with democracy 2,500 years ago (deliberate pun). Bit late to turn back now

Ask presidant Assad how well suppression works. Or Gadaffi. Or Mubarak. See my point?

Jihadin wrote:Tadashi...you related to BaronVeigh?

Who's that?

Testify wrote:

Ask presidant Assad how well suppression works. Or Gadaffi. Or Mubarak. See my point?

They didn't have information control...when I mean control, I mean CONTROL. The media always puts the government in a good light (even heavy casualties result in a complete government victory), supercomputers filter the networks for subversive information, and so on...

Testify wrote:
I'm guessing that you're a young man of a certain age. Violent thoughts/impulses are a part of growing up. Has less to do with weed and more to do with being, fundamentally, an animal.

Nah, I'm closer to 30 now. Well that's still young . And yeah, the impulse might be natural, but the vividity of the dreams aren't. And it always become like this when I stop smoking before going to bed. Weed represses my dreams, and then it goes in overdrive when I don't smoke. And it's always fething nightmares. The other night I was a journalist (a chick too... ) who had agreed at getting tortured if she could interview the mad doctor that was cutting her/me apart. I dreamed the sound and smell of the saw going through my bones...

Nope, that was them. Throwing rocks at schoolkids.

Fuuuuu... That brings the RAGE! to a critical mass...


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Jihadin wrote:Saudi beheading a drifter....another one got life and 3K worth of the cane...Pretty modern there. Execution is determined by the culture. Who are we to judge Might be barbaric to us but then its not to them

Yeah, but cultural relativism stops being relevent when you realise the principle behind Humanism isn't the product of a culture, but a constant trend amongst nations that aren't ultra-traditionnal or totalitarian.

Kovnik Obama wrote: The other night I was a journalist (a chick too... ) who had agreed at getting tortured if she could interview the mad doctor that was cutting her/me apart. I dreamed the sound and smell of the saw going through my bones...

I feel sick...

Tadashi wrote:
They didn't have information control...when I mean control, I mean CONTROL. The media always puts the government in a good light (even heavy casualties result in a complete government victory), supercomputers filter the networks for subversive information, and so on...

Sad to see your still a fascist... :

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Tadashi wrote:
They didn't have information control...when I mean control, I mean CONTROL. The media always puts the government in a good light (even heavy casualties result in a complete government victory), supercomputers filter the networks for subversive information, and so on...

Sad to see your still a fascist... :

Its for the greater good...no pun intended.

Jihadin wrote:Saudi beheading a drifter....another one got life and 3K worth of the cane...Pretty modern there. Execution is determined by the culture. Who are we to judge Might be barbaric to us but then its not to them

Oh and let me just add, execution isn't absolutely wrong. For the sake of ideal integrity humanists and liberals tend to think it is, but there's a good argument for social self-defense, in some cases.

Public execution, on the other hand, that's simply backwards. That assumes that adults need a constant reminder of the horrifying consequences of crimes, when, honestly, a good education and a good upbringing will usually settle that early. And there are downside to being constantly exposed to gore.

Kovnik Obama wrote:And there are downside to being constantly exposed to gore.

... the amount of clothes I have to burn to destroy the eviden... erm... carry on!

And there are downside to being constantly exposed to gore.

That you become desentized to the sight and accept as a normal everyday sight

Tadashi wrote:

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Yeah, and Norway is in such a state of constant chaos.

A vast military and information control are the keys to suppressing 'anti-government' forces. As long as the public has no problems to complain about, you have order, stability, and peace.

Canada always as stuff to complain about, yet when it comes the time where another nation would attempt to assassinate it's leaders, we merely hit ours with pies. Yet somehow, we manage to not descend into anarchy, despite the lack of military control or fascist regimes

Tadashi, your freshman views on fascism betray your adolescence. I would recommend reading some Hobbes while listening to Woody Guthrie.