OK, OK, I'm back, folks, calm down, and let me set the record straight.

First, this is quite possibly the most asinine thread ever created, and is of especially low quality for an attack thread because of the considerable (and unjustifiable) stretch that was made between two entirely disparate subjects in a failed effort to make me look like a hypocrite and you look like a profound debater. In the end, you have succeded where I almost never do: in making me look good.

Second, neither I nor most Republicans base all of their political beliefs on economics.

Third, my responses:

I don't particularly care to fund student athletics or a whole lot of student programs, it is true. At the same time, I don't make a huge fuss about them, because my opposition isn't a big deal to me. I occasionally don't like paying for these programs because I don't really think that they're doing much for me. I've never drawn a tangible benefit from our having a cross country team and I sometimes have a hard time grasping that it benefits society as a whole much, either. Seems the only people who benefit are the people on the team and the staff employed to support them. Perhaps the benefit is there and I just don't see it; again, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the subject, which is one of the myriad ways it differs from the death penalty.

The reasons I support the death penalty are, first of all, almost entirely divorced from questions of economics. Eliminating murderers does have tangible benefits for me, and society namely making sure that people who are liable to do so can't get out of jail and then rape/murder/rob me or someone I love or kind of know or that are, at least, functioning, non-murdering members of society.

Quote :

"He also made it clear that, regardless of the cost, he thinks society needs the death penalty. "

Here you try to make it sound like I would support the death penalty if it cost a gajillion dollars per execution, and that's just not true.

Quote :

"As far as the benefits of the death penalty go, I don't see them."

Well, since apparently our ability to see the benefits of things comes from "expanding your mind," I guess you'd better get to work.

Quote :

"What's the difference between killing someone and locking them away forever? "

If you kill them, there's a 0% chance they will ever do anything bad again.

If you lock them away "forever," that is not the case.

Quote :

"That's why God invented life without parole. "

God may have invented it, but man has been consistently not actually enforcing the "life without parole" part.

12/25/2005 1:39:43 AM

Yeah, well, your mama.

12/25/2005 2:06:10 AM

Quote :

"Okay, folks, a man is willing to support the death penalty with his taxes but not student athletics."

MAYBE BECAUSE HE DIDN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT PAYING TAXES FOR STUDENT ATHLETICS. thats why its the fallacy of composition, you fucktard. you can't draw the inference because one is STUDENT FEES, the other is TAXES. god damnit you are the stupidest fucking piece of shit EVER to hit the soap box. and yes, I am including myself and salisburyboy.

you don't need to expand your mind. you just need to fucking think

12/25/2005 9:09:44 PM

While her thinking is fallacious, she has come to the right conclusion here: I'm not usually in favor of my taxpayer dollars (meager though they are) supporting sports. I figure that if people want to watch sports and have teams they'll bloody well pay for them on their own. I have this suspicion that without various government funds the salaries paid to certain individuals would not be so ludicrous.

There are exceptions. Some sports expenditures have other purposes -- convention centers and the like. Or, if you can convince me that an investment will actually produce a return for the government (meaning it has to take less from me in the long run), that might also be fine.

12/25/2005 10:18:37 PM