I no longer favor the death penalty

[bluestateguy]

I had an epiphany during the Troy Davis execution.

Civilized nations do not do this. And it needs to stop.

[roguevalley]

1. wlecome into the light, good soul.

[arely staircase]

2. me too - but it wasn't just troy davis it was todd willingham too (even more so, really)

i'm not sure i really oppose it in all theoretical cases - genocide, for example. i feel nothing was wrong with hanging geobels (sp?) however our current system is racist (davis) and unjust (davis and willingham) and i really don't see anyway to make it work.

[mackattack]

6. Goebbels

In German, whenever there is a vowel other than "i" the "e" goes second. Its different with the "i" so lets not worry about that. Youve seen those german words with the two dots over them, yeah? Well that its supposed to sound sorta like the vowel with an e after it....think how Boehner is pronounced, there ya go. If you ever need to type a german word that has those two dots, but you dont know how to make the dots, you can just put the dotted-vowel with an e after it.

Cheers

[arely staircase]

8. i speak english and spanish and

i've thought about trying a third language. i've actually looked over some german grammar books and found them almost as frightening as Mr. Geobbels himself. That's no slam on the language, just more of a recognition of my own shortcomings. I'll probably go the easier route and try italian or portuguese - easier because of their similarities with spanish.

[mackattack]

12. Ive been told by a friend from

Colombia that she can understand some Italian and obviously a lot of Portuguese because the languages are so similar (romance languages and all). Ive actually found some aspects of german to be similar to spanish.

The biggest is that the verbs are conjugated based on who you are talking to and if its formal or not.

They both have gender for nouns. The germans have masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, so it has 3 words for "the" (der, die, das).

One difference is that in spanish you put the adjective after the noun. In german, it goes before the noun (so its like english)

In spanish you can drop the pronoun ( just say soy instead of Yo soy). In german you have to keep the pronoun.

In german, like spanish, you pronounce every letter. That big weird looking B is the same as "ss" as in "class."

The best thing about german is this...every noun is capitalized. Easy to spot the Noun and You can fill in the Blanks based on that.

Sorry for the long lecture that has nothing to do with the thread topic. German has been for me very rewarding. I can usually read my way through spanish.... at least better than speak or hear it. I was told by some mexican people in my town that I speak spanish with an Argentinian accent (I drop my ll's altogether and make the "y" in words that start with "y" sound like a "j" spoken in english...as in, Jo soy instead of Yo soy).

Best of luck in your language pursuits!

[arely staircase]

14. knowing spanish i can pretty much figure out a lot written portuguese

but it sounds very different. italian sounds more like spanish but on paper it isn't as close as portugese. thanks for clearing up that big wierd german B. My Mexican relatives, when immitating Argentinians (usually actors), speak spanish with thick italian accents - and the unique argentine j sound.

edited to say, we are in danger of hijacking this thread. i'm going to stop now. i forgot where we were.

[Stratetalker]

3. With ya there

I gotta go with ya bud....

[Zalatix]

4. I stopped favoring the death penalty because innocent people get executed.

And there's no way to avoid doing that every now and then.

I don't want that blood on my hands.

[arely staircase]

9. yeah, that's me too nt

[NNN0LHI]

5. It was the 13 factually innocent men we found on the Illinois death row that did it for me

I seen the light.

Don

[morningfog]

7. For many it isn't easy to make that change.

I applaud you for doing so. I am an absolutist when it comes to opposition of the death penalty. I often find myself in situations where I have to defend my position. As with many things, it is easy to defend the position because it is right.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. The change comes differently for different people

Welcome to this side.

[LadyHawkAZ]

11. The Davis execution did the same to me

I'm still conflicted when it comes to cases like the Petit killers, but until we can find a way to apply it fairly and accurately it's just not worth it.

[Dawson Leery]

13. I came out against capital punishment in 2000

after hearing about the horrors that occurred on Texas' death row under the "authority" of George W. Bush

[Inspired]

15. I debated against the death penalty in 7th grade....

I wrote a paper against it in high school that my teacher used in his masters thesis. I've always been against it.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

16. Never have and never will support death penalties.

I like to believe that we can rise above that, and show that we are not as inhuman as the perpetrators may be. Contrary to what vengeful, conservative, law, order and punishment types think, spending the rest of your life in prison is not some welfare holiday-inn. If or when the gravity of the crime committed sinks in, the conscience is a brutal master.

[Ken Burch]

18. I salute your courage.

You'll get a lot of people bashing you for this-accusing you of not caring about the victims of crime.

All the people who will say that will know that it's bullshit...but they'll throw it at you anyway.

The unpopular positions are always the most important ones to take.

[Zorra]

19. Awesome! Another soul for

sanity.

[Kalidurga]

20. Life in prison is much more harsh than death...

Troy Davis was the last straw for me as well, though. I don't think they had any evidence on him to convict let alone execute. But, once accused they could never let go of a cop "killer". It would just look bad on their record of being tough on crime and all that.

[nobodyspecial]

21. Thank you for letting others know

It is OK to change their minds.

In addition to the innocent people, it is applied so unfairly. Statistics bear this out.

Also, friends and family often report they do not get the "closure" that they expected once the penalty is carried out. And the lengthy appeals process and additional court appearances keep the pain and trauma fresh.

[gopiscrap]

22. Thank you bluestateguy:

My state rep in Washington State just presented a bill to the state legislature to abolish the death penalty...good chance that it will pass!!!!

[Festivito]

23. It certainly needs a higher standard, much higher standards.

Only in cases where we cannot incarcerate and a judgement of life in forfeit.

Even then, each case needs to come with a statement that our society has failed and all monies that would have kept that criminal incarcerated go to research to hopefully find out and correct our failure to have reached him or her.

[ET Awful]

24. I've always been against the Death Penalty, but the Joe Arridy case was one that really got me

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/10/joe-arridy-receives-posthumous-pardon-73-years-after-execution/

A man with an IQ of 46, executed for murder was pardoned 73 years later.