TexasCHLforum.com

Kythas wrote:Wow. This topic is still active?

Update: She is no longer my girlfriend. There were other incompatibility issues. I think the fact she was 25 and I'm 39 may have something to do with them.

Man, some guys get all the luck ...

billfromtx wrote:Kill someone in Texas,.....and we'll Kill you back!!!!!!!!

But that's just the problem: you don't 'kill them back'.

1,384 murders in Texas in 2006, and 53 executions in that same year (yes, I know that executions come almost ten years after the crime..).

It's plain that there are an awful lot of people killing and not being killed.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/txcrime.htm
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

shaggydog wrote:

israel67 wrote: I'm against the death penalty

So you’re in favor of the death penalty, i.e. the use of deadly force to PREVENT a violent episode,

But you are against the death penalty AFTER the fact?

I find this dichotomy fascinating.

Oh no ... I'd sworn not to get into politics ....

OK .. briefly.

You can shoot someone to protect life. It's called self defence. Once the threat is over, i.e. the BG is running away, would you shoot him?

So if you wouldn't kill someone who has ceased to be a threat ten seconds ago and is running away, how is it OK to kill him ten years later when he's been inside a cell (and thus by definition not a threat to anyone)?

Not forgetting that we cannot derogate to the state, rights and powers which we do not have as individuals. If we can't kill except in self defence, then neither can the state.

Anyway ... tum tee-tum ... what's the weather like in the Lone Star State?

LarryH wrote:That looks like one of those cases where the Japanese(?) solution would be better.

Firing squad and make the perp's family pay for the bullets.

As it is, even "life in prison with no possibility of parole" is better than that (expletive deleted, due to ten-year-old-daughter rule) deserves.

Nah, you're thinking of China (edit: Japan uses hanging), but I'd heard that they were moving towards lethal injection. The bullet method is rather messy, as it's not a firing squad aiming at the heart, but the condemned is made to kneel and two guards hold him whilst turning their heads to avoid splinters of skull. An AK-47 is then fired into the base of their brain.

It's not pretty. I've seen some jpgs where the condemned's skull looks like it's been cleaved with an axe.

I'm against the death penalty, but in the case we're discussing right now, I'd want to ask that guy: why?? Why did he take an apparent delight in making another human being suffer so?? What did she do -- what could she possibly have done to merit that?

preceptor wrote:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364983,00.html

show your girlfriend this and ask her if she still thinks the same way. This is why people need to defend themselves. Very graphic story.

"rather be killed than defended" .. well what happens when the attacker doesn't want to kill you.

Horrifying story.

His lawyer, Arnold Levine, agreed that the identification hurt the defendant, although Williams has offered no discernible defense.
"It's always damning when a witness identifies your client," he said.

No kidding, Einstein.

Lock this animal up and throw away the key.

What is it with some women? When I told an ex-girlfriend that I wanted to sit my motorcycle test, she asked how much it would cost. When I told her, she replied, 'Oh well, there'll be enough left over for a pine box'. When I told my mother that I'd be moving to Texas, she cried, 'please don't get involved with guns!!' Note the choice of words? 'involved with' guns, like people get 'involved with' drugs, or 'involved with' gangs. In her mind, gun == death.

When in Texas last month, I asked a member of my family to take me to a gun shop, and they just sort of laughed, and changed the subject. I asked them again. And again. Each time, they looked at me like at some sexual pervert who was desperate to victimise innocent children. Eventually, my eldest niece took me, and whilst I was talking to the owner, she sat texting her friends. Her attention soon perked up, however, when the shop owner told her that she was 'a very beautiful young woman' (she is), and that she needed a gun. 'He thinks I should carry one,' she said, nodding at me.

The depressing thing is that (G-d forbid), if she ever becomes a victim, her opinion will change pretty quickly. I don't have any desire for her to shoot anyone, but nor do I want to spend the rest of my life putting flowers on her grave (even writing those words, my eyes sting...).

As for the religious aspect, I dunno what Christianity teaches, but in Judaism, it is not permitted to place oneself in danger of death. The principle is that this life is only partly ours. It was given to us by G-d, and we are obliged not only to serve Him, but to look after our body until He (and He alone) decides to claim our soul back.

In Judaism, we have a prayer that we recite every morning called birkhote hacha'har, which means 'morning blessing'. Translated from Hebrew, it goes...

G-d, the soul that You placed within me is pure. It is You who created it, You who formed it, You who breathed it into me, You who keeps it within me. You will take it back one day, in order to give it back [reference to the Resurrection of the Dead]

So if the original poster's GF is at all religious, he might like to remind her that according to all religious theory with which I am familiar, self defence is not 'anti-G-d'. On the contrary: it furthers His will.