Today I'm angry about.....

[William the White]

If you were in a public place surrounded by woman and children, the elderly and infirm, a man appears armed with a machete runs amok slashing indiscriminately, you had a loaded gun, would you shoot him?

ok hobes... I need a bit more information

question one (given that I am surrounded by women and children and the elderly and infirm) - am I a good shot?


(I'll leave out the question - why do I have a loaded gun!)

Naughty boy, you know it was a hypothetical situation to make a point, do people actually live by their beliefs and conscience, or is reality a completely different ball game?

Who do you think believes madmen should be allowed to run amok amongst the elderly, juvenile and female?

[thebish]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

[Hoboh]

If you were in a public place surrounded by woman and children, the elderly and infirm, a man appears armed with a machete runs amok slashing indiscriminately, you had a loaded gun, would you shoot him?

ok hobes... I need a bit more information

question one (given that I am surrounded by women and children and the elderly and infirm) - am I a good shot?

(I'll leave out the question - why do I have a loaded gun!)

Naughty boy, you know it was a hypothetical situation to make a point, do people actually live by their beliefs and conscience, or is reality a completely different ball game?

i think it is reasonable to ask a question as you are painting a scenario and asking me to choose.

am i a good shot?

[thebish]

am I a good shot, though??

[William the White]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

You are deadeye Phil, get the fecker offed before he chops my little baby's legs off!!!

[Hoboh]

am I a good shot, though??

As long as you don't screw your eyes shut you'd probably hit the target, but thats irrelevent, it is the intent I'm after.

[Hoboh]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

You are deadeye Phil, get the fecker offed before he chops my little baby's legs off!!!

Would you shoot him?

[thebish]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

You are deadeye Phil, get the fecker offed before he chops my little baby's legs off!!!

oh - cool - I'm a deadeye! in that case - I'd shoot the machete out of his hands and then shoot the rope that has a bag of flour on the end so that it swings across the room and knocks him out - thus making him easy to tie up and deliver to the po-po...

simple.

[William the White]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

You are deadeye Phil, get the fecker offed before he chops my little baby's legs off!!!

oh - cool - I'm a deadeye! in that case - I'd shoot the machete out of his hands and then shoot the rope that has a bag of flour on the end so that it swings across the room and knocks him out - thus making him easy to tie up and deliver to the po-po...

simple.

The entire shopping mall is applauding, some are swooning, the Daily Mail has launched a nationwide appeal to send money to augment your modest stipend...

[CrazyHorse]

Enough trolling ffs.

[Prufrock]

I’ll bite.
If you were in a public place surrounded by woman and children, the elderly and infirm, a man appears armed with a machete runs amok slashing indiscriminately, you had a loaded gun, would you shoot him?
An armed police officer confronts terrorists throwing grenades into a crowd, should he shoot?
The country faces invasion by an aggressive neighbour, do you despatch soldiers to shoot and repel them?
All the above would be acts carried out to protect society, so tell me, what the difference between them is and carrying out capital punishment to protect the public from people who are statistically more than likely to re-offend and commit gross crimes again.I won’t go down the religious route to killing given that according to the book even God was not without his WMD when he was protecting parts of society.
My head is fine I just tire of perpetrators being given more ‘victim’ status than actual victims.

Seriously?

How about, in your examples there isn't the example of 'them being in jail' instead ??

The answer is simple.
Can anyone guarantee these people will spend eternity locked up? Or will as the case as been in the past some Doctor, Psychiatrist or institutions such as the ECHR manufacture their release?
In this world run by bleeding heart liberals I would not rule anything out!
No matter which way you squirm the chances of blood on your hands are there.[/quote]

In reality can I guarantee it? No, but in reality you can't guarantee he'll be executed.

We're talking about what we'd want. Clearly you can hope for a system where dangerously ill people would be locked up forever, so why wouldn't you wish for that, rather than one were we start executing them?!

[Bruce Rioja]

Hoboh - am I a good shot?? I need to know - there is a madman with a machete... now's not the time for you to get all coy about answering questions!!!

You are deadeye Phil, get the fecker offed before he chops my little baby's legs off!!!

oh - cool - I'm a deadeye! in that case - I'd shoot the machete out of his hands and then shoot the rope that has a bag of flour on the end so that it swings across the room and knocks him out - thus making him easy to tie up and deliver to the po-po...

simple.

The entire shopping mall is applauding, some are swooning, the Daily Mail has launched a nationwide appeal to send money to augment your modest stipend...

Brilliant.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I've run out of Henderson's Relish. Why didn't the wife let me know we didn't have another bottle?

[coffeymagic]

The 'service' given by the complete feck* at Hertz Central Reservations in Ireland.

I don't know if they just wander in off the street because they hear a phone ringing but Jesus Christ. I've just spent almost 40minutes trying to hire a car in London - yes LONDON, not Somalia, or Narnia ro the lost effing city of Machu Pichu.

'How are you spelling dat?'
'What? London? How would you spell it?'
'I've never heard of dat place.'

Eventually I was put on hold while she served someone a pint of O'Guinness for FIVE ROBBIE WILLIAMS SONGS.

When she came back I asked her why this was taking so long.

'It's because I'm 63' For feck* sake. If you've got that far without ever hearing of London shouldn't you be on some sort of reality show not working and earning money?

Honest to Christ if we didn't have to use I'd never use 'em.

I hope when she gets home her house has blown away.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I’ll bite.
If you were in a public place surrounded by woman and children, the elderly and infirm, a man appears armed with a machete runs amok slashing indiscriminately, you had a loaded gun, would you shoot?

Yes, but that is not really the question. It is rather if you ran into a man who had run amok a week ago but now seems quite placid, would you shoot him? I suspect you might rather try for arrest and let the majesty of the law deal with it. You might use violence to stop a child rapist during an actual rape, but you should probably not try to hit him after he had been arrested.

[Montreal Wanderer]

You must seen something you wanted but couldn't have, or become angry at someone and wanted to hurt them in some way (and clearly wanted to get home without the inconvenience of not driving) though? I get the impulses people give in to with those crimes. This is just off the scale of my comprehension though.

Of course I've seen things I wanted but could not have, but I have never been tempted to steal to obtain them. Some people are quicker to anger than others and I am something of a cold fish in this regard - I simply do not have a temper (and there have been times when I wished I did). If I want someone to get their "comeuppance" I am not driven by anger, but more likely a sense of the need for justice. The driving I have already pleaded guilty to, but I have to say it was not such an issue at the time - there were not the same penalties, the public had not been sensitized, society had not waded in on the issue - MADD and other groups were not formed until the 1980s by which time my more serious drinking years were behind me.

People with quick tempers are beyond my comprehension, and so are those who believe that vengeance is more important than, say, rehabilitation. This doesn't make them in any way wrong - indeed they are likely more 'normal' than I am. I don't comprehend because I don't feel the same way but I accept their difference without criticism. I think we all agree, however, that society needs to be protected from these aberrant individuals.

[LeverEnd]

as good an example of what evil is as you are likely to find.

See, what does that mean?

It's just a vague concept, and not something for which there is an easy definition, which I alluded to in the quote you picked out. It gets trotted out too easily by those who take polar views of everything, great for tabloid headlines etc. In the case of Watkins it is so horrifying that the word does spring to mind, at least for me.

[thebish]

as good an example of what evil is as you are likely to find.

See, what does that mean?

It's just a vague concept, and not something for which there is an easy definition, which I alluded to in the quote you picked out. It gets trotted out too easily by those who take polar views of everything, great for tabloid headlines etc. In the case of Watkins it is so horrifying that the word does spring to mind, at least for me.

aye - and i guess most would agree with the sentiment - but describing someone as "evil" is just as easy as describing them as "mentally ill"... except - in describing them as mentally ill, we have actually got some tools to intervene..

short of exorcism - what is the solution for someone you decide is "evil" - death?? this all sounds very much like religious extremism!

if pressed to define "evil" - if you don't go down any religious root and appeal to an evil force possessing them - most people will actually end up describing something that sounds very much like mental illness - and you end up with what you appeared to be disagreeing with...

[TANGODANCER]

Only caught a few seconds of it on the news, but the two lunatics who ran the soldier over then attacked him with a meat cleaver and knives almost removing his head, are pleading not guilty to his murder?

[bobo the clown]

as good an example of what evil is as you are likely to find.

See, what does that mean?

It's just a vague concept, and not something for which there is an easy definition, which I alluded to in the quote you picked out. It gets trotted out too easily by those who take polar views of everything, great for tabloid headlines etc. In the case of Watkins it is so horrifying that the word does spring to mind, at least for me.

aye - and i guess most would agree with the sentiment - but describing someone as "evil" is just as easy as describing them as "mentally ill"... except - in describing them as mentally ill, we have actually got some tools to intervene..

short of exorcism - what is the solution for someone you decide is "evil" - death?? this all sounds very much like religious extremism!

if pressed to define "evil" - if you don't go down any religious root and appeal to an evil force possessing them - most people will actually end up describing something that sounds very much like mental illness - and you end up with what you appeared to be disagreeing with...

The trouble is, if you give people the 'easy' out of mental illness then illness can, of course, be cured. Possibly quite rapidly.

Whatever definition is used, to describe someone who does something so totally out of kilter with any understood norm as mental illness is to fail to see their actions as knowing and deliberate .. and potentially to exact proper punishment.

Delicate stuff, but needs huge care or any extreme lawbreaker can claim it.