Blogfriend IzaakMac at I Want Ice Water! made me chuckle this morning (regular funnies over there).
LOOKING FOR LIFE BEYOND CABLE NEWS AND FINDING THAT RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
- Louis BrandeisTension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
- Chinese ProverbRecent Comments
Ummmmmmmmmm…………..
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Yeah.
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I’m here to say, there’s no end to my ignorance, and the illegality of suicide is just the latest example. Wikipedia has a good page on its international aspects and histories. I looked for the root cause, or motivation, for such laws and it’s fuzzy. The lead paragraph attributes it to “religious doctrine”, but I’m not convinced. Even Russia has laws against suicide attempts. Russia, for God’s sake. I think there’s a more fundamental reason underlying these laws: it’s expensive. When it happens, police and medical time has to be committed. It’s messy. People lose work time because of grief and funerals. And, it looks bad on statistics for localities or countries. Could it be this simple?
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I don’t know Jim – how far back do such laws go?
This reminds me of the inconsistency of our fellow citizens who want The State to protect a fetus and say ALL LIFE is ‘sacred’ and everyone has the ‘right to life’. And in the same breath think it’s fine for The State to take away another life as pay-back for crime.
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Stupid is as stupid does. 😦
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Here’s an idea, why would the state want you to have the ability to end your life? Considering that would take away the potential of a tax paying person.
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Hey JT! Maybe that argument could also be used by those favoring an end to capital punishment – they could march with signs that say “Don’t kill a taxpayer!!!!”
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That is a real cute statement. I want to know if anyone was ever executed for a suicide attempt. Many on the books statutes are not enforced.
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True enough Alan – I remember the ‘Blue Laws’ in New England that weren’t repealed till I was a teenager. They included things like you can’t kiss your wife or sweep the porch on Sunday.
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Was death the punishment also for kissing your wife on the Sabbath? Seems a fit punishment.
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I think we only executed for sweeping the porch. Although the kissing was always frowned upon – it was New England after all, land of the Puritans.
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Yes but secretly those Puritans were quite the lusty bunch.
http://www.genealogytoday.com/columns/recipes/tip13a.html
” Families were larger among the Puritans than any other group.”
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Ha!
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