Given that at least 186 people on death row in the US have been exonerated (a large proportion due to DNA evidence), it offers some protection for the large proportion of innocent defendents who are convicted in the US.
I think it's been estimated that around10% of executions in the states are miscarriages of justice. Clive Stafford Smith asked a group of people to put a percentage figure on 'beyond a reasonable doubt' and even a highly respected judge was okay with 90-95% which translates to 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 innocent people being executed.
It's certainly a recognition of the plea bargaining system in the US, but there's an irony in that: plea bargaining prompts innocent people to plead guilty rather than put their faith in a very fallable system; the system is in part fallable because of plea bargaining.
Sometimes attractive people are put down, or bullied by others out of resentment.
Sometimes attractive people are abused by their partners to 'keep' them.
Sometimes attractive people are perceived as unapproachable, the stuff of 'out of my league' even as someone to say hello to. I think I've seen agonising loneliness in particularly attractive youngsters.
I think attractive people are often objectified and not always treated as a human being. It can erode self-confidence and become a downward spiral.
I'd say attractiveness and opportunity is more complex with many nurtured/learned factors playing a role. I suspect there's a happy medium where those many factors come together.
"They are actually able to count, solve problems, recognize patterns, and communicate through a number of signals...What they found was a brain more complex than that of a rat or a mouse. In fact, its complexity was similar to that of a dog’s brain."
By asking a question, you expect a case to be argued by those who answer, unless you were anticipatng a stream of yes, or no comments and no other input.
As you were only requiring answers from people who keep telling you to throw some out into the universe, I'll leave you to it.
I was asking you define the premise of the argument you propose.
I was asking you to define 'love'.
If you could kill off every living thing (people, trees, pollinaters, fungi, etc.) on the planet except your children, would your sole care and protection be enough?
Or would there be some motivation in protecting and caring for a wider circle of life?
You said you could seperate the concept of god from what it says in the bible, so I asked what the concept of god is.
I thought you were floundering because different coloured horns do not change the concept of unicorns - they are still horses with horns, whatever colour they are.
I'm pretty sure I'm still human despite being pink with brown dots.
Round Ireland with a Fridge puts me in mind of Penguins Stopped Play by Harry Thompson. Again, not a literary masterpiece, but quintessentially English in it's navigation of the line between the ridiculous and profound.
I don't recognise bready, cakey and biscuity stuff as food, so I don't see them on any shelves.
My local Co-op is best for reduced hippy food, owing to a reduced demand in this area.
Most places have a seperate section for veg. Co-op and Morrisons reduce perfect stuff just because it's on the sell by date. It's never as good as straight out of the ground even when it's full price, so why boost their profits unnecessarily, I say.
The film of Trainspotting is a shadow of the book.
It even misses out the reason for the title, which is the most profound and pivotal scene in the book. They turn it into something weak and inconsequential in the film.
The Co-op's good for that and I get a 20% discount because my daughter works for the company.
Tesco can be good, but there's always stuff that's already dead. I have no idea why they waste resources reducing green leafy stuff turned to slime and blown packets of decaying food. The inefficiency of bureaucracy must add up to a helluva lot of stickers, sticker transport, admin, staff effort, etc. every year.
As Aldi doesn't reduce, I hope staff get to take stuff home, or it goes to some organisation rather than being wasted. I know someone collects about-to-be-wasted items for a food bank two nights a week at my local Co-op.
My daughter abhors putting animal products into waste in particular. If you think of a chicken's squalid life, it's pretty obscene that so many just get ditched. At least the unsold veg gets composted.
I was merely reflecting your patronising comment 'it's great that you're vegetarian', not putting words in your mouth any more than you were in mine.
I took on board what you said about the current pork market, I just don't think food production as it stands is sustainable, nor remotely sensible.
I was thinking more about locally produced, sustainable food and people growing their own to supplement their diet, rather than digging deeper into mass produced, inefficient, environmentally damaging, remote/transported goods.
As the cost of living increases beyond many people's incomes, even small self-sufficiences could make a difference. We need to learn how to reuse and create instead of being controlled by other people's markets and world events.
I rarely abandon a fiction book, or stick with them regardless.
I'm a mostly visual thinker, so even naff reads set off an explosion of colours, shapes and images in my head. Seeing a film of a book kills reading the book afterwards, like trying to grow carrots in dry sand.
It's more matter of fact than intense, despite the protagnists still being at the stage of making mistakes and being inadequately prepared for their arduous journey. It's mildly funny in places.
They're just beginning to have moments of being full of themselves because they realise they're doing somethng quite extraordinary. I suspect it's going to end rather well.
It's not the most well written book I've ever read, but any lack of sophistication sort of mirrors the nature of the story. The author bumbles through the book like she and her husband bumbled through coping with their homelessness.
I certainly don't regret the quid I paid for it, but likely would resent more than two unless something earth-shattering comes to light.
Barbara Pym should appear through my letter box by the end of the week.
I have Raynor Winn's The Salt Path on the go at the moment (charity shop random find) and the Riverford Autumn/Winter veg book (free with some organic veggies).
I'm itching to dig through my boxes of books, but they remain packed away from moving and flat renovating that stalled due to covid.
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
RE: Alford plea
I imagine it's multifaceted.Given that at least 186 people on death row in the US have been exonerated (a large proportion due to DNA evidence), it offers some protection for the large proportion of innocent defendents who are convicted in the US.
I think it's been estimated that around10% of executions in the states are miscarriages of justice. Clive Stafford Smith asked a group of people to put a percentage figure on 'beyond a reasonable doubt' and even a highly respected judge was okay with 90-95% which translates to 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 innocent people being executed.
It's certainly a recognition of the plea bargaining system in the US, but there's an irony in that: plea bargaining prompts innocent people to plead guilty rather than put their faith in a very fallable system; the system is in part fallable because of plea bargaining.
You mght find this interesting: