ukbluefan

This has nothing to do with sports but rather how we react as human beings. I was wasting time on at work again and found this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/15/rape.execution/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The gist of it is Louisiana is trying to put to death an inmate for the rape of a child. In itself, a heinous crime, but the issue of the article is that the Death Penalty has primarily been used in cases of murder. Coming from the UK where the Death Penalty is not a form of punishment that is available, I have some reservations with this form of punishment. In the UK, the reason the Death Penalty is no longer used is that the last person executed was later found innocent and this I think is the most compelling argument with it.

Coincidentally, Amnesty International issued the latest list of leading executioners today as well with the US ranked fifth in the world.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/secrecy-surrounds-death-penalty-20080415

I am not a member of Amnesty, nor do I expect to be, although I had exposure to one of their programs where you write to Death Row inmates and provide human contact. In this case, the prisoner (who has now been executed) committed his crime in his teens and the justice system subsequently followed due course and he was executed several years later.

As a Christian, we read about forgiveness and also the "eye for an eye" and the rules or system for handling a murderer - basically find them guilty and kill them (Deuteronomy) and as such I think you have to use your own judgement as opposed to the exact wording in the bible.

I also have a problem with the expense of the numerous trials and appeals that we have to go through to secure these convictions. The time and money spent on these cases I think could be better spent on many other things - health and education to start with. I also don't like the possibility of avoiding jail time or conviction due to technicality nor do I like the fact that every appeal is another time that the convicted murderer/rapist can have their hopes raised only to have them thrown out again.

Another concern is the racial and economic bias in conviction rates. I don't think the justice system is that fair to allow such a final punishment.

These people deserve to be punished, that is not the question, but rather how? If life and solitary confinement actually meant life and solitary confinement, then I think that would be more suitable. By avoiding the Death Penalty, you have the possibility of actually releasing someone wrongly convicted, but by totally and permanently removing their contact from other people you can in effect remove them from everyday life.

On a similar thread, a possible cure for cancer was posted today b y the BOng SHow but I cannot find it right now.

In it, the potential discoverer of the cure is not allowed to try the cure because it is not approved. Why is the state allowed to kill people, but you're not allowed to ask someone to do it for you?

Any thoughts

Coming up to the Superbowl, having waited all year for the New England Patriots to explode, we were finally treated to an incident involving Randy Moss - arguably the most talented receiver in the game today. Allegedly, he did something in a night club and was slapped with a restraining order. Oh Joy, the message boards lit up, the Evil Empire that is New England were now not only a bunch of cheats but also a bunch of criminals. Surely Goodell should increase the punishment for this team.

About two weeks ago the story appeared that this restraining order was being dropped:

www.usatoday.com/sports/football/<wbr></wbr>nfl/patriots/2008-03-11-moss-order_N.html

is one place this was reported. Now admittedly the Pats lost and we feasted on their misery and the football season has ended, but there was so little made of this (presumably substanceless) accusation that someone could be excused for thinking he is still in trouble. What I fail to understand is why we are so quick to knock down the very people we try and build up. 

In this case, the facts are fairly straightforward - Randy Moss is a record breaking receiver, he has a history of being a me-first player with some legal issues. He appears to be trying to straighten out his image and we shall see how much further this goes next season now he has the contract he deserves.

We love our sports figures (and for sports, we could mean actors, singers and even politicians) and willing chuck our adoration or our dollars at them watching movies, buying shirts or in many other ways. We embrace them, ignore their flaws if they are on "our" team, but happily push them under a bus when they don't live up to the standards we have set them. I think we feel that as we have created these stars we have every right to tear them down, but there is a huge part that we miss. I have never met Randy Moss, Mel Gibson, Eliot Spitzer or Britney Spears but I am certain that they sacrificed a lot to get themselves into a position where they could achieve (in some eyes) greatness. It's not relevant whether I personally feel they are great, the general public have raised them to heights in their chosen profession. But once there, we are ready to take great delight in their subsequent fall and leap on every perceived flaw that is exposed.

Now don't get me wrong, all four of these people have made mistakes - some repeatedly, some only once (that we know about), and they have been villified in the media quite rightly. However, in the world of instant communication and 24 hour news, every little snippet about these celebrities is thrown into the spotlight and we have the opportunity to comment and from opinions before really getting a hard look at the evidence. Why should we let a few facts cloud us from our opinion? We built the monster, we should be able to destroy it.

In Randy Moss' case, at least this time, we should have waited before assuming his guilt. Hopefully next time I read a report about him doing something "wrong" my first thought will be "Is this true?" rather than "There, I told you so!"

OK, there is a reason for me doing this. You'll just have to trust me. I am looking into blogging for our company as a form of marketing. I know nothing about this subject, but a lack of knowledge hasn't affected me in the first 4 plus decades of my life so I don't think it'll bother me now. As far as I understand, this is a place I can dump every thought in my head and have it picked over like crows eating a deer on the side of the highway. A very familiar site to those who live in Wisconsin and Northern Michigan.

Anyway, I was on the NFL boards tonight - I normally hang around them during the day, but was working from home so got to things a little later and posts on politics, favorite colors, movies and a whole host of other things not necessarily football related. Also there was a thread about some people who were banned today. I got to wondering about the NFL network and how they can have 365/24 coverage of football, while we, the sports fans run out of things to say after about 4 weeks. Yet this week, we had a monumental retirement, a host of free agency moves and yet more news about the draft - which I do confess is one of my favorite days of the year.  During the season, there are passionate posts and replies on a whole host of subjects which leads me to believe that there are people passionate about the game, their team and follow football in great detail, yet now the same boards are filled with some very strange topics. Now admittedly, we can't rerun games or repost threads, but if we're still all active on these boards during the close season, why aren't we just talking about football?

I don't have the answer (a recurrent theme from the age of about 11 to the present day) but personally enjoy the chance to discuss broader issues on these boards. In these diverse threads you get the opportunity to hopefully learn something, laugh and add something to the conversation. I am not convinced that every thread needs to be football related and wouldn't think that CBS would want them to be. I doubt that CBS wants nothing but sports on here. If they did, these boards would be pretty empty this time of year.

In my opinion, the more diverse the subject matter, the more opportunity there is to get people involved. I have no memory of why I got started on these boards - but have enjoyed a lot of laughs and learned some things. To all of you, including those that were banned - Thanks.

I have no plan for my next blog, it will appear when I resurface from another closet cleaning.