The Huffington Post reports on Rihanna's newest tattoos. Please click over there to see the pics.
It's been said a few times that the interminable argument on this blog about guns will probably not result in anyone's conversion. That may be true, but, I'd love to hear what some of our frequent commenters think about Rihanna. C'mon guys, admit it, those tattoos make you want to give up your guns and join my side. I swear, I won't ever say, "I told ya so."
Is this MikeB trying to be funny?
ReplyDeleteIf it is, you aren't very good at it, and maybe you should give it up, or seek training.
The Mafia joke did make me laugh.
MikeB,
ReplyDeleteHere is one for you, it has all the earmarks of a story you like.
Let's get your opinion on it.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6345053.html
FORT WORTH, Texas — A man was sentenced to 60 years in prison Thursday for firing a gun at an official inside City Hall nearly four years ago.
Ray Redding, 46, faced from five years to life in prison after being convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Jurors rejected Redding's insanity defense, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Thursday online editions. The state's definition is that a severe mental illness prevents someone who is committing a crime from knowing that it is wrong.
Okay, so we have an insanity plea, denied. We have a sentence for shooting at someone that is longer then many people get for actually murdering someone. 60 years.
While I'm for severe consequences for criminal acts, I find it hard to justify that length of sentence for the crime. Especially when people with violent criminal histories commit murder and are sentenced to less time. Don't you agree Mike?
Redding previously was found incompetent to stand trial and had been sent to a state mental hospital for treatment three times since his 2005 arrest.
Get that part MikeB, this is the danger of using the mental illness and having power over someone in that case. 3 times he was sent to the state hospital for treatment. So he served 3 years in confinement while being treated in order to be forced to stand trial.
Incredible, that the system can do that over and over again....he was obviously mentally incompetent, he was judged to be incompetent but they kept him confined until he was sane....then sentenced him to another 60 years.
So, which should it be....mental hospital or jail?
Before the shooting, Redding had been a familiar sight at City Hall, complaining to numerous officials about land that he believed the city had taken from him.
On Aug. 10, 2005, Redding went into the downtown building and fired a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun at then-Development Director Bob Riley as officials prepared for a monthly zoning meeting. The bullet missed and lodged in a wall.
Riley fled and crouched behind a desk but was pursued by Redding, who again pointed the gun at him before being taken into custody.
The incident prompted officials to install metal detectors at City Hall.
The Fort Worth paper has Redding reportedly saying that some one had put a chip in his and his brother's brains.
Now, do you think 60 years is an appropriate sentence?
Do you see the dangers in sentencing someone to the mental hospital?
I don't like tattoos in general. They rarely make a woman more attractive. I also doubt that she means them to represent ideas I support.
ReplyDeleteI bet she wishes they were real when her SO was beating the crap out of her.
ReplyDeleteBob, That's quite a story. Your point is hard to decipher though. You usually contend that by sending them to the mental hospital they get out too early. This story, which I think is a rarity, does the opposite.
ReplyDeleteDo I think 60 years is too long? Of course. Do I think he should probably be in a mental hospital? Of course. Do I think they should let him out right away? No of course not.
The only thing this story illustrates really is my theory of there just being too many guns out there and that availability of those guns is the problem.
Do I think a guy who hung around the court house and said "some one had put a chip in his and his brother's brains" should have such easy access to guns? Well, you know my answer to that.
MikeB,
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about someone being confined for 4 years, and repeatedly sent (3x) to a mental institution until he is "cured" enough to face trial?
When you start down the road of all crime is a mental illness, this is the consequences.
A man remanded to custody, probably forced against his will to be on psychiatric drugs. Then after years of such "treatment" is found sane and then tried.
That really seems close to the state just doing as it wants with a person, instead of going through the trial.
If he was found not competent, according to what I understand of your argument, shouldn't he have been sent to a mental institution?
And once in that institute, when he was "cured", shouldn't he have been released?