Messages

[I think that the Wiccan position would be fairly easy to determine, since they follow a harm none perspective.]

EOT-

I think that the Wiccan position would be fairly easy to determine, since they follow a harm none perspective. However, if I recall, Gardner's Book of Shadows commented on the efficacy of blood sacrifice while simultaneously asserting that it is abominable. Would Wiccans think that there is actually a magic potion that is rape activated? I don't know. Maybe they could see it working in the sense of both sex magic and blood sacrifice analogs. I'm also wondering if potion is a mistranslation of some sort. They don't really explain what the potion is or why it requires rape.

I don't know a single Wiccan that would condone rape as a magickal act. As far as blood sacrifice, most I know won't even swat a mosquito while in circle. That's not to say that what these soldiers are doing isn't magick; any magickal act can be taken with mal-intent, sex magick being no different.

Isn't that basically what Blight just said?

Yep. Bolding it in case he missed it the second read through. I thought it was a fairly straightforward post.

Fuck. This is what I get for posting right before I go to bed. My post seemed much more detailed and profound when it was still stuck in my head.

EOT-

I think that the Wiccan position would be fairly easy to determine, since they follow a harm none perspective. However, if I recall, Gardner's Book of Shadows commented on the efficacy of blood sacrifice while simultaneously asserting that it is abominable. Would Wiccans think that there is actually a magic potion that is rape activated? I don't know. Maybe they could see it working in the sense of both sex magic and blood sacrifice analogs. I'm also wondering if potion is a mistranslation of some sort. They don't really explain what the potion is or why it requires rape.

I don't know a single Wiccan that would condone rape as a magickal act. As far as blood sacrifice, most I know won't even swat a mosquito while in circle. That's not to say that what these soldiers are doing isn't magick; any magickal act can be taken with mal-intent, sex magick being no different.

Once again, didn't take me very long to find data. It's old, but the numbers can't have shifted around that much.

http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/20/20021.html
U.S. Department of Justice: An Analysis of Non-violent Drug Offenders with Minimal Criminal Histories

The major findings of this study are:
    A substantial number of drug law violators sentenced to incarceration in Bureau of Prisons custody can be classified as "low-level". Using one set of criteria which limited offenders to no current or prior violence in their records, no involvement in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment, there were 16,316 Federal prisoners who could be considered low-level drug law violators. They constituted 36.1 percent of all drug law offenders in the prison system and 21.2 percent of the total sentenced Federal prison population.
    If we further restricted the population to those offenders with zero criminal history points - according to U.S. Sentencing Commission rules, there were 12,727 Federal prisoners who could be considered low-level drug law violators. They constituted 28.2 percent of all drug offenders in the prison system and 16.6 percent of all sentenced prisoners.
    The average sentence of the low-level drug law offender group was 81.5 months which means that, under Guideline sentencing (must serve 85% of sentence), these individuals will serve, on average, at least 69 months before release from prison.
    Even with a liberal interpretation of criminal justice contact (where criminal justice contact was defined as an arrest regardless of disposition), the majority of low-level offenders had no prior recorded contact with the criminal justice system. The data do not reflect criminal justice contacts outside the United States. Therefore, criminal justice contacts for non-citizens may be under-reported.
    Based on the study sample, two-thirds of low-level drug offenders currently in the Bureau of Prisons (1994) received mandatory-minimum sentences. Even among low-level drug offenders, sentences have increased 150% above what they were prior to the implementation of Sentencing Guidelines and significant sentencing legislation which established mandatory-minimum sentences for primarily drug and weapons offenses.
    Among the low-level offenders, 42.3 percent were couriers or played peripheral roles in drug trafficking.

And to avoid a biased source, I went directly to the Bureau of Prisons website at http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp

Most recent stats:

Drug Offenses:   100,772   (51.2 %)
Weapons, Explosives, Arson:   29,960   (15.2 %)
Immigration:   22,140   (11.2 %)
Robbery:   8,471   (4.3 %)
Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses:   6,894   (3.5 %)
Extortion, Fraud, Bribery:   10,089   (5.1 %)
Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses:   5,424   (2.8 %)
Miscellaneous:   1,860   (0.9 %)
Sex Offenses:   9,184   (4.7 %)
Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement:   874   (0.4 %)
Courts or Corrections:   613   (0.3 %)
Continuing Criminal Enterprise:   513   (0.3 %)
National Security:   98   (0.0 %)

How many of that 100,000 are simple marijuana possession charges?  As opposed to trafficking, selling/furnishing to a minor, etc.? 

I don't have data on that, but I will see what I can find. But even if it's one-third of that 100,000, it would be higher than the next highest category.

What about Jim Carrey? He did that movie "The Number 23," maybe some of that stuck with him?

And to avoid a biased source, I went directly to the Bureau of Prisons website at http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp

Most recent stats:

Drug Offenses:   100,772   (51.2 %)
Weapons, Explosives, Arson:   29,960   (15.2 %)
Immigration:   22,140   (11.2 %)
Robbery:   8,471   (4.3 %)
Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses:   6,894   (3.5 %)
Extortion, Fraud, Bribery:   10,089   (5.1 %)
Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses:   5,424   (2.8 %)
Miscellaneous:   1,860   (0.9 %)
Sex Offenses:   9,184   (4.7 %)
Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement:   874   (0.4 %)
Courts or Corrections:   613   (0.3 %)
Continuing Criminal Enterprise:   513   (0.3 %)
National Security:   98   (0.0 %)

Absolutely. We spend so much money on incarcerating people that didn't do anything but get high. We're letting murderers and rapists out of jail because our prisons are too overcrowded to keep the druggies behind bars.

I'ma have to agree with RWHN on this one.  plenty of rapists and murderers get away, but they get away for different reasons, not because of all the pot heads in jail.

I did not mean to imply causation, but merely correlation there.

My point is that the jails are overcrowded, in California alone all 33 of their prisons are at 200% capacity, and are facing mandatory releases. http://www.10news.com/news/22333648/detail.html On the other side of the coin, 60% of federal prisoners are drug related offenses, only 3% of those are violent. http://www.hr95.org/hr95faces.html

Sigh. I'm not playing a game. I am thinking of all the destroyed families, imprisoned people, and lost college educations that are the direct result of criminalization.

Working to solve the community and social problems that result in drug abuse is a good thing. Criminalization of marijuana, though, is a corporate industry that hurts communities.

Absolutely. We spend so much money on incarcerating people that didn't do anything but get high. We're letting murderers and rapists out of jail because our prisons are too overcrowded to keep the druggies behind bars.

That's why I phrased my answer the way I did. Possession? Not a crime. Intoxication? As long as you're not behind the wheel, not a crime. Knocked over a liquor store while high on crack? Now you're going to jail.

I REALLY believe that this thread is somehow a magical turd magnet.

Fuck's sake.  It's a good idea for a thread, it had a few good discussions, and yet here it remains, pulling in turd comets from as far as the horsehead nebula.

u so mean

Mean is pointing out that by you posting that, you are yet another turd that got caught into the gravity well, and are circling the drain like the rest of us.

I'd like you all to think, really long and hard, of the consequences caused by the fornication of Mr. Hustle and myself for a moment. Chef hat aside...I mean, do you REALLY want to destroy the world?

Destroy? No. Watch a sizeable portion of it burn? Yes.

I love how we've managed to build a 36-page thread around everybody willfully missing the point as intently as possible.

You mean you actually expected me to read through 36 pages of spag-sense?

I thought I could just drop my two cents here and watch the rest of you guys tear it the fuck to pieces while I sat back with my popcorn...

IF BRAEKUP WITH ECHGF IMMINENT, WANNA GET MARRIED? TOGETHER WE CAN RULE THE ENTIRE EAST COAST, USVI AND PORTLAND!


-Suu
Political marriages, ftw.

I wish I didn't visualize things so instantly. I have this picture of ECH setting up the bedroom like a kitchen, with all the tools he needs hanging off the headboard from one of those magnetic knife-holding racks. 8 kinds of vibrator, a variety of flavored lubes, etc. And him getting busy with a chef's hat on.

Right, so you don't think of the social implications of this unholy union spreading it's Political way down the East coast of America like necrotising fascitus, just visions of  "Chef's Special" multipenetrative sexualistic invasionment?

I think it indicates that CPD has the right values.

So . . . in the backdrop there are screaming people, the rumble of explosions sinking tons of earth into the ocean, and the flickering light of a burning city dancing on the bedroom walls through the window. And a "oonce-oonce-oonce" beat playing quietly on the stereo.

Please tell me you're videotaping this? Best porno ever...

The secret is out. And I had nothing to do with it. I expect a mass exodus to the dollar store and a huge shortage of glowing tomahawks within the week. :P

http://www.dollartree.com -- Order in bulk!

If I ran this bitch, I'd make possession and most nonviolent crime decriminalized, but any crime committed under the influence carry triple the sentence.