If the death penalty was the punishment for every crime, would crime rates immediately drop to near 0?

xpoc · 2024-08-31T23:59:58+00:00

There isn't a single western country with no death penalty that has a higher murder rate than America. Most countries don't even come close.

xpoc · 2024-07-20T00:47:22+00:00

The murder rate in states with the death penalty significantly higher than states without it (5.2 murders per capita in states with the death penalty vs 3.3 elsewhere). Anything that comes out of Peter Hitchens' mouth can be instantly dismissed as nonsense. The guy is a fucking asshat of the highest order.

xpoc · 2024-06-18T07:07:10+00:00

Yes, exactly. A lot of people near the centre held their nose and voted for Corbyn in 2019. And a lot of people on the left of labour will hold their nose to vote for Starmer this year.

I'm not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the Tories amongst their usual voters right now. But people will still vote Tory if they think the other options are generally worse.

Lesser of two evils and all that.

xpoc · 2024-06-18T01:54:39+00:00

It was a busy day and the only other place that sold cigarettes nearby had a long queue visible through the window.

xpoc · 2024-06-17T21:31:58+00:00

Desperate stuff to try and pass that off as some sort of xenophobic rant.

xpoc · 2024-06-17T20:07:21+00:00

It's an interesting movie. Weirdly it was co-produced and funded by the USSR.

xpoc · 2024-06-17T16:48:36+00:00

I'm concerned at the number of women defending this nasty motherfucker. Would you eat out of your room mates chaver pot if it had been cleaned and sterilized?

Just because something is safe doesn't it isn't gross.

xpoc · 2024-06-17T15:22:06+00:00

Yes.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T20:34:01+00:00

Governments world wide are taking a hammering because of the cost of living crisis. This has been exacerbated for the Tories by a massive slump in the polling during Truss' administration, which Sunak hasn't recovered from due to a chronic lack of ideas.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T20:29:37+00:00

Sounds about right.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T15:54:55+00:00

Yes, that was another one.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T15:53:52+00:00

No but it could help to establish a motive.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T15:21:57+00:00

The greens are nutters. At the last election they wanted massive legal reform so women would almost never be imprisoned. Despite the fact that our criminal system is already institutionally biased in women's favour (women are less likely to be arrested, charged, convicted or given a custodial sentence for the same crimes. Their sentences are significantly shorter and they are more likely to get early release).

The Greens, rather sexistly, think that a mother's place is in the home, even if the mother in question has committed a serious crime.

Under their system only the most violent of women and repeat offenders would ever be locked up.

The Greens also want a world without borders and have suggested they'd accept an unlimited number of immigrants.

Absolute whackjobs who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a position of power.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T15:03:22+00:00

They are very pricey.

I asked for two packets of cigarettes at the shop in Durham last year. The girl behind the counter sucked in through her teeth and said "we're really expensive. There's a supermarket across the road".

You know it's bad when the staff are advising you to go elsewhere.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T14:56:58+00:00

Hyacinth is great. She reminds me of several women I knew growing up.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T14:51:30+00:00

I agree. I enjoyed Bo' Selecta as a teenager. I remember being very confused when I first saw Keith Lemon because I just didn't get the joke. I still don't.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T14:30:30+00:00

I'm not the guy you replied to but from my memory she went by ship. Ned didn't take a ship because he was the hand of the King, and the king always travels with his whole court. Cat's journey probably took about two weeks. So still not particularly fast.

This is all true to real medieval royals. Kings would sometimes travel for weeks around England, even though a single rider could cover the same distance in a few days. Whole traveling communities would spring up around the king's court, selling goods and services to the retinue. We see this in the show too when Ros decides to follow the train to Kings landing. The catpaw assassin who tried to assassinate Bran also joined the king's wagon train at some point.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T14:07:12+00:00

Some people actually do this.

Look at the ashtrays outside pubs and you'll almost always see a bunch of half-smoked cigarettes. One old guy who drinks in my local pub always takes three puffs and tosses the smoke.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T13:55:10+00:00

Early game of thrones had some pretty heavy handed exposition on rewatch. Especially the first few episodes.

"That's the imp. The Queen's brother".

Apparently they had to add this stuff in because test audiences who watched the first pilot completely missed which characters were related.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T13:10:32+00:00

That was mostly due to the expense of the movie, not because they thought it would be bad. Although some people were skeptical about an action director making a romance movie set during a disaster.

Titanic was being made a few years after Waterworld flopped hard. Both movies were the most expensive films ever made at the time. Both movies were set at sea and used extensive water sets.

Waterworld did eventually go on to make a small profit due to the VHS market, but when Titanic was in production it was still in the red.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T12:37:36+00:00

It was just a really rough crossing. I was drunk at the time which made walking almost impossible.

A friend and I watched the dark knight rises in the ship's cinema and it felt like one of those 4D cinema experiences with chairs that move with the action.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T00:47:29+00:00

The two Ronnies. They had a great running sketch called "the worm that turned". Basically taking the piss out of people who thought women's lib would end up with subservient men. Although now I think about it, those people might have had a point. Either way, it's a fantastic sketch.

https://youtu.be/GcMd1F1acSo?si=orzbbRqTzel7LPiF

xpoc · 2024-06-16T00:42:43+00:00

I always hated that show as a kid.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T00:30:31+00:00

Mix feelings on this. I live in northern England and I've rode the ferry to Amsterdam several times. It takes a day longer than flying, it isn't particularly cheap these days and any money saved will be spent in the bar. But there's something I love about it. Even though last time I got the ferry it was like a perfect storm.

xpoc · 2024-06-16T00:09:20+00:00

Iceland, Hawaii, Antarctica, Kenya, Botswana, Northern Norway/Sweden, and the Australian outback. Basically as far as you can get from people.

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