Permit me to separate from the herd. Secure prisons as per the catechism are rare in much of Latin America where most Catholics are and here in the US protect you ( not other inmates, Dahmer and Fr. Keoghan were murdered by lifers, and not witnesses ordered killed from prison by coded phone calls)...protect you from murderers who have been caught ALREADY. They don't protect you from the UNCAUGHT or the potential murderer who are minimum 38% of murderers in the US and 95% of murderers in Guatemala whose clearance (solved) rate for murder is 5%. The catechism and Evangelium Vitae by basing themselves on secure prisons totally,... neglected deterrence of uncaught murderers....which in Catholic Latin America is an immense crowd. Deterrence studies? The US Supreme Court actually, after stopping death penalties in 1972, resumed them in 1976 precisely noting that their review of deterrence studies indicated that executions deter premeditated murders but not passion/ domestic murders. No Catholic document shows evidence of having thought of this area as to murder. Rome could have written the US Supreme Court and asked them for their sources on deterrence. Instead we theologized a topic that is not understood simply by theology...it needs the input of the social sciences. Anti death penalty studies came largely from lawyers and sociologists while studies favoring deterrence came from economists doing regressional analysis. Joanna Shepherd writing in the Michigan Law Review tried to balance the two sides against each other. She concluded that executions deter when done more than rarely and do not deter when done rarely. China has a billion people, mostly poor in our terms, but has an adult murder rate ( ie excluding abortion) of 1 per 100,000 with the death penalty....tiny Catholic Malta is almost three times that rate (2.8). Only Catholic Luxembourg and Austria and several others with few poor people are a bit safer than China. Our largest Catholic populations, Mexico and Brazil, neither with a death penalty, are egregiously anti life as to murder victim rates.....Brazil 25.2 per 100,000 and Mexico 21.5 per 100,000. Many small Catholic non death penalty states in Latin America are worse than Brazil and Mexico. Catholic Central America has a murder rate by UN figures of 31 per 100,000...no death penalties. I believe this is a bad turn in non infallible papal teaching and will get thousands killed for future centuries wherever the Vatican has been key as in the Phillipines which has 8 times the murder rate of China. Oddly Japan with few Christians in the population has a murder rate of .3 per 100,000...three times safer than China but without her poor class.
. It's hard for me to comprehend many forms of humor because I just got done watching 8 seasons of Psych on Netflix twice. I could be addicted. WHAT? Odd that James Roday and Maggie Sullivan just don't marry...they've been with each other in real life since 2006. Maybe he feels marriage in America is a near occasion of the sin of the $ stick up that is allowed during US divorce....like Richard Geere is experiencing.
Why the picture of Marcus Bachman? Why always pick on the gays, Terry? Especially ones like him, who in his totally denial totally fulfills your notion of how one should act.
I used the photo of Bachman because I found the expression on his face amusing. It has nothing to do with him as a person - and absolutely nothing to do with gay people - as far as I know Marcus Bachman is a normal, married man with children - in fact he's happily married to Michelle - a former senator from Minnesota. I removed the photo in consideration for his reputation in light of your comment.
Please comment with charity and avoid ad hominem attacks. I exercise the right to delete comments I find inappropriate. If you use your real name there is a better chance your comment will stay put.
LOL, Terry.
ReplyDeleteI'm against it except when I'm for it. LOL!
ReplyDeletePermit me to separate from the herd. Secure prisons as per the catechism are rare in much of Latin America where most Catholics are and here in the US protect you ( not other inmates, Dahmer and Fr. Keoghan were murdered by lifers, and not witnesses ordered killed from prison by coded phone calls)...protect you from murderers who have been caught ALREADY. They don't protect you from the UNCAUGHT or the potential murderer who are minimum 38% of murderers in the US and 95% of murderers in Guatemala whose clearance (solved) rate for murder is 5%. The catechism and Evangelium Vitae by basing themselves on secure prisons totally,... neglected deterrence of uncaught murderers....which in Catholic Latin America is an immense crowd. Deterrence studies? The US Supreme Court actually, after stopping death penalties in 1972, resumed them in 1976 precisely noting that their review of deterrence studies indicated that executions deter premeditated murders but not passion/ domestic murders. No Catholic document shows evidence of having thought of this area as to murder. Rome could have written the US Supreme Court and asked them for their sources on deterrence. Instead we theologized a topic that is not understood simply by theology...it needs the input of the social sciences. Anti death penalty studies came largely from lawyers and sociologists while studies favoring deterrence came from economists doing regressional analysis. Joanna Shepherd writing in the Michigan Law Review tried to balance the two sides against each other. She concluded that executions deter when done more than rarely and do not deter when done rarely. China has a billion people, mostly poor in our terms, but has an adult murder rate ( ie excluding abortion) of 1 per 100,000 with the death penalty....tiny Catholic Malta is almost three times that rate (2.8). Only Catholic Luxembourg and Austria and several others with few poor people are a bit safer than China. Our largest Catholic populations, Mexico and Brazil, neither with a death penalty, are egregiously anti life as to murder victim rates.....Brazil 25.2 per 100,000 and Mexico 21.5 per 100,000. Many small Catholic non death penalty states in Latin America are worse than Brazil and Mexico. Catholic Central America has a murder rate by UN figures of 31 per 100,000...no death penalties. I believe this is a bad turn in non infallible papal teaching and will get thousands killed for future centuries wherever the Vatican has been key as in the Phillipines which has 8 times the murder rate of China. Oddly Japan with few Christians in the population has a murder rate of .3 per 100,000...three times safer than China but without her poor class.
ReplyDeleteHi Bill - good to hear from you. I hope you realize this is parody on my part.
Delete. It's hard for me to comprehend many forms of humor because I just got done watching 8 seasons of Psych on Netflix twice. I could be addicted. WHAT? Odd that James Roday and Maggie Sullivan just don't marry...they've been with each other in real life since 2006. Maybe he feels marriage in America is a near occasion of the sin of the $ stick up that is allowed during US divorce....like Richard Geere is experiencing.
DeleteI never heard of it - sounds like a show for me. ;)
DeleteMy fav Groucho line by the way is like a zen koan:
Delete" Love goes out the door and innuendo."
LOL! I love that guy.
DeleteYou had me at joint.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Glad you are feeling better!
DeleteThe medicinal remedies help :)
DeleteWhy the picture of Marcus Bachman? Why always pick on the gays, Terry? Especially ones like him, who in his totally denial totally fulfills your notion of how one should act.
ReplyDeleteI used the photo of Bachman because I found the expression on his face amusing. It has nothing to do with him as a person - and absolutely nothing to do with gay people - as far as I know Marcus Bachman is a normal, married man with children - in fact he's happily married to Michelle - a former senator from Minnesota. I removed the photo in consideration for his reputation in light of your comment.
Delete