Post Your Amusements!

[sahiel]

I know we are trying to keep the politics in it's own thread, but this was a legitimate amusement. Fox News last night, from the moment that NBC called the election in favor of OBama on. It was.... pure comedy gold. Oh man.. If only you could give them an emmy for comedy based on that news hour.

I swear I thought they were going to revert to barbarism and start eating each other in their anger and terror it was... a sight to behold.

[Shoju]

I know we are trying to keep the politics in it's own thread, but this was a legitimate amusement. Fox News last night, from the moment that NBC called the election in favor of OBama on. It was.... pure comedy gold. Oh man.. If only you could give them an emmy for comedy based on that news hour.

I swear I thought they were going to revert to barbarism and start eating each other in their anger and terror it was... a sight to behold.

I was cruising through twitter, and a couple people mentioned it, so I turned it on, and OH MY GOODNESS. Fair and Balanced? Lulz.

[bldavis]

dam...i was watching cbs and abc until they claimed obama had won (way before most battleground states were above 30% reporting and before alaska had closed polls) when my mom got fed up and decided it was time to watch something else

ah the joys of only 1 tv

so i watched online...and i guess missed the great fox freakout

[Klaudandus]

I missed it as well, it never occurred to turn it to fox...

[halabar]

I know we are trying to keep the politics in it's own thread, but this was a legitimate amusement. Fox News last night, from the moment that NBC called the election in favor of OBama on. It was.... pure comedy gold. Oh man.. If only you could give them an emmy for comedy based on that news hour.

I swear I thought they were going to revert to barbarism and start eating each other in their anger and terror it was... a sight to behold.

I was cruising through twitter, and a couple people mentioned it, so I turned it on, and OH MY GOODNESS. Fair and Balanced? Lulz.

Meh, the fawning of some of the other side over Obama, while not as extreme, is just as one-sided. Saw one of the sideline reporters that I though was gonna orgasm when she was talking about the Obama win.

[Skye1013]

I missed it (was busy with work stuffs), but according to what Brekkie said in the election thread, they were apparently throwing things at the CNN reporter that was at the Boston rally.

[Flex]

Well Boston is a horrible city no matter what your political beliefs are

[Skye1013]

This guy

Just getting a chance to look at this guy... am I missing some correlation between Brewmasters and crit?

Edit: Aha!

[valura]

I am now both amused and afraid of our driver's licence system.

I called my driving school because I had an appointment for my first hands-on lesson and I wouldn't be able to pass my theory before that. Little did I know you are not required to SUCCEED at the theory to get hands-on lesson.

You don't even need to *FOLLOW* theory before your hands-on lessons. I.e. they could put you behind a wheel without you having ever touched or read about a car. I won't ever look at drive school cars the same again...

Aaah... getting behind the wheel in Belgium... Still amazed at how you can get in a car while shitfaced drunk and high on whatever suits your fancy, go speeding like you're on a F1 track, in the process kill somebody (or even more than one), and only get 1 year provisional prison time, and a 3 month revoking of your driver's permit, if it's your first offense... yh, that'll teach 'em

[Sagara]

Aaah... getting behind the wheel in Belgium... Still amazed at how you can get in a car while shitfaced drunk and high on whatever suits your fancy, go speeding like you're on a F1 track, in the process kill somebody (or even more than one), and only get 1 year provisional prison time, and a 3 month revoking of your driver's permit, if it's your first offense... yh, that'll teach 'em

Seriously? o_O I never did follow that kind of news, but come ON!

[valura]

Aaah... getting behind the wheel in Belgium... Still amazed at how you can get in a car while shitfaced drunk and high on whatever suits your fancy, go speeding like you're on a F1 track, in the process kill somebody (or even more than one), and only get 1 year provisional prison time, and a 3 month revoking of your driver's permit, if it's your first offense... yh, that'll teach 'em

Seriously? o_O I never did follow that kind of news, but come ON!

I am being dead serious (excuses for the terrible pun). In Belgium we have what is know as "penalty absorbtion" which basically means the most severe infraction of the law is used to determine the punishment received. In the abovementioned case, it would be the "unintentional causing of grievous bodily harm possibly resulting in death". For a first offense the punishment is a minimum of 1 year probation and a maximum of 3 years effective.

I have been a strong advocate of cumulative penalties, where it concerns serious crimes, such as the victim's death.

I will make you a horrid example by comparing Belgium vs US law in a specific, but accurate case. This example does not mean I believe the US systems is working fair, unbiased or just, it only means they sometimes exhibit a more logical approach when it comes to dealing with criminals

Example:
A man kidnaps a 10yo child at night from it's home, keeps her in captivity , during which time he sexually abuses the child on a daily basis, and after a year he kills her.
In Belgium that person would get a maximum of 30 years in prison after being convicted of frist degree murder. He can and will petition for early release or parole after 10 years (they plan on bringing it to 15 years). Usually (90% of the cases), a person like this will be released from prison after having served 10 to 20 years.
In the US, that person would face first degree murder (minimum of 20 years if in Illinois/Nevada/Wisconsin, maximum death penalty), kidnapping charges (on average 5-15 years), and child molestation (on average 5-15 years). Most of the minimum sentences I put here are considering there are no aggravating circumstances, if there are the minimum is either increased of is replaced with Life (without Parole). So if make the most convenient count (for the offender) here, he'll serve 30 years de facto (no chance of early release or parole). For the case of argument, we could say that in this example the maximum for murder would be 50 years, bringing the total prison time to 80 years without parole...

And that's the reason why we have a person doing 30 years of prison time, after being convicted of multiple kidnapping and child molestation during the late 80's, only to be paroled, which resulted in him kidnapping and abusing 6 girls and killing 4 of them...

In the US, he would most likely have been serving Life Without Parole, have been on Death Row or have been put down, before he ever could begin again...

[Sagara]

Yeah, I knew what you were going to go to...

And how many times have they "reformed" Justice in the last decade? And it's not like they're gonna afford much more in the ways of non-economic reform right now.

Can't we get the NV-A focused on THAT instead of silly rivalries?

[valura]

Yeah, I knew what you were going to go to...

And how many times have they "reformed" Justice in the last decade? And it's not like they're gonna afford much more in the ways of non-economic reform right now.

Can't we get the NV-A focused on THAT instead of silly rivalries?

Sorry, Sagara, but that won't work. Without their silly rivalries, the NV-A doesn't really have much. I mean, their slogan was "Knowledge and Change", and the only thing that really stuck out is their intentions to protect our Flemish interests and identity... that doesn't bode well, unless they can come up with some valid plans for the future.

In my hometown, we also got an NV-A mayor and thus far, the only plans on the table are the revoking of the "expensive" and "useless" plans of the previous administration. They haven't made a single statement of anything else, and they're taking office in 51 days... I'm a bit scared to be honest

I wish it were different, but they don't seems to

[Sagara]

I'm playing for a double whammy, as I'm a frenchie in Halle, thus a vital threat to them :-p
We don't really have any group that harps for judicial reform. Most of them are still too focused on economics...

[valura]

I'm playing for a double whammy, as I'm a frenchie in Halle, thus a vital threat to them :-p
We don't really have any group that harps for judicial reform. Most of them are still too focused on economics...

You're a frenchie in Halle? I just lolled so loud my collegue is looking all weird at me I live in the same city as Geert Bourgeois (whom I can't stand at all, no sir)... according to him, I am probably fraternizing with the enemy...