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30 Years For Online Pharmacy Spammer
jotter507 writes "So, you get arrested for running an illegal online pharmacy and the judge orders you to stop selling medication over the Internet. Don't sit around and do nothing before the trial! Run off to the Dominican Republic on a false passport, withdraw money from an account ordered frozen, and start up another online 'pharmacy.' It didn't end well for 27-year old Christopher William Smith, also known as 'Rizler.' The world-reviled spammer and Internet drug dispenser received a 30-year sentence from a federal judge on Wednesday."
In other words...good riddance scumbag.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Sounds like a perfectly good buisness model to me! Wonder what could go wrong...
If this guy's getting 30 years, then whoever's behind the "United States National Medical Association" deserves the death penalty. I've never seen so much spam for one target site as I have for US-NMA, and what puzzles me is that the spam continues even though the domain has been parked at an error page for at least a week now. It's almost as if they no longer care about selling fake pills, they just want to annoy the hell out of everyone...
Oh well, kudos to those involved for putting another spammer away. Keep up the good work.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
And for once, the system works like we all want it to.
I would guess that a large part of that 30 years is due to his behaviour after being charged, breaking court orders often carries a greater sentence than the original crime IIRC.
It would be nice if people didn't post "print" links to articles. Lots of times this cuts out the advertising that the publisher has on the web page. Sure, most of us don't really care about the ads, but what helps the publisher make money to post the articles in the first place is the advertising revenue he gets from having thousands of eyeballs look at the ads. As publishers realize people are avoiding the ads, they are coming up with more complicated schemes like registration, etc. Who needs that?!!!
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
It seems the spammer did everything in his power to maximize his jail sentence. Not only did he defy the judge at every opportunity, but he also threatened to kill a witness's children if she testified. He probably could have gotten away with serious fines if he had only cooperated, but instead he's probably going to lose not just his 10+ Automobiles, but also as many of his millions of dollars as the government can find.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
30 years is tough. He is probably really anxious and stressed, I suggest he take some x.a@x!
I'm wondering with all the Enzite and Viagra ads they've been sending me... HOW DID THEY KNOW!?
The game.
According to the article, he was also accused of illegal drug distribution and threatened the lives of the children of one his partners in crime, even trying to hire a hitman. At least in Ohio, that's a long way from the American dream..
Bite my shiny metal ass.
You don't think he conducted business between the states?
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
As I understand it, there is no parole and time off for good behavior. This is good... very good.
Still... I wake up almost every morning hoping to see a headline about "spammer brutally murdered in his mansion." Yes, I'm sure I'm not the only one who hopes for such headlines, but my imagination goes further... I want to see something in the story stating that the cause of death was from being buried under the weight of several thousand cans of canned-meat [by-]products.
I'm sure there are more creative ideas than this, but I think the world would generally approve of this means of waste disposal.
The "interstate commerce" clause applies, to wit: stopping fraud across state lines, perpetrated in the guise of business.
Was this guy ACTUALLY selling medicine, and that in good faith? or was he running a scam?
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Yes... because this wasn't interstate commerce at all.
Yes... because he wasn't doing anything else illegal.
You mad
Damn right, if someone wants to ruin the internet, run drugs and threaten to kill people HOW DARE ANYONE STOP THEM.
Oh libertarianism... What will you justify next!
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I don't know if this is such a good thing... the entrepreneurial-minded business criminal would simply say "now I can cut costs because the federal government is providing my spamming business internet access free of charge, and I get free room and board!"
It figures. I ran out of mod points yesterday so instead, I'll respond to the troll.
It's not about the government telling someone what business they can or cannot run, it's about this person selling pills which are claimed to be the real thing. In other words, he was selling placebos and not telling people these weren't the real thing.
Further, Congress has delegated authority to regulate medicinces to the FDA since medicines are not state specific. You can find the same bottle of Advil in Georgia as you can in Kansas. The FDA has stated that if it's a medicine, it must undergo rigorous testing to prove its relative safety.
This guy was claiming he had real drugs which he could deliver on the cheap. Not only was he violating FDA guidelines, he was perpetrating fraud.
So tell me, what country do you live in that allows someone to perpetrate fraud and not get penalized?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Get your "ism"s straight.
Libertarianism would certainly not tolerate this guy, as he was running a scam, committed what any sane person would consider real crimes, and solicited murder - exactly the kind of thing Libertarians DO want a government around to deal with, and deal with harshly & efficiently.
The word you're looking for is Anarchism - where everything he did would be legal precisely because absolutely nothing would be illegal, and that because there would be no government to declare anything illegal.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
please dont lump us in with that load of bollocks. you have no idea of that GPs political affiliation. ill grant you its certainly possible theyre a lib, but i cant help but think thats a troll.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Sentencing guidelines. The PROSECUTOR not the JUDGE makes the ultimate decision of what charges to bring and the Judge has to apply the guidelines and explain if the Judge deviates from the guidelines (upward or downward).
.50 sniper rifle from his living room - just to see how far the bullet goes? GUESS WHAT - we have to have laws!).
FWIW, this guy is much more than a spammer and 30 years is far from a reasonable sentence. 300 years for conspiracy to murder the child of an adverse witness is a fair term FOR THAT ONE CRIME.
A Cage is where we put people too dangerous to be a part of society. (IMHO, that includes you loonies who think business and people should have unfettered power - s**t what happens when your "unfettered" business starts feeding us CO-treated bad meat or your drunken neighbor decides to fire his
Correction. Not placebos. My fault. Misinterpreted the article.
Admitting he used relatives to hide money from his transactions didn't help matters either.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
How was the perp able to withdraw money from a frozen account?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Still excessive in my opinion. American sentences boggle one's mind... After Stalin's death the maximum sentence in USSR was reduced from 25 years to 15 — although many crimes were still punishable by death (as they are here) and one also got to spend their days in much harsher conditions than in the US.
The main difference here is that in the US sentences are added up upon one another, whereas in most of the rest of the world they run concurrently. It could be argued, that American system continues to deter criminals after their first crime, while the other system makes the subsequent crimes "free". On the other hand, once a crook has accumulated enough years in US, their subsequent crimes are also free, because any sentence will be, in effect, a life one. With a considerable sentencing leeway given to judges, in neither system do the subsequent crimes need to be "free".
Increasing the harshness of the punishment hardens the criminals and makes them more likely to escalate violence. There is a well known historical precedent from medieval Europe, where a local baron instituted death penalty for highway robbers. Having nothing more to risk, the robbers started killing their victims instead of simply robbing them...
What works best is the inevitability of punishment, rather then the harshness of it. 25% of the spammers receiving a 1 year sentence would deter more scumbags, than 2 of them (a fraction of a percent) getting publicly chopped up on a wheel.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
After reading the article, the only part that's remotely related to nerds is his use of spam as a marketing ploy. Other than that, he is a run-of-the-mill (although quite successful) drug dealing criminal. He was selling controlled substances that are narcotic by nature and addictive. He fled the country with a fake passport, illegally withdrew funds, threatened to kill the child of a witness... he had wrapped his cash in plastic and hid it in cereal boxes... that's not exactly a common trait for a nerd or geek.
Just for the record, I'm against all forms of prohibition that require mandatory prison sentences for the posession of drugs for personal use. However, this is possibly even WORSE than other illicit drugs because it undermines the rules that are in place to ensure the safe and legal distribution of drugs to those who need them. Since I don't know all the details of the case I can't say if 30 years is light or heavy, but what I do know is that this is 30 years for being a drug dealer. Not for being a spammer. I have no sympathy.
You can almost hear the cartoon music: "Wah-wah-wah-waaaaaaaaaah."
(Oh noes! Where will teenage boys buy their Accutane now? How will insecure old men buy their C.1.a.L.1.s anonymously? Anarchy and chaos, I tell you!)
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
RTFA and you will see why he got 30 years. There was nothing unfair here.
another drug dealer was slapped in the face for dealing online.
Last time a spammer got sent to jail, someone had the great idea of sending all the viagra and cialis they'd been selling to thier cellmates. We need to get a cellmate's name and address once he's put in, I'd be willing to visit an online pharamcy and order some as a gift package : )
An I.T. motto in the hands of an idiot is a dangerous thing...
...he'll end up in prison with men who've enlarged their dicks with v1agra and are looking for HOT SEX NOW
There's a reason people post "print" link to articles instead of to the ad-laden one, and it's the publishers' faults.
It's because for years now, we the consumers have been so abused with web publishers pushing ads on us that we immediately jump to defend ourselves against them, whether it's justified or not. If Internet publishers had been reasonable all these years and given us an ad or two with our content, it wouldn't be a problem, and I seriously doubt there would be such a backlash against ads nowadays.
But that's not what happened. Once a few publishers found out that they could make some money with ads, they figured they could make even more money with ads. So then we had pop-ups, pop-unders, animated bouncy ads, flash gizmos, interstitials, etc.
And as a direct result of that, now we have AdBlock plus and links to the print version of articles, and publishers are making less money from ads because of their collective greed and abuse. Unfortunately, sites such as the Star Tribune, which actually doesn't have many ads, have to suffer as well because of the sins of their industry. It may not be right, and it may not be fair, but it's just the mode we all necessarily have to operate in today.
For what it's worth, though, here is the ad-laden link to the article if you want give it some eyeballs. One good thing about it: If you follow it instead of the link to the print version, you get to see what this son of a bitch looks like.
He bought cheap generics and resold them across the internet. What an evil man. Americans should be forced to pay full price! Beside we can call him a 'drug dealer' and it sounds like he sold crack cocaine to the vicars daughter, not heart medicine to people who couldn't afford to pay for the overpriced version sold down the street.
p
Walmart import cheap generic drugs to drive price down GOOD.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/54783.ph
Individual import cheap generic drugs to drive price down BAD.
I think its terribly unfair. First his sentence should be much longer given the list of shit he pulled...MUCH longer. Second...now I am going to be stuck footing the bill for 30 years of keeping this worthless piece of crap alive in a prison where bleeding heart pansies have demanded that criminals be treated better than the average citizen. So he will have cable, a gym, free food, a place to sleep, etc...I'm sure plenty of homeless would kill for that (and probably have because we have set up such a sweet deal for them). For all your "prison is a rough place" people...I imagine living on the street, not eating, and frequently being beaten or killed by moron teens for sport, or maybe mauled for insurance fraud reasons, is probably a bit worse. That said I propose that we handle people like this cheaper. A box of .40 cal is 100 rounds for about $20. I imagine we could find MORE than enough citizens to handle the scum of the earth people like this, rapists, murders, and child molestors and I bet most of them would even pay the $20 themselves and bring their own gun, which makes me happy as a productive tax paying member of society, and quite possibly a volunteer trigger man for every bastard convicted of crimes against children. :)
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
u-bend
0wn3d.
30 years is about like marriage, between cellmates.
technical writing / development
I don't think the fact that he conducted business gives the feds any legitimate right to say what kind of business he can conduct. They can tax it, that's about it.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
now I am going to be stuck footing the bill for 30 years of keeping this worthless piece of crap alive in a prison where bleeding heart pansies have demanded that criminals be treated better than the average citizen. So he will have cable, a gym, free food, a place to sleep, etc...I'm sure plenty of homeless would kill for that (and probably have because we have set up such a sweet deal for them). For all your "prison is a rough place" people...I imagine living on the street, not eating, and frequently being beaten or killed by moron teens for sport, or maybe mauled for insurance fraud reasons, is probably a bit worse.
Prison isn't fun. A friend of mine spend 2 in a Canadian prison for sellign pot and turned his life around because he never wants to go back. This is a massively built black guy who would never have to worry about beingont he receiving end of prison rape.
The whole "but homeless people would kill to be there" is a fallacy too. Life on the streets is rough but you still have some freedoms to massage your vices or turn it around. In America/Canada you still can eat regularly as well and you pan handle enough to get some booze or food fairly easily. How often do you hear in hedlines that a homeless person comitted a crime to go to prison. I have never heard of this. I live in one of the coldest cities in NA. I'm sure it happens in some places but the arguementis a fallacy because our prisons here and there aren't filled with homeless. Their filled with drug dealers. Check the stats.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Michael Bolton: We get caught laundering money, we're not going to white-collar resort prison. No, no, no. We're going to federal POUND ME IN THE ASS prison.
The guy wasn't "just" a spammer. He ran an online pharmacy, and his assistant (whose children he tried to have killed) was responsible for procuring Vicodin for him to sell.
He was a fraud, a fugitive, and a would-be killer. He was also apparently willing to sell your teenage daughter real narcotics, and did so often enough that the gov't sold 1.6 million dollars worth of his cars at auction. Sorry, I can't drum up a lot of sympathy for him.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Booker did reverse the federal guidelines. Brain dead this morning.
You are suggesting a 300 year sentence? wow, how long do people live in your place?
My understanding is that in the USA, sentences can be put back to back, is that true? so if you did ten things that were worth a ten year sentence you'd get a hundred years?
If so, what's the point of issuing sentences over 75 years or so? why not just say "until you're dead, no remission"? Genuine question rather than flamebait, can anybody enlighten me to the legal thought behind what seems a bit silly on the surface. As somebody else has said, it seems a case of being hung for a sheep instead of a lamb - if you're gonig to be in prison for all your life, then you might as well commit loads more crimes. If you're gonig to jail for 100 years, then there is no incentive for soembody not to commit more crimes, surely?
Lets hope his cell mates have enhanced their penises, can now stay harder longer and are looking for a new relationship
Hopefully his pushing of penis enlargement medications catches up with him in prison.
Parole. Convicts, with good behavior, are paroled after a certain part of their sentence. So if you give someone 25 years, with good behavior he can be out in 10. Give him 250 years, with good behavior he can be out in 100.
The well known example of european revolving door criminals, they commit a crime, get arrested, are sentenced and are out the door in an instant to repeat the whole process over and over again.
NEITHER SYSTEM WORKS.
But yes I agree, it would be a lot more effective if the risk of being arrested was much higher. Traffic camera's show an amazing result in reducing speeding. What if you could somehow make regular crime stopping just as effective, rather then the 10% of cases being solved that it would be 90%. You commit a robbery and you can be certain the police will be waiting for you at your home.
Sadly that is impossible without a lot more money spend on the police and almost certainly a huge change on the issue of privacy AND the legal process. Just release that doubling the number of cases solves also doubles the amount of court cases. The legal system is already creaking under the load.
While they're at it, why don't they order each of this guy's customers to undergo a nose-smacking? Spam works because idiots like these make it economically viable.
You have to give a fixed sentence - usually in months.
You can serve sentences for multiple offenses consecutively or concurrently. The Judge makes that determination.
If you are a "good prisoner" you may have your sentence reduced by some divisor - and that is done by a pardons and parole board (in most states). They (the board) are guided by the term imposed and other factors. The crimes this guy committed did not permit a sentence of "life without possibility of parole" so a very, very long sentence sends a message to the parole board that this guy should serve a substantial portion of his sentence.
The fact is, he could be out in under 60 months with a 30 year sentence - 600 months (50 years - or age 81) for the 300 year sentence is a better way to keep him away from the rest of us while he still poses a danger.
Article I, section 8: "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;"
I'll be the first one to admit that this clause has been abused, but if this constitutes abuse, it's at least much closer to the original intent than many other applications of the ICC.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
WTF man? Why are you people constantly putting "murder of *the child*"? Why does it even matter if it was a child, a 30 year old man or a 100 year old granny with no teeth? Isn't the law suppose to me blind??
All he probably got was X years for conspiracy to murder a witness. Period. I'm sick and tired of people constantly trying to play the stupid "think about the children" or whatever line in an attempt to play on reader's emotional side. Is the murder of a 30 year old white male witness any less of a crime? I don't know, maybe it is to you. After all, he could probably dodge the bullets.
Karma be damned.
But then again it is OK for some town in Texas to skin alive rattlers but probably not OK for someone to come along and start publicly skinning alive those baby furry rabbits. Sad sad world. Why can't people understand that it is not _WHO YOU DO IT TO_ but _WHAT YOU DO TO THEM_ that is the crime (moral crime, god crime, civil crime, whatever)?
This guy was scum, no question about it. And yet the ironic thing about it is that he may have really helped many people in need. Many people are suffering from severe pain, and yet are unable to legally obtain the relief which should be readily available to them. One hand, you could say that he overcharged such people and took advantage of them - but then again, he also met their needs (regardless of his intentions.)
The government's overzealous prosecution against pain medication is a far greater moral wrong than anything this guy ever did. It's true that such drugs can be abused, but innocent people should not be told they must keep suffering just because of the foolish actions of a few drug abusers.
The real problem is that there is a demand for online pharmacies from otherwise law-abiding, good citizens who are just trying to escape from pain. If you disagree, try being in pain for three months like I was, screaming and crying and unable to sleep, and yet denied medication. You'll quickly change your view.
Stop! Or I'll say "Stop" again! (Robin Williams, I believe)
But seriously, technically you can have laws without enforcement. In fact, IIRC, there have been laws passed by Congress that a certain president has said (via signing statements) he will not enforce/implement. Still, I'm not arguing this is a good idea.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
The main difference here is that in the US sentences are added up upon one another, whereas in most of the rest of the world they run concurrently.
I believe concurrent sentences are by far the norm in the US as well. Sometimes it is even a statutory requirement that sentences be concurrent if the various offenses stem from the same instance of criminal conduct. Perhaps you are confused by various modifiers where years are added for possesion of a gun, selling drugs near a school, etc.
Let's say you have a 10 year old and 8 year old son, whom you put all your effort in for the past decade. Some child molester comes and fucks them in the ass and forces them to suck his dick for 6 months, striking abject fear in them. In Canada (where I grew up) he would get about 18 months, but probably 4 months after time served before the trial (it gets counted 2 for 1) and parole. Your sons, however, will live in complete fear for the rest of their lives. Everything about them will be changed. Their lives will be ruined forever, but the child molester will be out of jail in mere months.
In the US (where I live), it is possible he could get 12+ years. Thank GOD I live in the US. At least I feel protected. If I were a victim of crime in Canada, I would feel not only victimized by the criminal, but victimized by my country as well, because they did nothing to let the punishment fit the crime.
Among others, I own a Sako Custom 75 chambered in H&H .375 - I've used it for Alaska Hunts. I spent nearly $5k on that rifle and nearly $2k on the scope - a Swarovski PH2.5-10x42 - 4NK - and, NO I don't enjoy firing it - it kicks like three mules - but it will down a grizzly at 100 meters. It will also take Caribou and Moose at 250-300 meters with the Nosler 260 gr Partition - about $75 for 20 rounds.
.50 as an example is that it is the single most potent rifle a citizen can own (450 Nitro express - 419 Rigby etc don't hold up against the total energy delivery at any range that the .50 BMG round has).
The point of using a
I think the inquiring about a hit man and asking someone to take photos of a cooperating witness' children is probably what really did him in. Witness tampering and death threats should mean a long sentence in the big house.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
Why is this post rated as flamebait and take Karma hit? He poses a perfectly good illistration of the problem with the American Justice System and how it applies to the internet. "30 years for spam and a Laundry List v.s. 3-5 for a preteen rape and plea deal for 3-5 years". Sounds like a sound argument to me with supporting facts.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
The flip side of the coin is that if the penalty is too light, then people start doing bang/buck maths. If you scammed people out of 100,000$ and you get 1 year for it, well, then for a _lot_ of people it's more than they'd make in any other job.
Saying that inevitability alone is all the deterrent and harshness doesn't matter, paints a highly skewed and misleading picture. Consider this extreme example: let's say we make the penalty for murder something as trivial as house arrest for a day. We also make it 100% unavoidable. Well, you can probably see how inevitability alone wouldn't deter anyone in that situation.
So, no, neither over-simplification is right. The penalty must be _both_ (A) nearly inevitable, and (B) high enough to make the crime not worth it. One without the other simply isn't enough. It's not an either-or choice. Both need to be tuned just right.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
A human life is a human life - you are correct.
Why focus on the kid? Because the conspiracy involved more than mere murder. It was a threat to silence an adverse witness. The sentence should have been 300 years if the Perp had threatened the witnesses' spouse, parent(s), children, grandchildren or best friend.
Anybody willing to kill to cover a crime needs a long, long sentence. I quit a job as an assistant county prosecutor where the elected prosecutor cut a deal with the hired killer (double shotgun murder of male and female) where the jerk elected to the post gave the triggerman 60 months to testify about his $5k double murder for hire against a DENTIST who wanted his wife and her lover killed. The trigger-man was far more dangerous than that damn dentist. The shooter has been out for 12 years now - the Dentist (who only had money - not the guts to kill) is still in prison.
I think I'm on pretty firm ground - you lock up the violent ones and watch the economic criminals. We have tons of jail space filled with dopers and economic criminals and we let the violent loose. This guy could be out in 60 months or less!
Oh, yeah. I hunt and fish. I'm a predator. So are you. Look in the mirror and smile. Those Canines are for tearing meat. Your eyes are placed on the front of your head - giving you binocular vision. Prey have eyes on the side of their head - like fish - to watch for predators.
You may be happy to be insulated from nature - I realize what I am and as a predator I make use of my predatory skills - both in my job and as a way of looking at the world. Most predators watch and strike only when appropriate. Saves energy and makes the job easier. Think before you act.... live will be easier.
The "paperwork" would have consisted of a letter from your bankruptcy attorney to the bank giving your bankruptcy case number (I usually include a courtesy copy of the first page of the filed petition) and citing 11 U.S.C. 362. Faxing the letter usually results in the account being released within an hour or two, at least in my experience and IAAL. I don't even charge extra for this but YMMV.
I never said it was fun. I imagine it is a rather horrible place. The kill to get in was more of a pun than anything, however, no my argument is not a fallacy because guess what...it happens all the freakin time. Now not to the extent that my joke entailed, but get arrested, spend the night in a jail cell vs sleep in the park while its snowing all night...well you can bet your ass I would get my self arrested. This doesn't mean I have to kill someone...it means I have to get drunk and pee on a cop...pretty much gaurontees a warm night. That being said...what is a fallacy is that you would ever hear "homeless person commited a crime to go to prison" anyways, you would hear "homeless person commited a crime" at best and more likely "person commited a crime" and in all likely hood you wouldn't hear either and would only see a statistic like X number of people spending Y number of years in prison for drug related offenses. Also..."our prisons aren't filled with the homeless" is both a bit "duh" and redundant...1. Well duh, their home is prison. 2. They frequently don't exactly have a real home other than prison so they are kinda homeless. There are plenty of other crimes that get you sent to prison other than kill (once again, clever pun) there are many forms of robbery, of theft, of drug possession (not just dealers are in prison, remember thats the main argument against War on Drugs that its stupid and pointless to lock up so many users), then there is also contempt of court, and repeat offenses of minor crimes. Most of these smaller offenses are the ones that get you sent to the cushier prisons...I mean...county lockup is going to be a FAR cry nicer (specially in a county that isn't a major crime infested city) than say a federal prison.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Ok. I retract my snappy tone then but not my basic point. You do a disservice to gun owners by referring to it as a sniper rifle ;). Just makes non-shooters afraid and ban-happy.
.375 H&H built myself at the moment, though on an Enfield P-17 action. My final cost is looking to be around $1600 for mine, but I've shopped around a lot and am having different people do different parts of the gun :).
As to your Sako, it sounds like a very nice rifle. I'm actually having a
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Almost all intenet medicine is fake according Dateline and other stories.
I think they call it LibertarianLand. Things are only against the law there if the criminal is poor; when a business does something, it's Free Enterprise, the driving motor of human history!
Perhaps being given accomodation, three meals a day, playstations, TV, music, books, free instructional courses, sports facilities, isn't considered punishment enough by many people.
The situation in prison sure beats being homeless. Or, in some cases, unemployed.
I'm not saying prison is a cakewalk, but the system does seem to spend an awful lot of money accomodating felons, while there are a lot of people, not guilty of any crimes, in far worse situations.
I'd like to send him a few letters.
Nothing, not a damn thing, deters crime.
Bullcrap. An armed (would-be) victim is a *GREAT* deterrent against crime.
Same reason that anything on here that is almost pro-MS (yet true and not FUD) or anti-Ubuntu gets marked as a Troll or flamebait. Some of the mods are so out of touch that it's kind of disgusting. They disagree with something so it's a Troll or Flamebait. I was making a valid point, and I didn't RTFA (gimme a break hardly anyone reads every FA they respond to) and didn't know he tried to hire a hitman to kill someone. That makes it a bit different. As you can see in my comments, I replied that I didn't realize this. My statement still holds true though, you sell some drugs on the side, you're facing more time than the average rapist/molestor when you get caught.
"If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind."
When its nearly absolute in its application.
We coddle way too many people who have no right to exist in any society. While some think its barbaric to kill murderers and such I think its barbaric to ever let them back out on the street. If we are not to let them out again why does society have to suffer them to live?
Oh, ditch the strawman argument about "what if 1 innocent man" crap, we have confessed killers and rapists who will one day be out among us...
How do you reform what doesn't want to be reform and doesn't know it needs to be reformed?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Fuck them. Good for you for speaking your mind. People seem to have forgot the whole reform idea. If you put someone into a place where the only protection they have is packs and violence then what will you get when they come out? And what about the people in prison for crimes they didn't commit? We all know it happens. Or for things like the drug laws where local and federal laws are misaligned?
There are some crimes I don't condone and people I personally wouldn't like to see re-integrated back into society (rapists, sociopaths who murder). But there are a lot of people who make mistakes and should be allowed to return to society after serving their time.
Quack, quack.
I don't have any first hand experience with the internet version, but I know being a crooked doctor is very lucrative.
There is one not far from me who, I'm told, is the guy to visit if you need anabolics. Or strong dieuretics. GH. Monkey hormones. Stuff like that. He continuously expands his land holdings in the area so I assume he is raking in the cash.
I'm a cycling fan too, and the reports from that front indicate that riders are willing to fork over huge amounts of money to go a little faster. I doubt it is much different in any other sport, professional all the way down to high school.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
I'm trying to talk to /. ers - not sporting shooters. These are people who will take a cut in pay if they can brag about how they can dimension an array in 8 obscure languages but have no idea what 5.56 v. .223 is/means.
.338 Lapua is a sniper rifle. That pair could still be at it if they had used the proper tool. I'm not fond of the .223
.243 that I use for larger varmints, a Ruger 10-22 with massive customization (I'm not certain that any part is still Ruger) - what with a custom stock (a handmade, carved laminated walnut, ironwood and purpleheart stock - father-in-law is a great woodworker) a Volquartsen black "snake" barrel and bolt /w trigger assy. Used for small game and pests and another Ruger M77 II in .30-06 ultralight for Deer and Elk.
An Enfield - not the Mauser? Why? That "cock on closing" Enfield bolt scares me. Oh well, to each his own - be careful!
And, fwiw, a Bushmaster is not a sniper rifle - a Barrett
I have a Ruger Mark II in chambered in Winchester
Don't get me started on shotguns or pistols or knives - meet me over at Bladeforums or TheUsualSuspects etc....
This guy was probably selling schedule IV & V drugs, which will be your tylenol strength painkillers, weight loss pills and viagras. While illegal, it's not criminal in my mind. Criminal is avoiding taxes, being a health hazard and avoiding the law, all of which this guy did. Years ago I 'marketed' online RX, was on the top page for phentermine & viagra in google/yahoo/MSN and didn't think much of it till suppliers started to have issues. SEO spam doesn't land you in prison but email spam should be criminal...not 30 years criminal however.
The government shouldn't be subsidizing drugs.
If they do they should understand they are subsidizing them for the world, not just their tax payers.
If they really want socialized med the governments are just going to have to pay market prices then give the drugs to their taxpayers.
Even the case of the government cutting themselves special deals on drug prices (by threatening to revoke patents usually) is going to end. Drug companies could in the past sell drugs at cost to the likes of Canada and Sweden. With internet pharmacies that price is now the global price. They can't afford that and will walk away. They had a good run leaching off the US medical system, over soon.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Well, it's a start...
I love the "Strib"s approach to being a print medium in an online world - you visit our site, we'll force you to print it!
/.ers to do the same.
I live in Minnesota, but do all I can to avoid that ad-rag. I would advice
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -- "Step Right Up", Tom Waits
Now if the AMA would get off their asses and start cracking down on these spammers practicing medicine without either a license or that all so powerfull MD/OD that allows them to prescribe, we'd start putting many of them spammers either into prison or bankruptcy for malpractice. The final effort should be to clean up their damn ranks and start defrocking the idiots who've found it's easier to make a buck with limited risk for malpractice by writing prescriptions for people they've never seen. Hell hold them legally liable for any injury their malpractice causes.
On a closing note, so long as the pharmacy is properly licensed in the state it's based in (be it online or brick&mortar) then I have no issues with a legitimate sale so long as there is a fully legal perscription written by a real doctor. It can certainly be cheaper for long-term meds then the local RiteAid/Walgreens/Walmart while allowing to reallocate inventory space to medications that are used short term such as Antibiotics/antifungals and such.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
There is little difference between the county shelter and the county clink. Neither is especially luxurious. Most urban center have shelters. Few non urban areas have homeless. Compare any shelter to any prison and you'll find them both dirty flea infested, marginally habitable places. So if the shelters are full then tyr the clink but theres not compelling reason for the homeless to want to be in prison. And no I've not heard from my officer friends of a rash of homeless trying to get arrested to go to the clink. I'm cetrain it happens when it's 30 below and the shelter is full but it's not a common thing and your arguement is pretty light weight in that regaurd. Prison isn't full of "homeless" as in having no home ouside of prison. the subty need not be set out as homelessness precludes having "prison" as a home as prison isn't a home. The majority of the US prison pop is there for drug related offences.
I should have said myth thats it's commong "for homeless people to want to go to jail". I realized it when I hit submit.
side note: Repeaditly repeating how clever your pun is is a sure sign it wasn't very clever.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I'll live in a society where the violent are sequestered away from the rest of us. The US population is 300meg - 1:300 ratio in jail isn't great - but it isn't necessarily a bad thing, either. It depends upon the crime.
Read the case: It wasn't a "death threat" (and, death threats are NOT TRIVIAL) it was a conspiracy to obstruct justice by extorting perjured testimony through the promise of murdering the adverse witnesses' child if the witness failed to perjure himself.
And, this criminal has a long record of violent criminal acts. He left the country in contravention of the terms of his bond, obtained hidden funds and returned to the US. Those are "steps in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy" - an element necessary to convict the jerk.
Read my response - I want dopers and money crimes out and violent in.
I don't believe that the death penalty has any use but to kill a person, brutalize the people who carry out that sentence and - all too damn often, the wrong person is executed. If you can't trust the Attorney General of the US to tell the truth under oath - you can't trust the judicial system with a person's life.
Prison serves one major function: isolation of the criminal from society. That's not a punishment and that's not reform - that's "You are too f**king bad to play with the rest of us - take a long time-out."
You want to keep people out of jail - fund Headstart, schools and colleges and Vocational schools. Take Lead out of the environment (we are seeing a massive drop in crime 20 years out from the PB ban in the US in paint and fuel) and give a damn about kids where a few role models can make a massive change for the positive - on the cheap. Jail is a costly last resort and the ONLY proper resort for the violent offender.
Jeez Louise, think about how much better the US could be is we adopted the European laws governing drug use? We have way too many non-violent offenders in jail (albeit - I think if you steal $1meg or more you get life without parole - that would stop a sh*tload of white collar crime) and we spend way too much on their care. They could be dealt with by other means - including electronic restraint - imagine a bracelet that fries your butt if you try to enter a bar after a DUI conviction?
I RTFA the first time.
Every thug since time on immemorial has threatened to off a key witness at some time. Some would call it a time honored tradition in the right circles. My thought is the DA was just piling on the charges in order to get an easy plea deal. Still there are murders doing 10 years or less, but thank heaven they didn't Commit Spam and avoid the plea deals.
I am not a fan of Spammers, if that would matter to anyone.
*BTW - Never Criticize or present a valid argument against a major advertiser (MS or Apple from what I can tell) on \. else you will be looking a Karma "Smack Down".
>It's not about the government telling someone what business they can or cannot run, it's about this person selling pills which are claimed to be the real thing. In other words, he was selling placebos and not telling people these weren't the real thing.
If all he were selling were placebos, at least they'd be innocous and the suckers who bought them would only be hurt in their wallets. More likely he was selling phony Chinese knock-offs that would be totally unregulated and, considering the recent information about the quality of Chinese goods intended for consumption, probably outright poisonous. I doubt these on-line "pharmacists" consider themselves bound by the Hippocratic Oath.
I wonder which enumerated power of the constitution gives the federal government the power to tell citizens what businesses they can and cannot run.
Damn straight. I get hassled all the time, and all I'm doing is selling drugs to school kids! What is this country coming to when a guy can't make an honest living getting underage girls hooked on crack so he can force them into producing porn?!
I believe that society has agreed that only qualified persons may dispense prescription medications, that only qualified persons may write those prescriptions. In this case, he was neither but did both. My wife is allergic to Vicodin, but didn't know it's hydrocodone. My pharmacist knows this and would never fill a prescription for it for her. Of course her doctors all know this, so they wouldn't write one for her. This asswipe knew neither. Of course, I'd hang him simply for being a spammer.
Also, of course, after being convicted but before being sentenced, he tried to stash some of money where the Feds couldn't get it, which is not the brightest way to get the judge to take it easy on you.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I wasn't repeating how clever it was, I was repeating that it was a pun because through two posts you still haven't figured out while there is an element of truth the whole thing is still fairly tongue in cheek. I mean...do you really think I am honestly advocating for the volunteer walmart bullet execution squad too? Not that I wouldn't be amused by it...but since you haven't caught on: homeless want to go to jail, luxury prison, and fast and easy executions are over exaggerated versions of the common right wing things. I don't really think homeless want to go to jail, but in a pinch they can use it to their advantage, I don't really think prisons are luxury hotels, but I think they have far to many creature comforts on my tax dollar (screw cable TV, internet access, and a gym...force their asses through distance education classes if they want out of their cell, use my tax dollars to make them productive, not comfortable), and while the idea of shooting this guy and others like him and saving myself a ton in tax dollars is very very appealing, I do have some qualms about the government being able kill its citizens.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
IMHO, fleeing isn't morally reprehensible, but fleeing and starting another spam business after being ordered to shut down the first one is behaviour that Darwin doesn't take kindly to. And doing so before you've been sentenced is just really really dumb.
Hiding money that the Feds want to confiscate is one thing (at least morally; legally it's obviously a Bad Idea.) But a lot of the money he was trying to hide may have been money he'd been ordered to pay is spamming victims like AOL. (Too bad there's no easy way to forcing him to identify and pay each of the people he'd sent spam to, as opposed to just their ISP - their wasted time is worth a lot more than the extra bits AOL had to handle.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
A few years back there were a couple of guys in New Jersey who got murdered. It was generally believed that they were spammers who were pushing pump&dump stock scams and annoyed the local branch of the Russian Mafiya. Don't know if they'd sold stock to some mafiaya guy, or scammed people that they'd been trying to scam, or if it the murders weren't directly spam-related (e.g. gambling debts or something.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
He's a fucking Jackass!
I am not trying to fit the word 'anarchism' into my political philosophy. You are the one who is woefully uneducated regarding the history of western political thought. Your complete lack of knowledge coupled with your tone of absolute certainty and admonishment would be humorous were it not so common.
What I am saying is a matter of historical record. From Bakunin to Trotsky, anarchists for the last hundred and fifty years have been using the word as I have. I don't have time to educate you right now, so please use wikipedia as a starting point: Anarchism. It covers the basics of anarchism, the different broad classes and specific schools of thought, and gives some good links to external sources.
Anarchism predates libertarianism by a hundred years. You appear to have only heard the negative propaganda spread by governments. Try not to speak with certainty on subjects about which you are totally uneducated.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You totally blew a perfect In Soviet Russia opportunity with a well written comment.
I'm baffled.
It took me a minute to realize why the hell my print dialog kept coming up...
I'm sure there was a very good reason for linking it this way, but yea... next time you might wanna warn people?
You can't take the sky from me.
I think that Smiling Bob won't be smiling so much in Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison! ;-)
Well then, I offer this proposal: If the government can't decide what businesses can't operate, only can tax certain businesses...
1) Tax spam companies and so-called 'online pharmacies' 150% of revenue.
2) ???
3) PROFIT!
Are you aware that there are older (pre 98?) Mauser mechanisms that also use cock on close?
I also don't understand why some people find them unsafe. Why would you have your fingers even close to the trigger when working the bolt? You would have to do some pretty whacky stuff with your grip to have a finger on the trigger when the bolt is closing. What am I missing?
I just like that step - I want to be in control of the weapon and it seems like that auto-cocking mechanism is best suited to a rapid fire environment. The possibility of a sear wearing down and a discharge on closing the bolt is not out of the question.
Also, Winchester had a very defective mechanism that allowed for "spontaneous" discharge of cocked, but safety ON, rifles. I like to cock my own.
I'm a big fan of the safety on the Walther PP series - the entire firing pin butt is enclosed in a cam when the safety is engaged - there is no way that a hammer can hit the pin. That Sako is built the same way.
....as Homer would say.
I, for one would welcome our new spamassassin overlord, if it,
in addition to assassinating spam, would trace back to the originator
of this nefarious stuff and do the same to the spammer!
I'm currently Working on this idea myself now...!
.
- aqk
F U
All I have to say to the guy is 'Hope you and Bubba spend some happy times in the showers together, mate!'
Good riddance.