Just to clear the water, I agree with you that driving drunk is reckless, dangerous behavior that results in unnecessary deaths. The figures I've heard indicate that harsher penalties as well as DUIs becoming socially abhorent behavior are responsible for drops in drunk driving fatalities. I was trying to touch on this in my statement that the "civil damages... justifiably ruin the offender" but it appears I failed.
With this said, however, I don't think these DUI penalties would have come to be unless there was an overall trend towards harsher penalties for all offenses. When mandatory sentencing required throwing a pot user away for an extended period, MADD knew perfectly well that it became hypocritical not to start nailing DUIs. They used that as leverage to push their agenda and our society today is all the better for it. I view harsher DUI penalties as a just another part of the 1980s War on Drugs, perhaps the only part of that crusade that everyone can agree was just and socially beneficial (I will keep silent on my personal views of the WoD).
You come across as someone with strong views and I'm not entirely sure if you were attacking DUI, my comments, or me. I just want to be sure you understand my point: I believe that harsh DUI penalties are a good thing, even if they owe their existence to "penalty inflation." The long term effects of that inflation in other venues, however, are still in question.
The greatest historical fiction I have ever read is George MacDonald Frasier's Flashman series. He took a villain from Tom Brown's School Days and turned him into a Victorian hero. Flashman is in on all the important events of the era: causing the Charge of the Light Brigade, nearly scalped at Little Big Horn, invading China during the Teiping rebellion, serving on both sides of the U.S. Civil War, spying during the India Rebellion... you get the drift. He of course meets all the important historical figures (Abe Lincoln, Queen Victoria, etc.) but he also touches on hundreds of minor players, such as Allen Pinkerton (changed law enforcement forever), John Brown (the abolitionist and psychotic who triggered the American Civil War) and even Gilbert and Sullivan's "The very model of the modern major general" (who reformed the British Army into its modern mold, but whose name escapes me). By mass, each book is perhaps 10% footnotes, very meticulous and intruiging.
This would be nothing, though, if Flashman weren't fun. He is everything that the Victorians stood against: a drunkard, womanizer, liar, coward, and scoundrel (the books take the form of deathbed confessions, with him setting the record straight to spite his prudish children and relatives). It's delightful fun to see him get the better of sacred institutions of proper society in one chapter and two chapters later see him about to be tortured to death by some horrid villain. Why? Because the bastard has it coming, of course! Even the footnotes are tonuge in cheek, criticizing Flashman's cowardice and bad memory even as the plot is being built upon those flaws.
Flashman is a great antihero. If you have a chance, wander by your local library and give him a whirl. You'll be happy you did.
Is it just me, or is there an inflation effect hitting our criminal justice system as over time the punishments keep getting higher for the same crimes...
I was about to post something about Larry Niven's Known Space series, where punishments were increased until almost everything was a capital offense in order to keep the organ banks full (one stipulation of execution was that your organs were donated). I was then going to comment about how this hadn't happened, due to the unsuitability of most capital criminals' organs due to drug abuse, AIDS, hep-C, etc. Finally, I was going to point out how in one of his stories the perpetrator was to be executed for committing a minor crime...
Drunk Driving. In the 1970's (when Niven wrote the story), it was a "slap on the wrist" offense. Now, with pressure from MADD, multiple DUIs result in prison time, mandatory counseling, and exposure civil damages that can easilly (if justifiably) ruin an offender.
It isn't the same as being taken apart for spare parts, but it does represent the same phenomenon you cite. Odd how these things seem to come full circle.
I remember the President Quayle bit (shudder), but other thing that slips through the psychic scars was the mention that he was leading our country through "Gulf War II." Mildly creepy, that.
<stands back and prepares for Dan Quayle/George W. Flame War>
It took Adam Arkin and David Schaffer just $200,000 and a grad student...
Since no animal testing was mentioned, I would like to extend my condolences to the grad student's family. It may seem like a great sacrifice, but just think of all the data gathered from the autopsy.
Well, at least you're in good company. You pick a computer, they try to balance the budget. ("Get 'im Soybean Subsidies! Th' ayes! Th' ayes! Claw the ayes aught! Whooyah!! Lookee that! Aye tellya boys, they'rell be no raise for the Libraian of Congress this year.")
Since we're talking about inflamatory journalism, I remember years ago a Bloom County cartoon where a politician calls up the editor of the local newspaper in a rage:
"Hello!? Bloom Beacon?! This is Senator Bedfellow! What's with this *@#! HEADLINE?"
"Headline?"
"Yes! There's no story... just a headline!"
"Which headline?"
"THE *BIG* HEADLINE ON THE FRONT PAGE!"
"Read it to me, Senator."
"BEDFELLOW: THE SECRET LIFE OF A WIFE-SWAPPING ATHEIST"
"Oh, that's just a typo."
I'm glad to see that slashdot is holds itself to the same high standards of journalism.
I'm glad the author of the slashdot story managed to keep his biases concealed until the third word of the story. If the article had praised Gnome, however, why do I suspect we'd be hearing about "Esteemed technical journal ComputerWorld..."
For once, I decided to RTFA and it appears (from reading between the lines) that the thing isn't inside a can, merely shaped like a can and placed inside the cardboard 12 pack box.
This is good, because I was wondering how they how they were going to pull off the "GPS-in-a-Faraday-Cage trick." Forget winning an SUV - there would be a Nobel prize in physics for that one.
We got a safety deposit box some time ago for life insurance and our house title. I also use it for CD backups, although the thing's a hair too narrow for one to lie flat. I could use mini disks or tapes, but instead just place them at an angle.
I know this is a bit extreme, but it gets around the fire safe issues with CD melting points mentioned elsewhere.
Only one name mentioned in the press reports. No University affiliation, no mention of a dive or sonar team, either. Could it be this guy is simply trying to sell the book he wrote last year?
Thanks. That's more in line with the use of the phrase as I've seen it in the past.
I presume, then, that the matter of fees is independent of prejudice - you can ask for fees whenever a case is dismissed (although, obviously, a judge has discretion to not grant them if the suit appears to have some merit).
The WHEREFORE clause asks that the complaint be dismissed with prejudice, and that the court award DaimlerChrysler costs and attorneys' fees. (emphasis added)
IANAL, so I do not know if this is standard for dimissing with prejudice (heck, it might be the defintion of dismissing with prejudice, for all I know), but it seems like DaimlerChrysler isn't going to let them go without some consequences. It might not be a big dent compared to a defamation suit, but it's a start. Also, every drop of red that SCO shows in its annual reports tied to judgements going against them (as opposed to "cost of doing business" in launching the claims) looks worse for the stockholders.
We can only hope those stockholders eventually see sense, since the executive team doesn't.
Slashdot Mirror
With this said, however, I don't think these DUI penalties would have come to be unless there was an overall trend towards harsher penalties for all offenses. When mandatory sentencing required throwing a pot user away for an extended period, MADD knew perfectly well that it became hypocritical not to start nailing DUIs. They used that as leverage to push their agenda and our society today is all the better for it. I view harsher DUI penalties as a just another part of the 1980s War on Drugs, perhaps the only part of that crusade that everyone can agree was just and socially beneficial (I will keep silent on my personal views of the WoD).
You come across as someone with strong views and I'm not entirely sure if you were attacking DUI, my comments, or me. I just want to be sure you understand my point: I believe that harsh DUI penalties are a good thing, even if they owe their existence to "penalty inflation." The long term effects of that inflation in other venues, however, are still in question.
This would be nothing, though, if Flashman weren't fun. He is everything that the Victorians stood against: a drunkard, womanizer, liar, coward, and scoundrel (the books take the form of deathbed confessions, with him setting the record straight to spite his prudish children and relatives). It's delightful fun to see him get the better of sacred institutions of proper society in one chapter and two chapters later see him about to be tortured to death by some horrid villain. Why? Because the bastard has it coming, of course! Even the footnotes are tonuge in cheek, criticizing Flashman's cowardice and bad memory even as the plot is being built upon those flaws.
Flashman is a great antihero. If you have a chance, wander by your local library and give him a whirl. You'll be happy you did.
"Four factors that govern all human endeavors: geography, technology, inertia, and greed."
- Cecil Adams
I was about to post something about Larry Niven's Known Space series, where punishments were increased until almost everything was a capital offense in order to keep the organ banks full (one stipulation of execution was that your organs were donated). I was then going to comment about how this hadn't happened, due to the unsuitability of most capital criminals' organs due to drug abuse, AIDS, hep-C, etc. Finally, I was going to point out how in one of his stories the perpetrator was to be executed for committing a minor crime...
Drunk Driving. In the 1970's (when Niven wrote the story), it was a "slap on the wrist" offense. Now, with pressure from MADD, multiple DUIs result in prison time, mandatory counseling, and exposure civil damages that can easilly (if justifiably) ruin an offender.
It isn't the same as being taken apart for spare parts, but it does represent the same phenomenon you cite. Odd how these things seem to come full circle.
<stands back and prepares for Dan Quayle/George W. Flame War>
Since no animal testing was mentioned, I would like to extend my condolences to the grad student's family. It may seem like a great sacrifice, but just think of all the data gathered from the autopsy.
Well, at least you're in good company. You pick a computer, they try to balance the budget. ("Get 'im Soybean Subsidies! Th' ayes! Th' ayes! Claw the ayes aught! Whooyah!! Lookee that! Aye tellya boys, they'rell be no raise for the Libraian of Congress this year.")
"Hello!? Bloom Beacon?! This is Senator Bedfellow! What's with this *@#! HEADLINE?" ... just a headline!"
"Headline?"
"Yes! There's no story
"Which headline?"
"THE *BIG* HEADLINE ON THE FRONT PAGE!"
"Read it to me, Senator."
"BEDFELLOW: THE SECRET LIFE OF A WIFE-SWAPPING ATHEIST"
"Oh, that's just a typo."
I'm glad to see that slashdot is holds itself to the same high standards of journalism.
Little tunnels where I live.
Pointy hat. Pointy hat.
Pointy hat hides my secrets.
Damn the garden spade!
Damn the garden spade!
(Nods to the applause of a dozen hipsters snapping their fingers)
I'm glad the author of the slashdot story managed to keep his biases concealed until the third word of the story. If the article had praised Gnome, however, why do I suspect we'd be hearing about "Esteemed technical journal ComputerWorld..."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel very unclean and need to take a bath in a tub of bleach.
This is good, because I was wondering how they how they were going to pull off the "GPS-in-a-Faraday-Cage trick." Forget winning an SUV - there would be a Nobel prize in physics for that one.
3... 2... 1...
Why did you give away the ending! I was only halfway--
Oh. Wait a second. All her stuff's like that.
Carry on.
Fine. I'll just go off and read some Agatha Christe.
Oh, wait. Wrong daydream. My bad.
Does your comment mean he now takes Paypal?
Damn. I thought that guy with Thinkgeek T shirt just bluffing.
Hahahaha!
I know this is a bit extreme, but it gets around the fire safe issues with CD melting points mentioned elsewhere.
Only one name mentioned in the press reports. No University affiliation, no mention of a dive or sonar team, either. Could it be this guy is simply trying to sell the book he wrote last year?
Er, that's what the link in the post was for...
A week and no responses to the post. I guess not.
I presume, then, that the matter of fees is independent of prejudice - you can ask for fees whenever a case is dismissed (although, obviously, a judge has discretion to not grant them if the suit appears to have some merit).
Thanks again.
The WHEREFORE clause asks that the complaint be dismissed with prejudice, and that the court award DaimlerChrysler costs and attorneys' fees. (emphasis added)
IANAL, so I do not know if this is standard for dimissing with prejudice (heck, it might be the defintion of dismissing with prejudice, for all I know), but it seems like DaimlerChrysler isn't going to let them go without some consequences. It might not be a big dent compared to a defamation suit, but it's a start. Also, every drop of red that SCO shows in its annual reports tied to judgements going against them (as opposed to "cost of doing business" in launching the claims) looks worse for the stockholders.
We can only hope those stockholders eventually see sense, since the executive team doesn't.