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Brisketexan

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Posts posted by Brisketexan

  1. Just now, wutang75 said:

     


    Ok - let’s take a case of a serial killer that is caught my a surviving witness, DNA is faultless, maybe he even confesses. Still no needle?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

     

    Nope.

    Because there's no practical mechanism for creating a legal dividing line between that type of case and the 164 other Capital Murder cases that were wrongly decided.

    Witness testimony is proven to be unreliable.

    DNA evidence that you think is "faultless" may turn out to be contaminated, tampered with, etc. -- and you don't know that right away.

    False confessions can be -- and often are -- coerced.

    That doesn't mean that the guy isn't guilty as sin.  It just means that there is ALWAYS a possibility of error and/or shenanigans.

  2. 2 minutes ago, wutang75 said:

    I know there are a lot of attorneys on this site but it seems that for a case to be made a capital murder case, it goes through a rigorous (extremely?) process. Maybe not as much so in Texas. Enlighten me.

    Here's a simple summary of why the error rate is so high:

    Emotion clouds human judgment.

    The entire process depends on human judgment, ultimately.

    There's not much more emotional than the fact pattern of a Capital Murder case.

  3. 2 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

    That’s a bad ass link.  All sorts of cool info there. 

     

     Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution. (Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000).
    • The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of sentencing murderers to life imprisonment. The majority of those costs occur at the trial level. (Duke University, May 1993).
    • In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).

    And the dollars was the first thing to get me to move off of a pro-death penalty position.  I love vengeance as much as the next guy (actually, probably way more, like an unhealthy level more), but we have better things to do with our dollars.

    Throw bad people in the hole that they never get out of.  Be cheap about it.  AND, if it turns out we were wrong (we have a proven, significant error rate in such matters), we can fix our mistake by releasing them.

    • Like 1
  4. 2 hours ago, thestud said:

     

     


    Really? It wasn’t the school bus lifted 8’ in the air and converted into a mobile stripper stage? Or the F-350 that requires a skid steer to change the tires? Or the Deuce ‘n a half with “pussy patrol” painted across the side?
     

     

     

    Dude, those things can be ambiguous.  Could be a church group for all I know.

    I mean, an AWESOME church group, but still.....

  5. Just now, tjhooker said:

    FYI I was a waiter in college.  Don't recall these experiences.  Weird. 

    If you can't remember who the asshole was in an encounter, that's because you were the asshole.

    • Like 9
  6. 3 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

    considering our current president wasn't even sure he wanted to run, then wasn't sure he wanted to win, then definitely didn't think he was going to win, before he actually won, i think some preparation like you described would be kinda nice.  i do like his answer to the question, "you're only 37, so why now?"  he "gets it".

    I've worked with a lot of executive officers.  I've worked with enterprises as executives were hired, I've worked with them as they were fired.  In my experience, the uniform qualities of a good CEO are that they are competent at the TASKS of the job (managing a board, employees, political officials, whatever the case may be), and they are genuinely motivated to fulfill the mission of the enterprise -- they actually believe in it.  When you have those qualities, it's amazing how the high-functioning CEO of a software company can transition to becoming the high-functioning CEO of a pipe manufacturer.

    • Like 1
  7. Just now, tjhooker said:

    That venn you are describing would have very tiny overlap in the area you describe and could be done for any large group. 

    Yet other large groups -- hispanics, women, muslims, dudes who wear gimme caps....none of them appear in my circle of "were assholes when I waited tables" with the frequency of "Christians."  So, again, you're bad at Venn Diagrams.  Add that to the list of things you're bad at.  You're gonna need more paper.

  8. 4 minutes ago, tjhooker said:

    You speak as if that is just assumed fact not even debatable.  I would say within every group there are bad apples and to draw broad generalizations as the one above is intellectually dishonest at best.  We have to put people into buckets though so we can make things easier for our world view of things.  Allows for easy confirmation bias. 

    X person did this from X group. Therefore they're all like that. 

    You're bad at Venn diagrams.

    Which doesn't surprise me at all.

  9. 3 hours ago, Js1 said:

    I agree with this.

    It is March 27, 2019.  I don't necessary need 16 (17? 19? how many people are running?) policy wonks 11 months out from Iowa.  White papers and detailed policy positions don't get you headlines and TV coverage.

    Save the circle wonk for the June 2019 debate when they can debate actual ideas and policy against each other.  Until then, communicate themes and values that primary voters want to hear.  Give me the whats now - healthcare, voting rights, minimum wage, etc. - and the hows in about 3-4 months. 

    We're interviewing for a CEO position.  Yes, I'm going to want to eventually discuss specific proposals he has for the enterprise.  But the biggest, gatekeeper questions for me are competence and motivation.  Does this person have the skillset to be a high-functioning CEO?  That means the skill of working with multiple stakeholder groups, managing employees and constituents in an effective way, etc.  Does he have the proper motivation?  That is, does he desire to advance the interests of the enterprise and its stakeholders, or is he in it just for himself?  Does he UNDERSTAND the mission and purpose of the enterprise?  Fundamentally, he has to show HOW he would do the job, and WHY he would do the job.  Once he clears those hurdles, then we can talk about the WHAT he will do in the job, but honestly, if he answers the first questions well, he's usually going to have pretty good answers to the third one.

  10. 12 minutes ago, tjhooker said:

    I am sure it was just the Christian right who twice stiffed you on a tip.  I don't assign myself to that group but I have family who definitely are and I have never seen this behavior when I go out and eat with them.  I guess they're outliers.  Christians are evil people I guess.

    Venn diagram it.

    Not all "Christians" are evil people.  And note, those quotes are important.  "Christians" is a label that people self-apply.   Followers of Christ, on the other hand, is an evidence-based label.  I have found followers of Christ to uniformly be good people, even though they have all the normal human failings.

    But from my several years of waiting tables, all but one of my worst stories are about "Christians."  The meanest, most abusive table I ever waited on -- so bad that I handed it off to the manager, and he even agreed that they were horrible -- spent the entire meal being outwardly pious, praying loudly, etc. (when they weren't being cruel and abusive).

    So, in the Venn diagram I crafted from my waiter experience, not all "Christians" are assholes.  But almost all the assholes I dealt with were "Christians."

    Gandhi was spot the fuck on.

    And I state this observance as the spouse of a pastor, and as a member of numerous religious organization boards over the past 15 years.

    • Like 2
  11. 39 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    Republicans will throw a $10 in the church collection plate at 11:30 and then tip their waiter 0% at Outback Steakhouse at 1:30 but leave a pamphlet spreading the word of Jesus Christ.

    Back when I waited tables, that EXACT scenario went down at least twice.  A note saying "Your tip today is the Good News that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior!"  Fuckers.  Jesus didn't pay my rent.

    • Like 1
  12. 1 minute ago, Chrispy said:

    Well, it seems you’re pushing against an open door here in some sense, as I’ve already stated my support for assisting those that are disabled.

    But, if we’re talking about the entire welfare system, the yes I’m very concerned about casting that net too wide. 

    The cool thing is that morons like Chrispy don't understand that if you push down on one part of the balloon, it just bulges out somewhere else.

    For example, the custody modification case I saw in court yesterday (had to sit through it before they got to my matter).  Two real winners fighting over the best interests of their toddler.  Each of them has been in the criminal system (drug convictions, assault cases); they have been in the civil system multiple times (the judge went through the litany of appearances before him on the custody matter, and all of his past orders), CPS has been involved and was there to testify, deputies in two counties are currently investigating criminal matters.

    These folks have utilized taxpayer-funded criminal courts and law enforcement, civil courts, and administrative agencies.  If they had a better support system from the get-go, we can keep at least some of these folks out of these situations, saving us a lot of taxpayer dollars spent on other services.

    We spend a fortune on incarceration, and make cuts to education.  We are the Republic of Cutting Off Our Nose to Spite Our Face.

    • Like 3
  13. I long for the day when the world (re)discovers that being clever in talking shit on Twitter is not an important or impressive skill.  Nobody in the 1990s thought the best heckler in their section of the baseball stadium should be President or a fixture on CNN.

    Man....but if they had....those were my f’n glory days at the Disch. Augie recognized my voice, just hearing it made him laugh. I coulda been king.
  14. No San Antonio? What a puto.
    The thing about Robert Francis is he doesn't seem to really pursue the Hispanic vote but prefers to bask in the adoration of white upper middle class America.
    Beto O'Rourke is basically the Torchys Taco of Texas politics.

    Man, I actually like Beto....but this is f’n SCRONG.
  15. Well, we’re starting out by meeting my son in Germany at the end of his exchange program. And we’ll meet him in Berlin because 1) cheap and quick flight there from AUS (relatively), 2) we love Berlin, and 3) my daughter has dear friends there who she wants to visit. And we’re flying back to the US out of Copenhagen because there’s a cheap straight shot to LAX (where we’re meeting family for a week in SoCal). So, to Berlin. Then to Norway (itinerary tbd) for 5 days. Then to Copenhagen and Malmo for 4 days. Then to LAX.

    We’ve made it a point to do something “different” each time we met one of the kids after their German exchange. We did a jaunt to Armenia last time.

    Berlin is easy for us to plan. Copenhagen seems easy enough to plan.
    The Norway bit is where we’re looking to explore.

  16. 2 days and we drove to the end and about halfway back before getting on a ferry to bodo. We stayed in Svolvaer, but I would recommend staying deeper in the islands in a fishing village there's some really cool ones. 

    Dude, this is awesome info.

    Wife is already pumped about this sort of itinerary, as is the boy. A trip above the arctic circle is totally his bag.
  17. Tromso to lofoten is about a full days drive (7-8 hours with stops), but you get to see some of the most awesome fjords and tunnels in Norway. Super worth it.

    And how long to spend in Lofoten? 2 days? I mean...I figure we have lots of time to see stuff, what with 23.9 hours of daylight.

    Also...I love cotija cheese. Nothing to do with Norway, but mmm....queso cotija.
  18. So, our Norwegian exchange student agrees - she thinks that Tromso and Lofoten would be very cool. Midnight sun at Tromso, and she says Lofoten is very popular with folks she knows (she hasn’t been yet, but she’s heard how beautiful it is).

    How do you get from Tromso to the islands? Long drive? I’m thinking we have 5 days in Norway, and 4 in Copenhagen and Malmo. Do we even spend a day in Oslo?

  19. Just now, immamac said:

    This is probably something you won't do, it's on the island of Senja and it's called senjatrollen it's the worlds largest troll with a troll museum inside lol.

    The world's largest troll?

    What's his Surly handle?

  20. Just now, Bone3421 said:

    Thats not a bad way to do it though...pick a few places you want to see then wing the rest

    I usually have a sight seeing day or 1/2 a day then a full day of just walking the streets with no aim

    I'm down with that....but....it's a big-ass country.  Need to be in at least the right area.  I figure we'll fly in to Oslo from Berlin, it's easy.  And we can at least spend a day in Oslo -- seems like we kinda have to, right?  But after that.....wherever, dude.

  21. 42 minutes ago, immamac said:

    Happy to send over a full itinerary of what we did upon request, it's pretty hefty and has a lot on there you can choose from and includes what we paid for everything.

    And yeah -- would LOVE to see that.  I have no idea WTF I'm doing.  I just know that my wife wants to see some epic scenery and fjords and shit (and I kinda do too).  And, my daughter is getting her conversational Norwegian down, so we'll have a passable translator in the hinterlands, if need be.

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