Dan

here's what you said: so correct me if I'm wrong, but what I understood from it is that you are saying that the killer of a certain Person A ("A" occupies a higher position in society compared to Person B, who is homeless), would be punished more harshly than the killer of Person B... I may have messed up your whole point, and I apologize if I did..

recognized? as far as I know, there is no single Christian authority. there are different churches, but no one higher authority that governs all of them. and when i say "churches", i am just using the short form to refer to all religions. certainly there are open-minded buddhists, muslims, christians, and Jews. e.g.: here in Toronto, there's the MCC, it's a Christian church... they have no illegal activities (if that's what you're referring to by saying "recognized")... and they bless gay marriages... and I believe it is their right to do that, just as it is gay people's right to get married. another thing, governments should have no say in what churches believe in or practice - so why get involved in religion when state and religion are really separate? why do religious figures want to pressurize the government to ban gay marriages.. how would they have liked if their religion was made illegal by the government?

lol Sip, so what you're saying if someone brutally killed a homeless person, he might get away with it? Or not get a life sentence? ... I don't know... of course I wouldn't.... that's why Saving Private Ryan was such a stupid movie...

Sip, since when did we keep people alive for benefits? Do you believe in utilitiarianism? no matter what, I believe human life is precious. Remember, that's why those people are in jail in the first place, right? For having put an end to a life that is precious (in and of itself, not necessarily for others).. so how can one do the same to others, and give the same argument for incarcerating those people? Edit note: That said, I'm also unsure about euthanasia.. I don't think people should decide others' fate, but at the same time, if there's physical pain involved, I believe people should do what is in the best interests of the patient (i.e. painless life, or death).. W.r.t the argument about life, I'm pro-abortion.. but i'm not gonna go into that, since the thread is not about that.

Stormy, we're talking about a nationwide ban on same-sex marriage.. like I said, not all churches are against homosexuality. so if there are those who want to bless gay marriages, why have it banned? i don't get it. no one would be forcing those churches to conduct marriage for gay couples if they don't want to, but at least those who want to CAN.

I'm not a permanent resident or a citizen... I'm 20 (not underage )

oh... in that case.. hmmm.. well, I learned a lot of English words I didn't even know existed when I was taking the SAT I test, and I put the words on small papers and the meanings on the other side, and tried to take a guess at each word and then see if I had got the meaning right... so even if you don't have to know the meanings of them, you could still do something like that to memorize them in order (if that's what is required).. just a suggestion.

Armat, what kinda data is it? You mean numbers or? I used to memorize A LOT by making connections to other stuff in life, that helps me a lot. good luck..

wow... or rather, woooooo hooooooooooo.

don't worry, I still love you lol..

if reading Ernest Hemingway is something worthwile, then I guess yeah...........................

sev-mard, I did a quick google search about suicide & life sentences, and here's what I came up with: "In PA those serving life sentences made up 17% of the state prison population, but accounted for 37% and 44% of the suicides in 1998 and 1999 respectively." Not sure how accurate that is.. of course, that's only in one location, but still... http://www.mces.org/Suicide_Prisons_Jails.html

lmao... you didn't believe me?

Except that I'm not legally allowed to work in Canada....

Stormy got it right.

My friend got fraud on her TD Bank account... they've been having those issues for a while here.. sucks..

how? you mean from online banking? wow, that sucks, man.. good luck...

No, anileve jan.. I am simply debating and trying to look at both sides of the coin. So far, I have not advocated either solution (read as "problem"). Never. I'm not in the States, but if I were, NEVER. http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~cs213198/ranting.gif They're as evil/bad as the Tories..

oooh, hello fellow procrastinator.

yeah :( and for me - life without computers is just pointless.

I agree. But would you want to be that cruel to people? I mean... I don't know. I'm personally not sure if I could force someone to rot in hell no matter how bad his/her crimes were. I'd rather he/she were executed. I don't know.... I'm not sure about my views on this.. It's a really tough moral dilemma.

There's at least one that I know of.. - he/she goes by the name MountAraratBlossom. I have the e-mail address too, but I'm reluctant to post it here.. He/she has written some stuff on firewall penetration, etc.

depends on how conservative that person is... if he's too conservative, uhh no, i'd rather that he be fat and outgoing/open-minded than conservative...

lol... i bet that would get me banned quicker than it would get YOU banned from here.. so i'd rather not. what's wrong with Hagarag??!!? I like him.. He's cool. as for the chess/online games suggestion, that was a good one.. i'm gonna go play backgammon lol..

For the paranoids among you: http://www.msnfanatic.com/blockcheck/ and http://www.geocities.com/chavalpk/MSNBlockDetect.zip << copy & paste (no remote linking)