Posts by SanFranciscoJim

I'm not entirely sure that's true, Stacy. True sexual predators, it is believed, suffer from a form of mental illness -- an overpowering compulsion to repeat their offenses again and again. They are true psychopaths. There are others, though, who may have committed a sexual offense one time, and one time only. They are not mentally ill, but made one horrible, tragic mistake in their lives. I happen to personally know four such people. (Not to frighten you, Stacy, but one of them lives in your town.)

Two of these one-time offenders were heavily under the influence of alcohol and in a blackout when the offenses were committed. Neither of them has any memory of the event that landed them in jail. The third man I know was seduced by the minor, and unfortunately succumbed to the seduction. It was his own guilty conscience that made him turn himself in. The fourth was also seduced by a minor who lied about his age, and then turned the adult in after the adult broke off the relationship. (Believe me, there is a lot more seduction by minors going on out there than society cares to admit.) All of these people committed their offenses between 10 and 20 years ago. None of them have ever repeated them, and all of them are active members of 12-step programs.

Perhaps it is because I actually know these four people personally, but I do not believe that our judicial system should bog itself down by taking the attitude that these people be locked up permanently, with the key thrown away. These are good men, who made a horrible mistake once in their life, and have paid the price through imprisonment and required sex offender registry. There isn't a day that goes by that they aren't haunted by the memory of what they did. They are genuinely remorseful, and terribly ashamed. Arbitrarily over-punishing those who commit such offences under extenuating circumstances would only serve to tax our resources against getting the real criminals -- the violent, predatory offenders -- off the streets and into protective custody. I'm not saying that these men should have gotten off scot-free. They did their time in prison as law dictates. What I am saying, though, is that if we clutter the judicial and penal systems with those who made a one-time, never-to-be-repeated mistake, how many of the true predatory psychotics (who are usually intelligent and often very clever) will continue to slip through the cracks of the system?

14

No Wonder I can't find a job!

by Gretchen956 in

jw
friends

bush headed toward worst record.

for job growth in 58 years.

(average monthly growth in employment during presidency)

SanFranciscoJim

There are plenty of jobs available in Mexico, India, and Malaysia. That's where all the U.S. manufacturing jobs have moved to. Why not consider moving to a third world country?

41

On your 21st birthday

by Stacy Smith in

jw
friends

i still have a few months to go but i'm planning my day.

i want to go to vegas and play poker.

i love poker and play it quite often.

SanFranciscoJim

I was still an active JW on my 21st birthday, so I didn't recognize it.

However, my birthday falls on or near Thanksgiving (it's coming up next week), so I went to my (non-JW) mother's house and ate Thanksgiving dinner with her and the family. Why did I do this? Because everyone in my congregation was having turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing on Thanksgiving day, except they weren't calling it Thanksgiving. Their logic was "turkey is on sale at this time of year". So, as long as I didn't refer to the meal as a Thanksgiving meal, I was not despicable in Jehovah's eyes.

8

What is it with Bangladesh?

by Noumenon in

jw
friends

.

i boggle when i read the jw's worldwide service report and see that bangladesh, with a population of over 100,000,000 only has about 100 witnesses.. doesn't jehovah or the organisation care about bangladeshis?.

so much for 'and this good news will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come'.

SanFranciscoJim

When I was a JW back in the 1970s, there were only 3 baptized JWs in Bangladesh. Now there are 100! This is a 3300% increase! What an incredible testament to Jehovah's blessings.

The remaining millions are doomed to die at Armageddon......

34

Should Sexual Offenders Be Detained Even After They've Done Their Time?

by Country Girl in

jw
friends

questions rise over imprisoning sex offenders past their terms

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

add top stories - the new york times to my yahoo!

SanFranciscoJim

There is definitely abuse towards prisoners going on in the system. However, when all is said and done, I'd rather feel my children were safe on the street because we erred on the side of "warehousing" potential recidivists too long (their victims are certainly living with the effects all their lives long!) than to risk early release of a "dangerous, devious and manipulative" type offender.

This is an excellent point, outnfree. While these offenders receive psychiatric evaluation and treatment while incarcerated (albeit incompetent in many prison systems), there is rarely any compensation given to their victims. Not all rapists or pedophiles are from the lower classes. In fact, many are financially secure. During their period of incarceration, the assets of these felons should be used to pay for therapeutic assistance direct to their victims and their families.

If the threat of loss of all assets looms over the sexual predator, they may think twice before committing an offense.

34

Should Sexual Offenders Be Detained Even After They've Done Their Time?

by Country Girl in

jw
friends

questions rise over imprisoning sex offenders past their terms

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

add top stories - the new york times to my yahoo!

SanFranciscoJim

I have personally seen that once a sex offender always a sex offender.

Panda, I respectfully disagree. This is a very charged subject, so please let me explain. First of all, I am not coming to the defense of sex offenders, rapists, pedophiles, or their activities. Having said that, I believe that the justice system needs to take a closer look at how a person is labelled a sex offender.

In most states, there are several classifications of sex offenders. The worst of these are predatory "class A" felons. These are the ones that, even after they have been released from prison, should be monitored with great care. Currently, there is no legislation in place to guarantee this sort of societal protection. Many of these predators receive prison sentences, do their time, and are released. The only thing subsequently required of them is an annual registration with their local police department under sex offender laws. This is not enough. These predators should be made to wear monitoring devices and have their movements restricted. They should not be allowed within certain distance of schools, playgrounds, children's toy stores, or pornographic bookstores. They should also be required to meet with both their probation officer and a court-ordered psychotherapist weekly. This should be done for the rest of their natural lives.

On the other side of the coin, there are individuals who engage in unlawful sexual activity only once. These people are not predatory in nature, and generally do not pose any further threat to society. For example, what of the individual who engages in an unlawful sexual act while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs? Such persons should be sentenced to a term of incarceration for their act, but also be required to seek drug and/or alcohol addiction treatment upon release. They should also be required to register as a sex offender. If, however, these persons do not repeat the offense, and are able to maintain their sobriety for a period of, say, ten years, they should be dropped from the rolls of the sex offender registry. Many people do things under the influence of mind-altering substances that they would never otherwise do. Should these people be categorically treated with the same harshness as someone who is a violent sexual predator? IMHO, to do so would be unfair and wrong.

Then, there are cases of individuals who hae sex relations with those whom they believe are their peers. For example, what of the 21 year old boy who has voluntary sex with a 17 year old? Should he be viewed as a predator? No, unless rape (including date rape) are involved. What of the adult male who has sex with a mature-looking teenager who identifies himself or herself as of legal age (18+), but in actuality turns out to be only, say, 14 or 15 years old? Should the adult be treated as a sexual deviant or predator? If the sex was consensual between both parties, I do not believe that the adult person should be held liable for a crime, especially if the minor participant deliberately misrepresented themselves.

I believe that our judicial system needs to look at these variables when looking at each and every sex offense case. In doing so, it would serve to strengthen the battle against pedophilia and rape, not weaken it, because it would sift out the true predators from those who are likely one-time offenders. In doing this, our resources could be concentrated on monitoring the dangerous predators in our midst. Under the current system, this is not happening. Resources are stretched to the limit, and too many predatory individuals are slipping through the cracks, disappearing into the general population upon release. We are losing track of too many of these violent offenders, simply because we do not have the laws in place to properly track their movements and protect society.

Holding them in prison past their court-ordered sentence date can be currently viewed as a violation of their constitutional rights, and some who are still incarcerated are strenuously fighting it, as noted in the article above. Legislation needs to be enacted to ensure that these predatory felons have their activities closely monitored for the rest of their lives. Such legislation should be made retroactive to the time that they were originally sentenced. Incarceration in a psychiatric facility after their prison sentence for an indeterminate period of time should be a part of that legislation, if the person is still deemed a danger to society.

Any offense against a child or other unwilling participant is a heinous crime. All violators should be prosecuted, tried, and sentenced accordingly. The justice meted out needs to be tempered with common sense and a close examination of the circumstances behind the offense so that resources used to protect society are not exhausted by those who do not belong "in the system".

19

More useless facts for people who have nothing to do but sit in front of a.

by Tatiana in

....computer all day with a bottle of wine.. if you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

ask my kids.

it doesn't work.. --the human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet.. --on average people fear spiders more than they do death.. --the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

SanFranciscoJim

* A zebra is white with black stripes. - A nun is black with white stripes.

* All the planets in our solar system rotate counter-clockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise. - Venus is currently on public reproof.

* The word "listen" contains the same letters as the word "silent". - The name "Bobo" contains the same letters as the word "boob".

* The only 2 animals that can see behind themselves without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot. - Rabbits and parrots are also the only 2 animals that lay chocolate Cadbury Easter eggs.

* A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. - A "jiffy" is also a food unit used to describe 1/100 of the annual production of a peanut plantation.

* The whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound. - Many submissive men move faster than the speed of sound when the dominatrix cracks the whip.

* A hippopotamus can run faster than a man. - Racing hippos against humans was outlawed in the late 19th century because too many humans got smooshed.

* India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history. - There is no need for India to overrun any country since they have already conquered the world's 7-11s and Kwick-E-Marts.

* 'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words. - AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

* Didaskaleinophobia is the fear of going to school. - Watchtowergrainophobia is the fear of Miracle Wheat.

* Phobatrivaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias !! - Phobatrivaphobaverbalphobia is the fear of talking about people who are afraid of trivia about phobias.

* It is impossible to lick your elbow. - It is illegal in 39 states to lick other people's elbows.

* A snail can sleep for 3 years. - Snails are currently suing the Serta Mattress Co. for stealing their phrase "perfect sleeper".

* In 1883 the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa put so much dust into the earth's atmosphere that sunsets appeared green and the moon appeared blue around the world for almost two years. - It was during this period that the Johnson brothers invented Pledge, and became overnight millionaires.

* "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. - Medieval linguists are still trying to figure out why the word "abcdefg" is no longer used in the English language.

* Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire. - If cows are grazing in that field, they will be electrocuted.

* Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Say no evil ). - In other languages and cultures, the three monkeys are known as Manny, Moe, and Jack -or- Tom, Dick, and Harry -or- Moe, Larry, and Curly, -or- Charlie's Angels.

* 55 per cent of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn. - This syndrome can be cured by tossing a shelled peanut into the mouth of the person yawning.