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The phrases "mental illness" and "legally insane" have specific definitions and we don't each get to individually decide for ourselves what they mean. Just because you think killing a child defines legally insane does not make it so.




That's what the whole point is about, that your carved in stone attitude towards these legal definitions are being challenged, by me. I claim people who commit heinous crimes like this are deficient in some deep way we cannot understand, and deserving of humane treatment, while being removed from society.

As an aside, I actually have never understood punishment. When I fucked up as a child, I knew it, and felt bad about it. Being punished didn't help anything at all. When I train my dog, I may scold him if he fucks up, but only until he understands that he fucked up. If I come home and he has his tail between his legs, and there is some kind of mess, I grumble at him a little and clean up the mess. We both know he fucked up, and we both feel bad about it, so scolding him further or doing something physical has no advantage. And my dog learned quite well.

I think there are some areas where a deterrent effect may be achieved, such as speeding, robbery, and several corporate crimes. The deterrent must "cost" much, much more to the person or corporation than the possible gain from the crime.

Punishment to extract revenge, however, is just wrong, and two wrongs don't make a right. Hating the criminals serves little purpose than to blind ourselves to practical and ethical considerations. Inhumane punishments have about the same effect as if I would begin kicking my dog every day, and just like that would make me an asshole, abusing prisoners makes our society morally deficient.

Hopefully you will see I am challenging the definitions of mental illness and insanity, and see my argument in heinous cases, once again, is that the person is very deeply flawed and needs to be permanently and humanely removed.

-Chuck, Vegetarian fanboy
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Fuck 'em all but nine.