Congrats on the 17!

God, it's wierd to see someone with a seventeenth birthday and for them to be younger than you...

I feel old :)

Abortion: Yes
Capital Punishment: No

Yay birthday messages!

About abortion/capital punishment ... Okay ... whyyyyy? Defend your opinions. :) I'll play devil's advocate. Let's get some discussion going?

Alright... I was about to go to bed, but this is more interesting! you asked for it, so here goes:

Abortion: Firstly and most importantly, I think it's the mother's choice. Given that in the event that the baby is born the mother will have primary care of the baby (despite our egalitarian age, it is still true - just look at who usually gets care of kids ina divorce) she should have the choice to not have the child.

In addition I think that to bring an unwanted baby into the world is a terrible thing. Not only will it probably cause the child to have an unenviable upbringing, whether with parent/s that don't want him or in an orphanage, it will often scar them for life. It is quite obvious that a bad upbringing tends to produce a vicious circle, of people who then bring up their own children badly etc.

As well as this, the world is grossly over populated already, do we really need to bring unwanted people into it? There are already too many orphans and unwanted children, we don't need more.

There is obviously the moral problem that one is theortically murdering a human being, but as long as it is at an early stage, I do not think that the fetus can truely be called a human, any more than you could call a woman who has a period a murderer, because they had the potential for life in them...

And I'm not proposing forced abortion, of course. Anyone who doesn't want one, whether it be for religious, moral or any other reason can feel free to keep their child. I just hope that they raise them well.

Capital Punishment: My main reason for being against capital punishment is that it is completely irreversible, and also has no true advantages. Statistics have shown that the introduction of capital punishment does not lower the rate of crime, either crime in general, or crime for which there is capital punsihment.

On the other hand, students at one of America's best law schools (it may have been Harvard, I'm not sure) managed to find that more than half of the people on death row in America are there with insuficient proof, and that a significant proportion (I don't remember exactly what proportion, but more than 10%) have quite obvious proof, and often proof that was shown in trial, that shows they did not commit the crime for which they are on death row. Given the falability of justice systems in the world...

Now the death penalty is, quite obviously, irreversable. If people are falsely put on death row, then you are killing innocent people. Now, if they were put in prison, while the punsihment may have be given, if they are proven innocent, they can be let out, and compensated. Obviously you can't truely compensate someone for years in jail, but a large sum of money can do quite a lot, for example ;)

However, if you've killed someone, that's it. You can say "sorry, we were wrong" but you can't bring them back to life.

So basically, there are no advantages that I know of to having capital punishment, and significant disadvantages... Seems quite obvious to me :)

There you go... I did my best :)

Well done ... for the record, I pretty much agree with you. :) Nice logic.

Oops. Hi. That was me. I forgot to log in. :P

I agree with the person above me, and I'm now beyond twice 17 (ACK!)

Happy birthday whenever it was.

I'm not up for debating at the moment, I'll check back later if I'm over taken by a need to debate. Right now the need to have slept longer is foremost in my brain.

I'm afraid I'm not up for a debate (too sick) but i did want to wish you a very happy 17th birthday!!!! ^____^ (Since I obviously missed it... *lol*)

And may I say, it's very hard to believe you're only 17. 0_0 The only teenagers I know where I live would never be able to form and hold the opinions that you do... ^_^

Hee! Don't worry, there are lots of smart teens out in the world ... I have lots of friends who are as opinionated as me ...

You have no idea how truly comforting that is... *lol*

I think that my views two years ago were pretty similar to my views today :)

Awesome! You are 17 now! Happy Birtday...Belated....

Abortion:yes! (I already signed the "Protect Roe" petition!!! http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/roberts_roeCall2

ummmmm... what was the other one....um... oh! capital punishment! Nooooooo.... Evil!

See ya later,

DT

Hee, thanks! And hey, how the hell are you? We haven't talked in too long.

So, c'mon, I know you're smart ... defend your positions! :P

Roe, Roe, Roe and Wade
Gently down the draaaain
Verily, verily, verily, verily
Lifers are insaaaaane!

I'm anti-abortion. I'm anti-mastectomy. Anti-amputation. Generally anti-death or mutilation of any kind. Nonetheless, I acknowledge there are circumstances where these things are medically advisable, and I am pro-choice. That is, I think these decisions must be made by an individual advised by his/her doctor or other medical practitioner.

I oppose the use of the term "pro-life". Historically, pro-lifers are not. They are anti-choice. The term speciously implies that abortion is a choice between morality and civil liberties. That's the danger, because people often will opt for a moral society over a free one. A society which legislates personal medical decisions is not inherently moral. In fact, it's generally the opposite; historically, societies which severely restrict personal bodily freedoms turn out to be the most bloody, cruel, and ultimately morally unconscionable.

But it might be more in your interest to debate other subjects, such as finishing high school. While I realize high school is not for everyone, I don't think it's advisable for an intelligent just-17-year-old with a math disability to drop out of high school.

Would any of the other readers care to discuss this?

[whiny] Mo-ooomm, this is my political journal, not my personal journal. Some people's parents.

The political nuts of the world don't care if I'm dropping out. :P That shouldn't be discussed here.

I have Dyscalculia and I dropped out at 17

Do you have Dyscalculia?

(Sorry, that one hit home. I stumbled across your journal, and couldn't help but wonder what math disability was being referred to)

Also, in an attempt to stay on your topic.... anti-abortion, but pro-choice.
Abortion is barbaric and disgusting, but people are going to do it no matter what. The abortion rate did not change at all when it was made legal. If people can't have safe abortions in clinics, they're gonna use drano and clothes hangers.
And capital punishment-- Or any punishment-- is a definite 'No'. Rehabilitation or bust

Good eye. :) Yeah, it's kind of a combination of dyscalculia (for some reason, only when I try to do any algebraic thinking, as opposed to geometric) and really bad obsessive-compulisve disorder triggered by math. I can do arithmetic for about ten minutes before I can't handle dust, asymmetry, or my own bad handwriting. :P

I couldn't agree with you more about her dropping out of high school, Momma...And I'm soo amused, that just made my day! Thank you for the much-needed laugh that I just got out of that.
Love,
Michelle

Abortion - Yes
Capital punishment - only if it is entertaining
Fried foods - no

Nobody likes you and your mother dresses you funny.

... and how could capital punishment be entertaining? I'm serious. We debate things seriously on this journal, dude.

Happy birthday! :)

Danke! :)