I upgraded to WordPress 2.6 and my website didn't blow up!

...looks the same, actually...but this is BIG...I think...

Huh?

Last night I was walking home from taking Graeme to the pool when I had this conversation with a neighbour I'd never met before:

Neighbour: Do you know we have a sexual predator in the neighbourhood?
Me: There's enough people it kind of figures there's somebody.
Neighbour: Well, I know who it is. I have a paper about him.
Me: If I want to know who it is, I'll find out myself, thanks.
Neighbour: Don't you want to protect your kids?
Me: If I take your paper, I will only be able to continue to protect my kids as I always have, only I'll also have tromped all over the basic principle that incarceration is about rehabilitation and taken the first step towards becoming a witch hunter. Not interested in marking someone with a scarlet letter.

*proud that Dweller didn't trade Graeme to the sexual predator for a piece of paper*

*applauds Dweller*

*hugs the daylights outta him too*

You make me proud to know you

ETA: *FWAPS* Furicookeh

That was pretty awesome, Dweller.

I really don't have a problem with registering sex offenders, I just have a problem with registering them like an item in a store inventory - once labelled, it stays forever.

If you have a neighbour who's a pedophile, that's good to know - I don't think it's a shocking thing to say that sexual urges are hard to resist, and if people don't know, it's hard for them to help. If I knew my neighbour's a car thief, I'd know better than to leave my car running in the driveway. No point in tempting someone, on any level, but I'd much rather have my car stolen than me or my kids or Christy . . . acted upon in a vile manner.

On the other hand, this "sexual predator" might well have been arrested for having sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend when he was 18. Almost a decade ago, which is when these registries show up. And the guy's going to be there forever. That's not right and that's not fair, but justice is blind, and for the meantime, I'm going to be blind to it, or at least it's list, until it's a useful tool that makes for better communities and not something else that leaves us bowling alone.

Sexual Predator

*imagines crab-faced steroid freaks with thermal vision and dreds chasing kiddies at DisneyWorld around*

*Jessie Ventura ain't got time to bleed and gets a tri-laser on his face and blows up*

I don't know just where the term came from, and it may have made some sense at some point in time, but now it's just a way to label people - they aren't criminals or offenders, they're "predators," like animals, can't be changed, only contained or shot.

I believe everyone deserves a second chance, but N.I.M.B.Y., so I guess I'm a hypocrite.

quote:

That's not right and that's not fair, but justice is blind, and for the meantime, I'm going to be blind to it, or at least it's list, until it's a useful tool that makes for better communities and not something else that leaves us bowling alone.

That's the exact same approach Rae and I have, when her fam decides it's protecting us by sending links to the 'see if there's an offender in your neighborhood' websites. Well played.

Christy's family and mine have thankfully stayed away from the "shun the evildoer!" approach to protecting their grandkids, for which I'm eternally grateful.

quote:

Originally posted by BeeZee:
I decided today looked like a lovely day for a drive, and at the end of that drive I showed up on Chad's doorstep with Fred the Limertilly.

Fred will be at the wedding.

[darkly]I told him he better behave[/darkly]

*hugs*

thank you.

and i'm so sorry you can't take him yourself.


and snazz - the kids round my way use to do that all the time - it's not nice

quote:

On the other hand, this "sexual predator" might well have been arrested for having sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend when he was 18. Almost a decade ago, which is when these registries show up. And the guy's going to be there forever. That's not right and that's not fair, but justice is blind, and for the meantime, I'm going to be blind to it, or at least it's list, until it's a useful tool that makes for better communities and not something else that leaves us bowling alone.

*hugs*

well said!

that is my *major* problem with this sort of list, it doesn't differentiate between consenting sex between two 'adults' even if one is under the legal age, and *real* dangers to children (and adults!).

hell, under those ruling my dad would have been on the list - i was born when my mother was 16 years and 6 months (my dad was 20)...35 years later she and my dad are very happy together thankyouverymuch!

i think cases like that - and foolish 22 year olds who pick up 15 year olds who are dressed to the nines in nightclubs - that makes a complete mockery of that damn list and yes, they are trying to get one here in the UK...if damned Megan's Law hasn't done so already.

One of my dumber, non-blood relatives committed rape/pedophilia when he was a teenager and he was punished but was spared being listed, but honestly, he's still a farking lawbreaking idiot that you wouldn't want to live next to, let alone if you knew about his past.

Other than the 'don't it again or you'll go to jail and get raped again' threat, I don't think he's really received the proper guidance not to do something so drastic again. I mean, I'd want to know if my immature neighbor has had a history of violent crimes.

People-listing is a slippery slope, but then again, I also think people with serious behavioral problems need a lot more than 'a' second chance and re-entry to the same half-assed environment that caused the problems in the first place, and until that happens, I want to know who to be wary of.

Enough dark stuff -- I fixed my laptop!

Duct tape ROOLZ!

I bought lots of formula last night for practically nothing! Target had packages of pre-mixed bottles of a certain brand on sale for $8.36 each - and i had 3 coupons for $8 off. I read the fine print twice to make sure, but there was nothing saying i couldn't do it, and the cashier took them. And it doesn't expire until next February. Yay!

I found a spoon I wasn't looking for.

I made the most excellent Sheperd's Pie the other day, and even had enough to feed my boss and minion at work! nom nom num.

I accidentally worked out the intro to 'Soul Man'.

another sunday spent mostly working, but now i'm nearly completed all those appraisals and next weekend I should be able to begin homework again (with a much shorter time to do an 8,000 word assignment than i would like!)