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Comment Witch hunt (Score 1) 669

What the kids did is wrong. However, The reason it is *so* wrong, is the hysteria surrounding sexual offenses.

Accusing anyone of this offense may have dire consequences even though no charges are pressed. We are so far past reasonableness when it comes to accusations of pedophilia that I had a moment of hesitation when I googled pedophilia for spelling.

When a person can be required to register as a sexual offender for "peeing in the bushes", (yes, I'm exaggerating), none of us are safe. A witch-hunt mentality seems to have taken over.

On one hand, The kids did a horrible thing, even worse than posting a sign in your front yard that so and so is a pedophile. On the other hand, it's horribleness is a direct consequence of the witch-hunt mentality. I'm so confused.

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Microsoft

Child Abuse Verdict Held Back By MS Word Glitch 191

An anonymous reader writes "Last week several defendants including one high-profile TV presenter were sentenced in Portugal in what has been known as the Casa Pia scandal. The judges delivered on September 3 a summary of the 2000-page verdict, which would be disclosed in full only three days later. The disclosure of the full verdict has been postponed from September 8 to a yet-to-be-announced date, allegedly because the full document was written in several MS Word files which, when merged together, retained 'computer related annotations which should not be present in any legal document.' (Google translated article.) Microsoft specialists were called in to help the judges sort out the 'text formatting glitch,' while the defendants and their lawyers eagerly wait to access the full text of the verdict."

Comment Re:oh, so speed limits are for revenue raising... (Score 1) 825

The parent and GP bring up two good points.
1). Speed limits are set arbitrarily. If this is not so, how can we allow one or more drivers to exceed the "safe driving limit"?

Quoting the parent:
>Just so you know, every state in the US requires you to lower your speed to a safe driving speed in the event of inclement weather
2). We're expected to know enough to lower our speed when conditions warrant but we're not smart enough to raise our speed if conditions warrant?

Bah.

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Comment Sophisticated Scams (Score 1) 121

" attorneys say they are on the receiving end of sophisticated scams with increasing frequency"

It took some real genius to plan and execute this scam, I see why a lawyer would fall for this.

Should we tell them about Nigeria?
Nah.

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My other sig is at the cleaners

Comment Re:Whatt? (Score 1) 381

IANAL

There is a reason a law like this is in place. We've collectively decided that lawful orders should be obeyed and I agree with this.

Having said that, there's a reason we have judges and juries. If it was so cut and dried we would just need "robo-judge" to pronounce sentence after determining guilt.

There are circumstances to every case that should be used to decide "guilt". Just because he violated the letter of the law, in my mind, doesn't make him guilty.
By not complying did he put himself or the officers in danger? I'm even willing to go so far as to ask if his non-compliance caused any other problems that I can't think of.

If not, then offer him an apology and turn him loose.

I'm really sick of hearing about cases of police acting like pimple-faced high school bullies, who don't know enough about human nature to de-escalate a situation, instead relying on their "authoritay" to push their employers around.
Google "DC cop snowball fight" for a laughable example.

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