If they had better passports it might be a different story, depending on if we [UK] "recognise" their countries, and that depends entirely on the amount of paperwork involved.

Pfft, only because you thought we'd fail within the first ten years... and it gave you yet another currency to dominate.

Who? Is that a western?

Reason one:

> U.S. authorities initially had refused to accept the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration. <

Reason two:

> The Iroquois documents look similar to U.S. passports but are emblazoned with a Haudenosaunee insignia featuring a tree and animal emblems. The simple blue booklet is made with thinner paper than U.S. passports, has no high-tech chips and some information is handwritten. <

Reason three:

> At least four Indian nations, including the Kootenai of Idaho; the Pasqua Yaqui of Arizona; the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona and Mexico; and the Seneca of New York have been working with federal officials to develop ID cards that meet new security guidelines, but they would be good only for arrivals in the U.S. by land or sea, according to the Department of Homeland Security. <

Reason four:

> Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has tightened up identification rules for foreign travelers from close U.S. allies such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. A growing number of visitors from those countries who wish to travel to the U.S. without a visa must now present passports containing digital photographs and embedded electronic information. <

Reason five:

> The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative also began requiring most U.S. citizens to present their passports when re-entering the country from Canada or Mexico. Previously, travelers needed only to show a driver's license and orally declare their citizenship. <

Reason six:

It's not a country, it's a reservation.

Reason seven:

It's not a country, it's not on the map.

Reason eight:

The only reason USA gave them their own passports is the same as the reason the government tells them "their" land is their country;  to keep them quiet. We don't have to do that, just like we don't have to pretend that Rastafarianism is a religion rather than a thinly veiled excuse to smoke cannabis.
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Sorry, but reality is harsh. You've got more chance of me accepting Welsh money.

> Undertakers in Belgium plan to eschew traditional burials and cremations and start dissolving corpses instead. <

WATERWORLD!
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> I'd like to be shot with a canon into the sea.. <

I'd like to be strapped to a nuke and fired at the moon.
Actually, as long as I'll explode, and take part of the universe with me, I'll be happy.

> Zarf BeebleBrix wrote:

[...]

>You know... it's funny how the exact article you posted proves my point.  The man was in prison.  When he >comes back, he's lost all his investment in society (business, land, wife), largely due to his separation from the >world.

No it doesn't; He was already a nasty piece of work, that is why he lost everything. It was his own stupid fault and he wasn't man enough to accept it, and now he is dead because of that lack of acceptance. If anything he should have been re-habbed before release.
But ultimately his own cowardice ruined, then ended, his life. In my opinion.

>The person he became may be a lowlife who you think should be locked up.  However, your criminal's own >admission creates an indication, which we should examine, that the system may be the cause of repeat crime.

The person he was should have been locked up, the person he became was a killer and an idiot.
An inability or unwillingness to stand up in society and try, actually try to be the man you pretend to be, is the cause of repeat crime.
Or cowardice. In my opinion.

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[ RE Beating the snot out of the convicted:
What about the innocent? ]

>Um... they shouldn't get the shit beaten out of them?  Was there some point in this argument which I may have >missed?

Corporal punishment is all fine and dandy, maybe even capital punisment too, but only until an innocent person is "punished". People get framed, the police get the wrong end of the stick, and some people are just plain stupid.
Imagine a man charged for rape... branded for life, "RAPIST", on his forhead... and then it turns out he's innocent. Imagine his life.
...
"Beyond a shadow of a doubt".

> Selur Ku wrote:
> "When I was in prison I had a better quality of life than I have ever had anywhere else, even when I had my own home"

Utter bollocks- I dont believe you've been in prison, you wouldnt be talking such crap if you had. <

I would prove it, but as it costs me money I don't have I'm not going to do that without good reason.
...
Your beleif is not required; An explanation of your beleif might be, IF you want a discussion.
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Zarf's argument might be right... ...but tbh some people really should just be locked away. This is a conveniently timed example:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/10505263.stm

> Before the attacks began Moat's Facebook status was changed to read: "Just got out of jail, I've lost
> everything, my business, my property and to top it all off my lass has gone off with someone else.
>
> "Watch and see what happens."

Image obsessed weirdo, and not in the good way either... ...it's always the ugly ones isn't it?
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RE Beating the snot out of the convicted:

What about the innocent?

Hello!
I'm On The Mobile.
Mobile! Yeah!
Listen, Did You Get Them Pills?
Pills! Yeah!

> Bartender wrote:
> In the U.S you can always find a 50$ pistol.  Hell, i can go half a mile and get a semiautomatic ak 47 for 500$.  Gotta love lax gun laws. <

AK-47 for $500?
My next Birthday is on 10/06... You may want to send it me in a big box full of machine parts, though.
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In the open-carry state (Arizona?) is there an upper limit for calibre? For example, can Joe Public openly carry a holstered Desert Eagle, thereby outgunning the Police?

You now also think that all 70,000,000 Britons should be allowed to carry guns just because 2 guys in 16 years went nuts? That's a little excessive, wouldn't you agree?
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Why Guns Are Really Illegal in the UK:
National Attitude to Weapons and Fighting

Remember the subway scene in Predator 2? That's why we can't have guns here. Any honest person will tell you that. I'd shoot some [] just for trying to mug

When I was at secondary school, way back in 1990-95, punishment was either "The Quiet Room" or you got sent to the sports hall where Mr Hrycakzcsakyszascskszcsazcskacz made you run.
Once he ran behind me and my friend, his feet in perfect time with our footfalls, for long enough to hear what we really though of the teachers (he mostly agreed) and then he went all Seargent-Major on us;
"If you've got enopugh breath to bitch you've got enough breath to accellerate. MOVE IT!"

[edit]
They should count themselves lucky noone's allowed to throw chalk at them any more.
[/edit]

#3 Isn't me.

#6 Just looks pathetic. 15 pages and he still didn't have the spine to answer the question OR the sense to lie and say "It was an offhand comment made in the heat of the moment, I don't know why I said that".

[edit] I wonder what the most popular threads in IC:PF history are?[/edit]