I’m sick of reading how people think that if we can trust ATMs with our dough, electronic voting machines should be just as easy…
If you believe that, you’re missing a huge aspect of voting…
ATMs are accountable, but not anonymous.
Voting machines need to be both. And it’s a lot harder to maintain accountability and anonymity.
And while the need for accountability has been highlighted in recent elections, one must remember that anonymity is vital to freedom.
August 28th, 2007
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I was directed this evening to this article about Kenneth Foster, who’s about to be executed in Texas within the next three weeks. Michael LaHood was shot and killed not by Foster, but by Mauriceo Brown, who was a passenger in Foster’s car.
Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code outlines the following:
A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if “acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense he solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other persons to commit the offense” or “If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.”
Article 37.071(b)(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedures permits the infliction of the death penalty only if the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant “intended to kill the deceased or another or anticipated that a human life would be taken.”
I’ve not seen the evidence presented at trial, but I know that Foster has claimed that he did not know that a crime would take place after giving his friends a ride. Mauriceo Brown stated that Foster did not know.
Since it’s the sort of thing which is damn near impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt — multiple corroborating witnesses would seem to be the minimum — I can’t see how one could reasonably convict the man of capital murder.
I’d assume that something like “accessory after the fact” would be trivial to prove, and if driving around people with illegal weapons was a no-brainer (and I don’t know the legal status of the gun or its possession), I would fully support punishment… but I cannot see that what this man did is worthy of execution.
I may be wrong, feel free to comment.
August 14th, 2007
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I’m currently reading Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking. I’m interested in finding out both the flaws in my own thinking as well as some of the “why” behind how others think some of the crazy things they do, in order to better frame my own arguments.
The author, Thomas Kida, points out 6 reasons why people believe things which aren’t true:
· We prefer stories to statistics.
· We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas.
· We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events.
· We sometimes misperceive the world around us.
· We tend to oversimplify our thinking.
· Our memories are often inaccurate.
Updates will come when I get further along.
August 9th, 2007
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I couldn’t help but think to myself that “Mikey” on American Chopper is an unfunny version of Seth Rogen.
Or is Seth Rogen a funny version of Mikey?
Is it a Canadian thing?
July 22nd, 2007
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Since it was cool out, we had the windows open yesterday and last night.
I woke up about 6AM to the smell of bacon wafting up from the vents of the diner 2 floor below.
How pleasant to wake to the smell of bacon… and how horrible to know that I’m not waking up to the smell of bacon being made for me.
July 2nd, 2007
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