The silent majority agrees with this sentence.
Why would anyone disagree with this sentence, unless someone thinks having people killed is a normal part of business?
Because that's not what he was charged with?
Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
511–520 of 641 posts
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#512Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying drugs don't hurt anyone? Even the most ardent proponent of full legalization usually acknowledges that many drugs are very harmful--they just believe the people should be free to do things even if they are harmful to themselves. I generally support decriminalization or even legalization, but I would be reluctant to allow internet sales. I'd require sales to be through licensed dealers and in person,…
No more than water does. Even as a proponent of full legalization I know that as little as a few minutes spent in water can kill someone, and often does. Why people are allowed to casually dive into this toxic substance is beyond me. No licenses, no regulations, practically any body of water you can find you're allowed to jump into totally unsupervised. Most places don't even have signs warning people of the danger,…
Ah yes, the psychoactive and carcinogenic properties of water are well known!
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, of course. I just thought that flashbacks and other LSD complications are common knowledge. Take a look at this Wikipedia section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Adv...
You're an idiot. Flashbacks are not a real thing. Pretty much every negative effect of LSD is exaggerated or based on biased reports by the government to justify making anything that gets you high illegal. An LSD 'flashback' is more like deja vu, like "Wow this is really similar to something I've experienced before", not like you just randomly go back into a full on trip. If you're schizophrenic you probably shouldn'…
An idiot is "an intellectually disabled person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way". Does not seem to fit the definition.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#514Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying drugs don't hurt anyone? Even the most ardent proponent of full legalization usually acknowledges that many drugs are very harmful--they just believe the people should be free to do things even if they are harmful to themselves. I generally support decriminalization or even legalization, but I would be reluctant to allow internet sales. I'd require sales to be through licensed dealers and in person,…
from the historical record I'm pretty sure that the USA gov has caused/allowed more drugs/chemicals/radiation/weapons to cause more harm/deaths to innocent/civilian people than Ross ever has. I don't see any US President or Senator, etc., in jail, because of that. example: drop tons of Agent Orange on the lands/people of Vietnam? Just an oopsie! and they move on, wipe their hands clean. People dead and children defor…
Exactly. What about "There must be no doubt that no one is above the law"? Every time I learn more about history, politics etc I'm more and more frustrated. The system/law doesn't work the way it is presented and people/institutions that are "in charge" have an incentive to left it the way it is (otherwise 50% of them should be in jail).
Any ideas what can we do? I like projects that try to give more power to the people (like DemocracyOS), but I think it's rather kind of a bugfix for a badly designed system - it's important to try to improve it to keep it somehow working in the short term, yet (IMO) the whole architecture is broken and won't work in the long term when everything changes so fast...
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#515Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the law guide I linked it to would file this under "there is no chutzpah defense." He had legal options that did not include "hire a hitman" ("do nothing" is a valid option) and he had a big hand in creating the problem to begin with, or there would be nothing to blackmail him with in the first place. And the state didn't corrupt him, he was already leading a criminal operation when they set out to catch him.…
> "there is no chutzpah defense." This. If he hadn't created a multi-million dollar drug empire, there would've been no blackmail. Therefore, the fact that he had to resort to murder to stop the blackmail is no defense at all.
Not to quibble, but it's also not the case that 'hire a hitman' is the only solution to being blackmailed. That's not exactly the first idea a law abiding citizen would come up with as the solution now, is it? It's his own fault he couldn't go to the police for help with the blackmail, so the court cannot reasonably excuse him for not doing so.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#516Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you implying drugs don't hurt anyone? Even the most ardent proponent of full legalization usually acknowledges that many drugs are very harmful--they just believe the people should be free to do things even if they are harmful to themselves. I generally support decriminalization or even legalization, but I would be reluctant to allow internet sales. I'd require sales to be through licensed dealers and in person,…
Licensed & regulated dealers (aka pharmacies) would be great. In regards to the harm from drugs-- I'd add the obvious point that prohibition comes with a really high cost. I recently did dry-january and I was really happy with the results of cutting back on my drinking. I wake up more rested, and had more energy in the evenings. I've been thinking that going totally dry might be a good thing to do in my life. But wou…
> Why does the general public consider drug prohibition to be that much different than alcohol prohibition??
The average IQ of most western countries, including the US, is around 100. That's probably significantly lower than the average reader here on Hacker News. I'm not sure if a person with an IQ of 100 ever asks themselves intelligent questions like yours...
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
Licensed & regulated dealers (aka pharmacies) would be great. In regards to the harm from drugs-- I'd add the obvious point that prohibition comes with a really high cost. I recently did dry-january and I was really happy with the results of cutting back on my drinking. I wake up more rested, and had more energy in the evenings. I've been thinking that going totally dry might be a good thing to do in my life. But wou…
> Why does the general public consider drug prohibition to be that much different than alcohol prohibition?? Because they have been told by the media, over and over, for decades. At least that's my theory. Consider how often the phrase "drugs and alcohol" is used in the general context of substance-based addiction. Because it is socially accepted. Being a connoisseur of fine wines or whiskey is something many people…
My theory is that the media tells people what they want to hear, in order to sell the most papers, page impressions etc. If they told stuff that the general public disagreed with, then they would probably lose readers/viewers.
Alcohol has a long tradition in the western civilization, so people feel somewhat comfortable with that. Other drugs probably seem very new and scary to the average guy.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#518The cost of imprisoning someone as of 2010: 31,000 USD per years.[1] Ross is 31 years old, so he may live for 40 years. That mean imprisoning this man will cost the US taxpayer 1.4 million USD in lifetime cost. This doesn't take into account opportunity cost, expenses for trial, the cost of the drug war, and so on. [1] http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2...
The government seized Bitcoin worth many millions from him, so they're still ahead.
Which came from the people anyways…?
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#519This has made me feel so incredibly sad. Came to HN just to read the comments, I feel so much for him, I wish I could help him.
I hope we can change the way our society punishes it's members.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's right there on page 3 ("II. Background A. The Murder-For-Hire Evidence") and continues for quite some length. I'm not a lawyer and haven't been following the case, but if he was convicted of what the government alleges in this section it pretty much eliminates the "non-violent" argument.
No no no. You (or the one you replied to) said he was sentenced for murder. And I think we agree now that he wasn't, right?
Hey, this may be weird, but I've got this football field where the goalposts were installed in the wrong place, and I need them moved. After checking out your comment history I think you'd be a good fit for the job; let me know if you'd be interested.