Chuck,1. Rudd hoodwinked a lot of people a lot of times about a...

Chuck,

1. Rudd hoodwinked a lot of people a lot of times about a lot of things. I'm proud to say I wasn't one of them.

2. United States has a high incarceration rate for social reasons as well as mechanical reasons. Over there five years means five years. In Australia five years can mean six months, so regardless of the impacting social reasons on crime rate, it must be recognised that we simply let them back into society with less punishment for the same crime.

3. I have no objection to capital punishment. You have every right to disagree, but I ask this: If your 85 year old (Grand)mother was kidnapped and held for three days while being repeatedly raped, then doused with petrol and set on fire - What would you wish for the person who did it?

(a) A judgement of 13 years (with parole in 7) or
(b) capital punishment?

4. The basic wage in the USA is very low, I admit. However, I have spent ten years working in that country, and the people are very generous with graturities (tips) and so a $6.70 / hr basic wage might seem bad, but it is more than doubled with tips. (ok, Wal-Mart check out operators don't get tips)

stu