Better And Better

If you don't draw yours, I won't draw mine. A police officer, working in the small town that he lives in, focusing on family and shooting and coffee, and occasionally putting some people in jail.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Tagged Twice!


My friends LawDog and Xavier have both tapped me out to continue a senseless bit of self-promotion that is nothing less than an itty bitty Meme.

The game is to "disclose five little-known facts about yourself, then tag five more bloggers to keep the chain going."

"Chain." Ugh. I dislike chains. I dislike chain letters, chain emails, and forwarded forwarded >Fwd>fwd>FWD>Fwd emails. Argh. >Argh. >>Argh, even.

But vanity is all. If TWO of my online (and meatspace) buddies have tapped me out, then so be it. :)

I note that most folks in this line of self revealing documentation are telling their good points. I would like to break that cycle, but my most interesting bad points are really just too bad to share, and I'm not going to do it. So, while you marvel at these items that follow, please understand that you're really getting the B list. Yikes.

1. I have size 18 feet. They've been that big since I was 14 or 15. I thus have never in my adult life had a pair of cowboy boots (due to the expense of having them made custom), though I am a fiercely proud Texan.

2. When I was 5, I touched off the bottle rocket that burned down about 40 acres of pasture land behind our house. The entire town came. We hadn't lived there a year.

3. Although I completely respect and believe the science behind the BS in Criminal Justice that I hold, when it tells me that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime overall, and that the resources spent on it would be better focused elsewhere... I still support the death penalty. Some folks just clearly need killin'.

4. Until recently, I could lie face-down on my chest and curl my heels back over my butt until they touched the floor next to my elbows on either side. When I was a little kid, I was awaken by a frantic baby sitter who saw me taking naptime in that configuration.

5. I'm 35 years old, and I've lived in 8 discrete locations in my life, including college and the time I stayed with my dad in town because I didn't have a car. (...and attended police academy, a full load of university, and three part time jobs by bicycle!)

My five to be tapped out are:

Tamara (That makes two. Do your duty, girl.),
Ambulance Driver ("...nobody knows who you arrrrrrre.")
Steve Jones
John Shirley (Can you see this, John?)
Mad Ogre (Can you hear me, George?)

7 Comments:

At Sunday, January 21, 2007 12:50:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re the death penalty. I agree it doesn't do much to deter crime, but it sure plays hell with the recidivism rate.

 
At Sunday, January 21, 2007 3:31:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime overall"

Just tell them "that old dog don't hunt". Ask them if they have ever heard of any recorded case of anyone who was put to death by capital punishment ever came back to commit another heinous crime. The death penalty DOES WORK.

 
At Sunday, January 21, 2007 8:32:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

"The death penalty DOES WORK."
Depends upon how you read it. Pax, you, and I all agree that the recidivism rate is mighty low among the condemned, as I mentioned to my graduate criminal justice prof. He laughed, and completely agreed.

But if we're trying to compare the effect on the overall murder rate by putting people to death vs. putting them into a REAL life-without-parole, the stats make it clear that we're just not really doing much with deterrence. Meaning-- do others look at a crime, think "well, that's a capital crime, so I'll just not go commit it," and get a job? Uh, no.

For punishment to be an effective deterrent, there must be:
1. Certainty of punishment.
2. Immediate punishment.
3. Significant punishment.

Thus, a mousetrap set next to a few grams of meth is more effective than a 10 year stint in a state facility, maybe, a year from now.

 
At Sunday, January 21, 2007 10:53:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dang, Matt...ever consider going over to M.L. Leddy's and seeing about getting fitted for a pair of good boots? They can even fit me, and I've got feet like a set of cross-country skis and about as flat.

If not them, check with Larry's Shoes all around DFW, as they specialize in unique feet. Been buying my shoes from them since I was about 12.

Nonetheless, I bet you're popular with the ladies.

Regards,
Rabbit.

 
At Monday, January 22, 2007 10:54:00 AM, Blogger Matt G said...

Rabbit, I've been buying from Larry's for... um... wow. A quarter of a century. But the pair of uniform shoes that I'm wearing these days, I got off the Zappos.com website.

And with regard to that bidness... well, that's just a silly wive's tale, and it's sheer coincidence that it happens to be correct in this case.

 
At Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:14:00 PM, Blogger Memphis said...

Hey, I didn't even KNOW you tagged me. Did you come by and say "Hey, I tagged your ass?" I am not overly organized these days, so I'll hae to look over this and see if I can pick it up late. Hey, better late than never.

 
At Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:17:00 PM, Blogger Memphis said...

As for the death penalty, I'm guessing the same people who oppose it on the grounds that it isn't a deterent probably oppose spanking children, too, but don't actually have any children. Just a guess.

 

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