My little Pony; Friendship is Magic 2.0

@El_Gato
Life sentences here can be given either with or without possibility of parole. Unless you get out on parole, it's until you die. The president (for federal prisoners) or a state governor can commute a sentence to a lesser punishment, though.

Also, hell no. Civil wars royally fuck things up. Look what happened in the former Yugoslavia. The US is peaceful and prosperous, and it doesn't serve anyone's interests to blast each other back into the pre-Industrial Age. I'll keep living in the Information Age, thank you very much. Also, you're getting overly paranoid again. The CIA and NSA don't have the budget, manpower, or software to do even 1% of what you seem to think they do. As for drone warfare, we're killing the terrorists so your government doesn't have to. Be happy someone is killing ISIS instead of just letting them have free rein.

desparil schrieb:(for federal prisoners)

What's this?

desparil schrieb:Be happy someone is killing ISIS instead of just letting them have free rein.

Well, killing ISIS is a good deed. There is nothing to say against that. Problem is that there will ALWAYS be motherfuckers like them who declare war on the western world. I'd threaten them to drop a hydrogen bomb on Mekka, their holy city if they won't cease to fight the superior civilization.

@El_Gato
Most crimes are handled at the state level, but certain major crimes are considered federal offenses and are prosecuted by the federal government.

Other federal crimes include aircraft hijacking, kidnapping, bank robbery, child pornography, tax evasion, counterfeiting, art theft from a museum,[2] damaging or destroying public mailboxes, immigration offenses, and since 1965, assassinating the President or Vice President, although these were not made federal crimes until after President John F. Kennedy's assassination.[3]

desparil schrieb:so your government doesn't have to.

And for the record: the German goverment is a bunch of weak morons. I just say Eurohawk. They wanted to buy some of these surveillance drones for the German military but they fucked it up because of the overly nitpicking German laws like aircraft regulation and the like. They burned € 500,000,000 for nothing.

desparil schrieb:damaging or destroying public mailboxes

How the hell is that a major crime? In Germany that would be simple criminal mischief.

@El_Gato
The punishments aren't severe, at least I don't think they are... I've never actually checked. It's just because the US Postal Service is an agency of the federal government.

@desparil

Please give me an honest answer. Would you rather live here in Germany or remain in the US?

@El_Gato
I like a lot of things about Germany, but leaving here would be really hard. I reap a lot of benefits just from the roots I've put down here... where I am now, I pay below-market rent thanks to my family, I've got some decent professional networking so even though the job market has been tough I've been able to hop from temp position to temp position relatively effortlessly (between jobs right now, but I'm confident something will come along sooner rather than later), and I'm just generally accustomed to living in New England - I don't care what you say about the weather, I just like it here. So I dunno... it'd take something big to convince me to move; I'll leave it at that.

@desparil

If you're good at something and have a decent degree you can get a safe job here which also is well-paid. And Germany is generally a safer country than the US. Germany itself is a very good country to live in because of all the benefits. The government sucks, but every government sucks. And we have sane criminal laws. No one gets 80 years for armed robbery.

@El_Gato
Like I said before, I don't know the case you read specifically, but I'm pretty sure there were extenuating circumstances - like other, lesser charges that were all lumped together into a single prison sentence, or a tougher sentence for a repeat offender.

Anyway, once I get my first full-time job here I'll be pretty much set for life. We just have a lot of older workers in the workforce because of how large the Baby Boomer generation is, so having a few years of work experience opens a lot of doors. As far as safety goes, that's mostly just splitting hairs over tenths of a percent. Both the US and Germany are extremely safe countries.

desparil schrieb:Both the US and Germany are extremely safe countries.

Tell that to cities like Detroit. That city is fucked up beyond repair. At least it's a paradise for urban explorers. ;)

@El_Gato
Well I don't live in Detroit, and most of the country isn't like Detroit. Also, Detroit is still only 22nd city in the world for the per capita murder rate. You forget how fucking terrible most of the world is.

@desparil
@El_Gato
so ihr Banausen, ich hau mich dann mal hin. Viel Spaß noch :vv:

@desparil

Yeah, but we're talking about the US and Germany, so the rest of the world is pretty much irrelevant for our discussion here. Anyway, if I could live in the US, I'd pick Seattle.

@Schnitzeldroid

n8

@Schnitzeldroid
gn8

@El_Gato
Not irrelevant to what I was saying - I said both are extremely safe countries, which they are. As for Seattle, I prefer to live in the suburbs.

@desparil

Meh, I'm not so much for the suburbs. I need the real deal of a big city.

@El_Gato
Cities are cramped and expensive to live in. Also you can't really keep a car if you live there unless you're rich. I'd rather have a cheaper, more spacious place to live and drive 15 minutes or a half hour to go into the city.

@desparil

Cars are overrated and you don't really need one if you happen to live in a big city.
We have subways and a shitload of buses. And pretty much everywhere is a discounter or supermarket. To the next one here it is a five minute walk.

desparil schrieb:and drive 15 minutes or a half hour to go into the city.

Have fun in finding a decent parking spot.

@El_Gato
There's always somewhere to park. Sometimes it costs money, sometimes you have to walk a bit, but there's always someplace. Also, it's not like I want to go to the city every day or something. Maybe two or three times a month.

@desparil

Suit yourself. In the suburbs I would feel like in some rural settlement which is next to a ghost town. I just don't like the quiet of that. Hell, if you ask me, Stuttgart could be a huge megacity like Tokyo. I wouldn't mind. In fact, I'd be pleased.