Wizard of Id by Parker and Hart for August 19, 2016

Human nature. I don’t think I could have said it better myself.

Trolling before the invention of Internet.

And yet we persist in writing laws to ban human nature. Then we sit around and wonder why they don’t work. Maybe that’s human nature too.

I guess there’s nothing like watching somebody die in front of the rabble that can be matched for pure entertainment.if only the guillotine were still in use; the arterial splash would be wonderful to behold!

I recall a toon of people crowding around a cage in a zoo, with a sign reading “Man-eating tiger. Feeding at 3”.

I know I would have never wanted to see that.

Need to do more of this today…

Well said

Seems I read somewhere that crowds gathered to watch the hanging of pick-pockets – and pick-pockets were working the crowd!

Medieval click bait.

It’s all in the presentation!

I have said all my life that if gladiator contests were allowed today the crowds would eclipse anything – including all sports put together. Imagine the draws something like…“Todays entertainment: old men with flamethrowers.” That’d sure pack the stands…

Curiously, here in Britain the crowds were often on the side of the person being hanged, in a macabre sort of way They were applauded and treated as celebrities – like the gladiators in a Roman arena, but with a slightly more certain death.

manzarali1965 said, “Seems I read somewhere that crowds gathered to watch the hanging of pick-pockets – and pick-pockets were working the crowd!”.glynis37 said, “So much for the death penalty being a crime deterrent.”.Eventually you would run out of incompetent pick-pockets..Actually, though, the continued existence of pick-pockets doesn’t prove there was no deterrent effect. It just proves it was not a total deterrent..Obviously the ones punished were deterred from repeating the crime. Those who claim deterrence has been disproven are claiming to have disproven a negative — not really possible. (They may be right, but not provenly so.).The main problem is always that people believe they can get away with “it” whatever it is. They won’t get caught. If caught, they won’t be charged. If charged, they won’t be tried. If tried, they won’t be convicted. If convicted, their punishment will be light..They believe this because it is true. If it were not true, most crimes would be punished and few would be considered a gain. If crime never paid, there would be less crime. The punishment could be very light if it were certain.

(By the way, British law was written in such a way that pocket picking was nearly never punished by hanging for the very reasons I mentioned. That it was is just An Old Wives Tale, obviously not restricted to wives — old? maybe.)