Okay, it seems ABC (who first reported on the brain thing) has back off from that story, so I don't really know where the evidence came from. In any case, he's got a pretty extensive family so I don't expect it would be too difficult to get some DNA evidence. The feds had probably had DNA for a while.

In any case, I don't think your flatmates are going to be convinced. If your first reaction to "Bin Laden Killed!" is "ZOMG CONSPIRACY", then you're an idiot anyway. Not worth the trouble.

EDIT: Also, they used facial recognition software and had one of his wives confirm that it was him.

Of course it is good that a terrorist leader is now "out of the game", but I am against death sentence anyways. I think it's an even stronger penalty to be locked into a small room with just bread and water for the rest of your life.
But then again, some terrorists might have taken hostages to free him again...

Still, the question is whether killing Osama bin Laden really "cut off the head of the snake" , i.e. really makes the other terrorists stop because they lost their leader.

That pleasure costs tax payer money.

And it also increases the risk of other prisoners being killed. In the UK, we do not have the death penalty, and the result is that dangerous criminals with nothing to lose kill behind bars. It's disregarded by the public because there is no sympathy for criminals, but it's still wrong.

Actually for the years that a prisoner is on death row and all the appeals and all the other legal BS and the extra security for death row inmates, life imprisonment is much cheaper.
However with a monster like OBL, the price of that mission was more than worth it.

Pfft, legal BS, just take the obvious criminals out back and shoot them. Or lock them up in cells and make them starve to death. That would be so humane. . .

Oh, mercy, thats a good one! How long have you lived on earth? What are you thinking to come up with such an idea? That couldn't possibly pass! Its far too obviously clever to be law...
No, it makes much more sense to make society pay for all the idle criminals in jail.

What about the high level of unemployment where I live and across the state? Would taking potential jobs away by having criminals do them be fair to the unemployed seeking work?

So you got unemployed people doing nothing and you've got idle convicts doing nothing and costing to maintain and theres clearly a lot of work that needs to be done... Man, whoever designed the system is a genius! What hope is there for society?

Let's just press the magic nuke--ahem "fix it" button!

Real life Fallout 3 totally beats the crappy system we have now.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for making criminals do work, but yeah, legal citizens should have priority if there is a position for them.

Yes, those sneaky little US govermentzes ...always up to no good.

Regarding the criminals and labor, I'm sure there are systems like that already for the less harmless varieties. In New Zealand we have community service for the low offenders at least.

Other countries might issue manual labor of the most boring, monotonous and unrewarding for the more serious cases and maybe the salt mines if the prison system is as sadistic as the criminals. Of course the truly dangerous lunatics never get let outside.

The sort of work that the crim's do rarely ever involve work that an honest civilian couldn't do for an annual salary. As Kien suggested, they do the work that employee's wont do and employers wont pay for.

Also regard that criminals who are forced to work will never do it well. That's why the options are pretty much limited to the things they can't screw up, like pickup up trash.

Well the criminals won't be given jobs that others will get payed for...

Give the criminals the jobs nobody else will do, they are there to pay their due, so long as they are given the right jobs depending on their crimes, don't want simple shoplifters being given the job of cleaning out radioactive barrels, leave that for the sort of thing for pedophiles, rapists, and murderers...

There is actually a solution for bad criminals(such as the aforementioned), the death penalty...

At the very least its a deterrent, and some criminals really need it, especially those that will spend the rest of their lives in jail, why keep them there wasting resources, at least put them to work if you're not gonna kill them....

Of course, like anything, there are grey areas...

Excellent, I'd say we have our unemployment and criminal justice policies worked out. Now lets move on to phase 2: The official ballistic political party!

I nominate Cyberax for Prime Minister, Bjossi should be vice
Captain Xavious can be our secretary of defense.
I'll be foreign minister Yokelassence.

One note about the death penalty first: There's a reason why that's a sensitive PC area. You gotta watch out that you don't trod on human rights or accidentally axe an innocent (framed) convict.

The death penalty must be passed with absolute caution and must be backed by the most fairest and conclusive of court cases. You might wanna leave the radioactive barrel cleaning to the trained professionals for now.

Yep, that's my sole argument for execution, what if you execute someone innocent?

Yeah thats the main downside, beyond that if they are really proved, and are evil, then its called for, but how can one be sure?...

One could just have a death penalty thats never used, and instead used as a deterrent...

But youll have to set examples once in a while. or they will qeustion it.

Naturally...

im thinking public over private on that thought too, does make much sence to do it privately, they would never know lol. or i guess, you could use life time prisoners for bio mechanics research (gonna happen someday ) we are gonna have a organic robot army!

Oh sure, just hand the violent criminals augmented limbs far superior to fleshy ones. Like that couldn't go end horribly.

Chain gangs, Hard labor, theirs a reason it was called hard time.
But all the bleeding harts whining about they have rights, wha wha wha.
So now prison is more like a day at school. not much of a deterrent.

Its been proven that the death penalty is not a deterrent , the types of people that commit those types of crimes just dont give a sh**

Thats certainly true, its just a way of making it sound more acceptable to extreme bleeding hearts...

I always say: Bleeding hearts are the first to bleed, and thats the case in violent countries...