That’s a very interesting development in this story, antiseptic.

So it appears that the extra weight and the bulge in the boogie board bag wouldn’t have mattered if the bribe money had been there. Maybe the main issue is; who took the money…or was it there in the first place?

Do I still have doubts about her guilt? Absolutely. I’d like to hear a lot more about this revelation from Malcolm McCauley before I can condemn Shapelle Corby.

Philips, I agree with you. M’dear old friend Col is a bit over the top on this subject.

“Maybe he IS just an uneducated arsehole…”

No. Not at all. He is a very good and prolific contributor on this forum and shows a great deal of interest and thought on all sorts of subjects. Lets be gentle with each other.

Ludwig: "He is a very good and prolific contributor on this forum and shows a great deal of interest and thought on all sorts of subjects. Let's be gentle with each other."

I agree with both those comments, although Col seems to arrogate to himself the right to be "ungentle" and to get all teary-eyed and whingey when the favour is returned. There are a couple of subjects on which his generally intelligent, if reactionary, views are skewed dramatically by some personal experience. Nothing wrong with that, it applies to us all, but I get the sense Col is too comfortable with his prejudices to make any effort to analyse them.

Moving on... I really don't doubt Corby's guilt, and the story from McCauley rings very true to other accounts I've heard. There is also a question raised by Mccauley about the sister, who he claims was "racing to the airport" with cash for the payoff. How did she know it was required and what other involvement did she have? I can't help feeling that this was a Corby family enterprise, involving the whole lot of 'em.

Foxy “And even sorrier that you chose to vent your
spleen so openly on a public Forum such as this.”

I make no apology for freely expressing my long held view that second offence drug dealers should be executed.

Like you said, this is a public (opinion) forum, the place to express opinions publicly.

As for “spleen venting”,

Wrong, my comments are quite reasoned and rational
Drug peddlers are deserving of termination as atonement for the death they deal to their victims and hopefully a reduction in future victims.

Actually Philips “He wrote some quite disgusting things, and my comments were about the actual things he wrote. He seems very quick to put down others, resulting in him getting treated the same way he seems to treat others.

Maybe he needs to think about, and clarify, some of his statements.

Or........

Maybe he IS just an uneducated arsehole.”

The “spleen venting” seems to be coming from the opposite side of the debate.

Philips “Marijuana, alchol, tobacco: The ONLY difference is that 2 are legal and one is illegal.”

Yes and dealing in illegal drugs is a criminal offence. You might make up excuses all day long but at the end of the day, that is all you are doing – making excuses for the criminally and illegally inexcusable.

“Any father who'd disown his daughters for drug involvement is simply a lousy, rotten father.”

Actually, I had the discussion with both my daughters Saturday morning and they unreservedly agreed with me, mind you they do not use illicit drugs, either of them.

Antiseptic “Seriously, mate, your perspective is very skewed.”

And your perspective seems to be viewed and heavily influenced through a spirit bottle, hardly any basis for reason. Hate Gin too, never touch the stuff.

Finally Philip’s, for your last burst of bile, I suggest some strong sedatives and a dolly for you to hold while you have an afternoon nap or you will not be up to attending kinder tomorrow.

Thankyou Ludwig, you and I manage to regularly disagree without resorting to the subhuman vitriol of philips.

Dear Col,

You argue that your,
"... comments are quite reasoned and rational..."

that you don't resort to:
"...subhuman vitriol..."

Really?

Then what do you call this?

"I hope she dies in prison, either from a painful,
disfiguring disease or at her own miserable
hand, which would be the best thing she has ever
done for anyone else."

And this from a father with two daughters of his own,
towards a girl whose guilt has yet to be proven?

You may call that "reasoned and rational,"

I don't!

I'm one of those who initially formed a view that Schapelle Corby was unlikely to be guilty of knowingly importing marijuana into Indonesia, but recent revelations have caused me to reappraise that assessment. However, that's largely irrelevant to the idea that she should be allowed to serve her sentence in an Australian prison rather than and Indonesian one.

I understand that there has been a general push to try and secure reciprocal arrangements for people who are convicted of crimes in foreign countries to be able to serve their sentences in their home country. This seems to be a sound idea in terms of humanitarian aspects like access to family, and also would increase the likelihood of rehabilitation of criminals.

Having said that, I think that jailing anyone anywhere for dealing in marijuana is ridiculous, given the entirely arbitrary nature of its illegality. If it wasn't a crime to grow and smoke dope, there would be very little financial incentive for anybody to deal illegally in it. Much the same argument applies to any drugs, of course, but in the case of marijuana the harm caused by its illegality so obscenely exceeds on any measure any negative effects it may have on users that its proscription defies all rational logic.

This is, of course, why some people have to resort to anecdote and vitriol in order to justify their untenable positions with respect to recreational drugs - reason and hard evidence don't help their case, so insult and invective are deployed instead. I think that any reasonable reader of this thread will easily deduce who I'm talking about here.

Foxy "You may call that "reasoned and rational,"

I don't!"

such is the force your judgment and so too, the strength of my indifference.

I remain unrepentant.

The lives ruined by illegal drugs is the reason they are illegal.

You can think what you want about me but you will need better argument than sentimental swill to dissuade me that drug peddlers, who callously seek to deal and profit from the death and human misery of addiction deserve to live.