Remember, oh faithful Wonkers, about 10 days ago when we had our last horrifically botched execution in these here United States, a thing that is happening so often we are running out of synonyms for "horrifically botched"? Lest you have already forgotten, that was the one where Joseph Wood lay gasping for air and snorting for so very long that his lawyers actually had time to
His is the case that turned me against the death penalty. Up until then I was okay about it, though it made me feel squishy inside to say 'yeah, the state can kill somebody to prove killing somebody is wrong.' But that case - jeezus, it wasn't enough that the guy had to lose his kids in a fire? He had to go through a trial, imprisonment, and death? What kind of society does that?
in all fairness, it's not just right wingers. I see many, many people who otherwise lean left, who just love the barbaric spectacle of an execution
this. do not understand this. over the years, i've said goodbye to so many beloved cats - and they die looking at me with absolute love and only the pain of their illness. and it's over in a nanosecond.
i understand they're only 12 ish pounds but how complicated can this be? (though i guess if you (plus liberia and uganda) are on the EU's 'do not sell drugs' list that makes things a bit more complicated.)
The Tylenol would have taken the better part of a week to dispatch him via an agonizing but inexorable process of catastrophic liver failure. And he would have been conscious for most of it.
The thirst for revenge is a powerful addiction. Even in countries that banned it decades ago or longer there is often a big spike in public support for restoration of the death penalty whenever arrests are made for some gruesome or shocking crime. We are all susceptible to having less than noble passions at times simply due to being human. Acknowledging this should not prevent us from summoning the better angels of our nature though.
Every execution is like the setting sun. Putting another person to death, whether it is done by a murderer or by the state, causes all of us to die a little bit. When the state of Utah put Gary Gilmore to death in 1977, it provoked a lot of debate and soul-searching around the country because it was the first execution in the US in over ten years. The next few had the same effect. But in the 37 years since then hundreds more have met their end at the hands of the state and we have gotten quite a bit more callous about it.
Sure, many of these were, like Gilmore, truly despicable people who had committed heinous crimes. But it used to tear us up to do this just the same and now it doesn't any more. Something has changed; something has left us in the years since then. Up through the 1970s and even for awhile later America seemed to glow with a kind of spiritual light. I don't mean that in a religious sense, but in a psychological one. Even when we were down we still believed in each other and in the future. That spirit has not been evident in quite some time now though. It is getting ever more difficult to recall what it even felt like.
The death penalty was promoted as a way to restore the balance of justice in the country. Have we become a better people and a better society because of having the death penalty? Or has the weight of it contributed to us all becoming a bit dead inside?
Revenge is a potent drug. To steal (and modify) a phrase or two from Neil Young, there's a bit of vengeance in everyone. But every killing is like the setting sun. Oh yeah.
Right wingers luuuurve the death penalty. They actually cheer for it. Then -- out of the same cheering mouthhole! -- they preach about the sanctity of human life. And then they whine about limiting the power of government as if the power to kill its citizens is OK, just don't make them put seatbelts in cars anymore. I wish there was a word or phrase to describe this kind of saying one thing but doing another. Has English not caught up with right-wing behavior?
Whatever medical certifications and/or licensures the people who did this have need to be revoked immediately. They are clearly too incomptetent to be handling anything more complex than a clipboard.
And if Jan Brewer is still on her meds, then the head of the Department of Corrections should be given a choice - resign or be fired publicly.
I mean, seriously - whether you believe in captial punishment or not you should not be pumping a guy full of enough sedatives and painkillers to kill an elephant!
...is it really that fukking complicated to kill a human being? I mean, a handful of sleeping pills and couple cups of vodka could do the same job for cheaper! that being said, FUKK ARIZONA!
Ha ha, they said "protocol," as if they have some orderly, science-based process for killing people without torturing them first. They don't know what the fuck they're doing, they write down a set of rule for doing it anyway, and then the medically untrained idiots in charge don't even follow their own stupid rules. This gives new meaning to the term "criminal justice."
Unless you consider prison-guard first aid training to be the same as medical school, no.
His is the case that turned me against the death penalty. Up until then I was okay about it, though it made me feel squishy inside to say 'yeah, the state can kill somebody to prove killing somebody is wrong.' But that case - jeezus, it wasn't enough that the guy had to lose his kids in a fire? He had to go through a trial, imprisonment, and death? What kind of society does that?
it would also be far, far more humane. So clearly we aren't interested in being humane.
oil, also too
in all fairness, it's not just right wingers. I see many, many people who otherwise lean left, who just love the barbaric spectacle of an execution
I would say AOT,K, but we only wish that were true for our self-image.
this. do not understand this. over the years, i've said goodbye to so many beloved cats - and they die looking at me with absolute love and only the pain of their illness. and it's over in a nanosecond.
i understand they're only 12 ish pounds but how complicated can this be? (though i guess if you (plus liberia and uganda) are on the EU's 'do not sell drugs' list that makes things a bit more complicated.)
rock on america.
so very very right.
The Tylenol would have taken the better part of a week to dispatch him via an agonizing but inexorable process of catastrophic liver failure. And he would have been conscious for most of it.
But ending the sale of inefficient, energy-wasting light bulbs represents the ultimate descent into the abyss of tyranny.
The thirst for revenge is a powerful addiction. Even in countries that banned it decades ago or longer there is often a big spike in public support for restoration of the death penalty whenever arrests are made for some gruesome or shocking crime. We are all susceptible to having less than noble passions at times simply due to being human. Acknowledging this should not prevent us from summoning the better angels of our nature though.
Every execution is like the setting sun. Putting another person to death, whether it is done by a murderer or by the state, causes all of us to die a little bit. When the state of Utah put Gary Gilmore to death in 1977, it provoked a lot of debate and soul-searching around the country because it was the first execution in the US in over ten years. The next few had the same effect. But in the 37 years since then hundreds more have met their end at the hands of the state and we have gotten quite a bit more callous about it.
Sure, many of these were, like Gilmore, truly despicable people who had committed heinous crimes. But it used to tear us up to do this just the same and now it doesn't any more. Something has changed; something has left us in the years since then. Up through the 1970s and even for awhile later America seemed to glow with a kind of spiritual light. I don't mean that in a religious sense, but in a psychological one. Even when we were down we still believed in each other and in the future. That spirit has not been evident in quite some time now though. It is getting ever more difficult to recall what it even felt like.
The death penalty was promoted as a way to restore the balance of justice in the country. Have we become a better people and a better society because of having the death penalty? Or has the weight of it contributed to us all becoming a bit dead inside?
Revenge is a potent drug. To steal (and modify) a phrase or two from Neil Young, there's a bit of vengeance in everyone. But every killing is like the setting sun. Oh yeah.
Right wingers luuuurve the death penalty. They actually cheer for it. Then -- out of the same cheering mouthhole! -- they preach about the sanctity of human life. And then they whine about limiting the power of government as if the power to kill its citizens is OK, just don't make them put seatbelts in cars anymore. I wish there was a word or phrase to describe this kind of saying one thing but doing another. Has English not caught up with right-wing behavior?
Whatever medical certifications and/or licensures the people who did this have need to be revoked immediately. They are clearly too incomptetent to be handling anything more complex than a clipboard.
And if Jan Brewer is still on her meds, then the head of the Department of Corrections should be given a choice - resign or be fired publicly.
I mean, seriously - whether you believe in captial punishment or not you should not be pumping a guy full of enough sedatives and painkillers to kill an elephant!
...is it really that fukking complicated to kill a human being? I mean, a handful of sleeping pills and couple cups of vodka could do the same job for cheaper! that being said, FUKK ARIZONA!
Ha ha, they said "protocol," as if they have some orderly, science-based process for killing people without torturing them first. They don't know what the fuck they're doing, they write down a set of rule for doing it anyway, and then the medically untrained idiots in charge don't even follow their own stupid rules. This gives new meaning to the term "criminal justice."