I have been drinking too much coffee and must cut back. Today I only had one cup, in the morning. My head is pounding. Time for some Advil, sigh. BTW, my coffee is Community Dark Roast (the state coffee of Louisiana!), always freshly brewed.
This hereby completes the unholy triumvirant of pizza - chili - coffee. I figure that if I blogged about nothing but pizza, chili, and coffee, this blog would shortly be the most popular blog on the Internet, judged by prior response to postings that talk about pizza, chili, and coffee.
I have an article about the death penalty coming up, but it's rather slow. I just have one question to ask you: If the purpose of the death penalty is to remove murderers from the gene pool in a cost-effective manner (as vs. simply locking them up for the rest of their natural lives), why do prisons spend so much time and effort keeping death row prisoners from committing suicide? Why not just issue them some cyanide capsules upon their entrance to death row? I mean, dead is dead, right?
-- Badtux the not-dead Penguin
We have a non-binding referendum on the death penalty coming up in Wisco. We used to be a progressive state. I'm not sure what happened.
ReplyDeleteMixter
If people would just focus on pizza, chili, coffee, beer, and dark chocolate, we wouldn't have these world problems to fix.
ReplyDeleteI always considered the death penalty a best way to avoid punishment. If I had a choice, I would much rather be put to death to to sit in a jail cell for the rest of my life. It doesn't deter crime because most people think they are clever enough to get away with murder (or whatever capital crime they're committing), or they wouoldn't be doing it, and it is very expensive in terms of legal costs for the states and U.S.
There, any twangs yet? I'm very interested in the penguin point of view, have a gallon of coffee and start writing.
What a sticky issue. I've pondered the idea that allowing them to die is basically not punishing them at all. Dead is dead. Their death isn't going to bring back the person they killed, it just making sure that they don't have to accept their punishment. I speak from experience here. My aunt was murdered in '99 by a man who is rotting his miserable crazy ass in prison. While I'm not fond of paying for all of those prisoners room and board and security with my tax dollars, I'll be damned if I'd let him die. I'd rather that he suffered in the hell that is our prison system. Then of course, you have the issue of the number of mistakes that our injustice system makes. How many truly innocent people have been punished? I say find another way to deal with the non-violent offenders (chain-gang?) and force the murderers, rapists, domestic abusers,pedophiles etc to finish their allotted time on this planet. Then let karma have them to reincarnate in whatever way the Divine/Universe/Great Penguin feels is suitable. Or we could just take George Carlin's idea for State Prison Farms Punish our criminals and solve the national debt at the same time! :-P
ReplyDeletewow - interesting post
ReplyDeleteso how about this ~ the judge pronouces the death sentence..the guard takes them out in the hallway - puts a gun to his head and shoots him/her then and there...
that would solve the problem once and for all
tongue out of cheek now
or remember that movie...where they built a fence around LA and put them all in there?? humm, now what city can we do that with???
ok, now my tongue is really out of my cheel
I have very a very strong opinion about the proper penalty for pedophiles. No death penalty. They should spend the rest of their lives in prison (here's the best part) in General Population. I've been told by a friend who spent a short term in prison (stupid young person stunt - "borrowed" a car for a joy ride) that the Peds are the favorite target of those with anger and hostility to express. A day doesn't go by for them without fear and torture.
ReplyDeleteIt's the perfect sentence for a them.
Then, I sincerely hope that when they die, there's a special corner of hell where they get to spend eternity just like prison.
Happy ending.
Oh, and since we were actually talking about coffee - French Market - rich, dark, smooth and strong.
ReplyDeleteTwo words: pending appeals.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that a cyanide tablet upon arrival would be the most efficacious method. But oh those pesky episodes where people are released after 10 years on death row when DNA disproves the charges or when their appeals are upheld.
But hey, we've got 300 million people in the country today, so I guess we won't miss a few.
What helped tame the West was putting the bad guy's (dead and full of holes) on public display. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteAs for coffee, I drink two pots every morning, but it's because I have to have something to sip on as I work at the computer.
HOWEVER !!! I make it very weak, so it's no big deal.
The purpose of incarceration in a Pro-death penalty mindset is to remove all choices from them, including how they may die.
ReplyDeletePersonally I feel that if they want to do Death Penalty, they ought to do it on some sort of game show ala Running Man or perhaps just public hanging. The hanging is 100% recyclable. But any public spectacle could be charging enough to cover the costs of convicting the criminal and seeing it through the appeal process.
Daily caffeine prevents migraines. I suggest Penguinmints. I've been assured they aren't made of real Penguins.
Uhm, folks, the cyanide pill would be for if they wanted to commit suicide while on death row, they don't have to take it unless they want to. As it is, death row prisoners are on automatic "suicide watch". There was an incident last week where a death row prisoner took his own life. Everybody involved expressed much disappointment in that outcome -- they really wanted to see him executed in a big spectacle.
ReplyDelete-BT