live from the guillotine

He Needed Killin'

Fran at Eternity Road has an essay about abolishing the death penalty.  Read it first, or what follows won't make sense.  While I agree with the vast majority of what Fran has written, there was one thing that gave me pause and indeed, such statements always give me pause:

Killing a man is a dreadful business. Few persons have the stomach for it, even when that man has killed before and is striving with all his might to kill them.

Is this really true?  I can't imagine that I would even blink twice if I had to shoot someone who was trying to kill me.  If they were trying to harm my children or my husband, forget it.  I wouldn't even hesitate.  I realize the difference between a defensive action and a job of executing people with whom one has no history or violent connection.  That would be a gruesome business, indeed.  Even so, if the person being executed was a child killer, for instance, I can see myself flipping that switch with relative ease and sleeping like a baby that evening. 

Whatever the issues with being an official executioner, I still find it very hard to believe that when one's life is threatened it's fatally difficult or even weighs heavily on the conscience when the alternatives are considered and parsed.   I say that as one who has never been in that position, so other's experience could perhaps negate what my gut tells me, but as often as I've heard about this regret and remorse and unwillingness to act, I just don't quite believe it.

Thoughts?

More Headlines...

N. Carolina awaits 1,oooth modern US execution.

What is this obsession in the mainstream media with counting up numbers to attempt to make political points?  Is it, perhaps, some reflexive impulse learned from Sesame Street? 

I agree, however, this is most probably a travesty of justice.  Given the amount of murder committed in this country each year, only 1,000 dead in almost 30 years due to capital punishment seems ridiculously small indeed.   We are clearly not doing  enough to eliminate these animals from the face of the planet and I would hope to see the numbers rise drastically in coming years.  Especially for vermin such as this.  It's an insult to our entire society and little girls everywhere that one such as he draws another single breath while his victim lays cold in the grave.

Long years ago, I sat in on the death penalty phase of a rape-murder trial.  The defense attorney wrapped up by saying, and I paraphrase, even if we draw and quarter this man on the court house steps it won't bring her back.

As if that's the point.  No it won't bring a single one of them back, but I'll certainly feel justice has been minimally served if the evil persons who commit these heinous crimes face a small portion of what they meted out to their victims.  Their victims are dead and the killers simply do not deserve to live, even in prison.  Prison is not only too good for them, it's an affront to their victims, their victim's families, and a just society that they continue to live at all.

Makes the Blood Boil

The two little girls, 8 and 9, riding their bikes on Mother's Day were beaten and stabbed to death by one of the girl's father:

The girls were found dead Monday in a park in Zion, the day after they never came back from a bike ride. They had more than 30 stab wounds between them, and Laura was stabbed in each eye, prosecutors said.

And who, exactly, is this father:

Hobbs has a long criminal history dating to 1990 in Texas, including arrests for assault and resisting arrest.

Just last month, he was released from a Texas prison after serving time for an assault in 2001. He had argued with Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, then grabbed a chain saw and chased neighbors until someone hit him in the back with a shovel, according to prosecutor Rick Mahler in Texas. No one was injured.

Things like this make me so angry I almost lose my religion.  This vermin chased neighbors with a chain saw and went to prison for assault as late as 2001.  Yet as soon as he's released from prison he's back in the family? This pathetic excuse for a mother not only allows this crazy slime ball near her children, she moves him right back in with them.  If that isn't bad enough, she's living with her parents, and they allow this creature to move into their home. 

What the hell is wrong with these people?  The only real justice for this predator would be to be beaten black and blue, have his eyes stabbed out like little Laura, and then be hung on the court house steps while the other little girl's family have the option of spitting on his twitching corpse.  And Laura's mother and grandparents should be horsewhipped for letting him within a country mile of these little girls in the first place.

He Needed Killin'

Now here is a charitable organization I can really get behind: Adopt A Sniper. A word about the mission:

Our memberships have chosen to help support our fellow snipers, and brothers in arms, by helping supply them with items that they need to get the job done better as well as things to make their lives easier while on deployment. This has been everything from the basic hygiene type items such as handy wipes to tactical products such as holsters, high speed rucksacks, new optics, rifle accessories, to mini binoculars and batteries.

An excellent group of folks. See this link from Winds of Change for more information. Every little bit helps and as we all know, a dead terrorist is....well....a dead terrorist. Hasta La Vista, Baby!

Washington Sniper Convicted

I'd be happy to start the drip on this guy:

Sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death Tuesday by a judge who called the Washington-area shootings that left 10 people dead "so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension."

Not only did this human slime orchestrate the killing of 10 people, he recruited a teen to help him out:

Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is to be sentenced Wednesday to life in prison after a jury spared him the death penalty.

By all means, allow me to remove this human skid mark on the shorts of the American public.

No Really, Allow Me

I was listening to the radio today and a radio host opined that those in favor of the death penalty should stop asking others to carry out state sanctioned murder. Instead, we "death advocates" should personally step up to the death chamber, flip the switch, start the drip, or drop the platform. Where do I sign up?

It made me realize the guillotine should feature those for whom I'd be more than happy to send off in a blaze of glory, should the Republic need me to step in and personally apply RAID to the coach roaches of society. Heck, if the vermin live in Texas, death row is a short 30 minute drive and the steak house in Gatesville is excellent. I'm in.

Allow me:

A prosecutor said Thursday he will pursue sex-abuse charges against retired Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre who is accused of plying two altar boys with alcohol and molesting them while he was a parish priest in the 1970s.

He's Catholic. Let's get him right on up to eternal judgement where he can chat about this with God.