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News & ArtsMonday, January 30, 2012
Crime / Death / Politics Because Nothing Says "America" Like Hanging a Few Doctors
Posted by Goldy on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 1:17 PM
Hey, remember when George H. W. Bush called for a "kinder, gentler nation," and "a thousand points of light"...? Remember when that was the new face of Republicanism?
Well... not so much anymore, at least according to Republican North Carolina state Representative Larry Pittman, who sent the following email to every member of his state's General Assembly:
"We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner," Pittman wrote in the email. "If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well."
Yeah, I know. It's just one wacko Republican from one southern state. But don't kid yourselves. If Republicans ever got the one-party state for which they breathlessly long, this would become the political mainstream, and we'd soon be hanging obstetricians in the public square.
1
As someone smarter and more clever than me once said: The Handmaid's Tale is a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual.
3
" It's just one wacko Republican from one southern state. But don't kid yourselves. "
Kinda how one wacko decides to gay marry a building. But dont kid yourself Toby, based on your own logic people will eventually want to marry their car, or perhaps their bike. So we need to put a stop to this gay marriage thing, right?
Kinda how one wacko decides to gay marry a building. But dont kid yourself Toby, based on your own logic people will eventually want to marry their car, or perhaps their bike. So we need to put a stop to this gay marriage thing, right?
4
The death penalty is NOT a deterrant. Never has been. There's no empirical evidence to suggest otherwise (in fact, some data suggests that the death penalty actually increases homicide rates).
5
Only if we also apply public hangings to renegade "representatives" who arrive at the halls of government with their own crackpot agendas.
6
@1 has it. If you ever feel the need to recharge your weakass liberal batteries because of weakass liberal politicians, read (or re-read) The Handmaids Tale. I did it recently and not only was it one of the few books I read in my teens that I loved and is actually better than I knew it was, it seems, even though I think we're further from the time imagined then, even more prescient sometimes.
P.S. I'm only calling out weakass liberalness because I'm so guilty of it myself too often; it certainly isn't a dig at anyone specific around these parts.
P.S. I'm only calling out weakass liberalness because I'm so guilty of it myself too often; it certainly isn't a dig at anyone specific around these parts.
7
Getting a bit hysterical there, aren't you Goldy? State reps from southern states say shit like this all the time. Hardly a sign of the coming apocalypse.
8
Just a point.
If capital punishment actually worked, how come we have the highest murder rate and the highest execution rate?
Logic would dictate we step back and realize we're stuck on stupid.
If capital punishment actually worked, how come we have the highest murder rate and the highest execution rate?
Logic would dictate we step back and realize we're stuck on stupid.
9
7: Correct. Goldy is assuming a "Golden Age" of enlightened political rhetoric occurred at some point in the past.
10
@8 - I don't think we have the highest murder rate or execution rate. Although you don't say what 'we' are (Washington state has executed 1 person in the past 10 years), America's execution rate per capita is about 1/30th that of Iran or China, in 2010. And our murder rate is much less than, say, Russia (18/1000,000 vs ~5/100,000 USA), which does not have capital punishment.
I don't believe in capital punishment, but I also don't believe in incorrect facts (oxymoron?).
I don't believe in capital punishment, but I also don't believe in incorrect facts (oxymoron?).
11
@10 Charles Campbell was particularly deserving of death. Sometimes there are people that deserve it.
12
@7 Your response is to simply roll over and not call politicians out on their actions? This man is an elected official representing, for better or worse, all of his constituents. People need to speak out and stand up for each other, whether its in our own backyard or not. Every voice helps, except the cynical ones.
13
@9 - Well, step back to May 9, 1967, and the same North Carolina state legislature was the 3rd state in the USA to legislate that abortion was legal in the case of rape, incest, threat to the mother's life, or grave physical problems of the child. The first state was California, where Ronald Reagan was the signer of the bill. The second state? Mississippi.
14
@11 - There are undoubtedly many people who deserve to die. The issue for me is that we should want murder in government and civil society to cease to exist. I don't think capital punishment is a deterrent (although some studies suggest otherwise), and therefore it serves no practical or moral purpose. But I probably am over-thinking this topic for a comment on slog about a zany N Carolinian politician who wants to kill people in public.
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13: Yes, and guys like Pittman were found all over in 1967. Remember, this clown was just appointed in October, so there is that too...
17
@1
Just a little bit of ironic trivia for you. The movie version of The Handmaid's Tale was filmed in NC.
Just a little bit of ironic trivia for you. The movie version of The Handmaid's Tale was filmed in NC.
19
I don't trust anyone to take the life of anyone else. Suicide, sure, you should have the right to kill yourself if you want to, I suppose. But I don't want anyone, including the government, to have the right to kill people. The track record says that we get it wrong (and how many innocent lives are worth the death of your favorite murderer?). And economically, the death penalty costs more than life in prison. So fuck that. Existentially, I think having to live out your natural life incarcerated is by far a worse punishment than getting a quick exit from your mortal coil.
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