[lbo-talk] Death penalty redux

Mike Ballard swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au
Mon Nov 28 05:38:07 PST 2005


Wojtek Sokolowski <wsokol52 at yahoo.com> wrote:

In principle, I do not favor death penalty as a form of legal punishment, but not for reasons of "sanctity of human life" or fairness - usually quoted by the death penalty opponents. While I believe that killing another human being is in principle wrong, that principle - as any other principle - cannot be taken as absolute on the pain of dogmatism and fundamentalism. That - as any other - principle is circumscribed by laws that specify conditions under which killing is not permitted and under which it may be permitted. Therefore, if the law says that it is ok to kill in retribution for certain offences, I do not see it as incompatible with the general principle proscribing killing human beings. *****************************************************

And Singapore is a bourgeois democratic country governed by laws, not classes.

http://www.amnesty.org.au/Act_now/action_centre/singapore_urge_authorities_to_stop_the_execution_of_van_tuong_nguyen

And when young Van Nguyen is hung by the neck until he dies this Friday morning, that will constitute a premeditated murder by the democratically elected, class ruled State of Singapore. It will also be the case that:

"PROBABILITY OF DEATH EACH YEAR" is:

1 in 3.3 million (0.00003%) (for Western civilians at the hands of jihadist terrorists);

1 in 3 million (US citizen being killed by a shark);

1 in 4 million (US citizen being electrocuted);

1 in 6 million (US citizen being struck by lightning);

1 in 500,000 (0.0002%) (US citizen at the hands of jihadists in the 21st century)

1 in 10,000) (0.01%) (from car accident in the US);

1 in 1,250 (0.08%) (under-5 year old infant in Australia FROM ALL CAUSES);

1 in 1,000 (0.1%) (from cigarette smoking-related causes in the US);

1 in 38 (2.6%) (under-5 year old infants in UK-US-occupied Iraq);

1 in 17 (5.8%) (for under-5 year old infants in occupied Afghanistan).

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-polya220705.htm

Never until the mankind making Bird beast and flower Fathering and all humbling darkness Tells with silence the last light breaking And the still hour Is come of the sea tumbling in harness

And I must enter again the round Zion of the water bead And the synagogue of the ear of corn Shall I let pray the shadow of a sound Or sow my salt seed In the least valley of sackcloth to mourn

The majesty and burning of the child's death. I shall not murder The mankind of her going with a grave truth Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath With any further Elegy of innocence and youth.

Deep with the first dead lies London's daughter, Robed in the long friends, The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother, Secret by the unmourning water Of the riding Thames. After the first death, there is no other

Dylan Thomas - A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London

There may be many problems in the world deserving of our limited attention (and power, as mere individuals), still the barbarism of State sanctioned premeditated murder (aka the death penalty) is hard to turn a blind eye to.

Best, Mike B)

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