Here's a couple for you:

[Black Jeebus]

What I really don't understand is why do they swab the person with alcohol before giving them the lethal injection.

"Now we don't want this needle puncture getting infected..."

[Soldier]

Now, Soldier, I don't think that's the reason there are so few virgins around....

Well, naturally my irresistible charm is the primary reason. But I find it hard to believe that dragons aren't also a contributing factor.

[Inquartata]

Sure, there's that immediate benefit, but how much do you lose with that waste of a perfectly good labor force?

We tried that sort of a labor force once. It proved rather inefficient, not to mention troublesome...

Anyway, the problem with capital punishment is twofold. (1) "No young man ever believes that he can die." So those who bother to think about it figure it cannot possibly happen to them---they're too smart, too lucky, too---them. (2) Criminals, by and large, tend to be stupid...or at least very short-term oriented. So they seldom think far enough ahead to consider possible consequences of their self-gratifying behavior. They live in the "now", and tomorrow be damned.

This might be changed for the better, at least somewhat, if the punishment were made both swift and certain. Currently it is neither, and probably could not be made either without some drastic curtailment of rights to appeal...

[BrianH]

who cares.

I do, among many others.

I don't believe we need to kill people who kill people to show people who might kill people that to kill people is bad.

True life, with no possibility of parole.

[electricepeeist]

I agree with DFP. It would be so cool to have a force of murderer-munching dragons!!

[Soldier]

I do, among many others.

I don't believe we need to kill people who kill people to show people who might kill people that to kill people is bad.

True life, with no possibility of parole.

...so that the rest of us law-abiding citizens can pay for their food and board for the rest of their lives.

I think prisoners should have to produce something to pay for themselves. Make shoes, put together picnic tables, knit blankets. Something like that.

[Black Jeebus]

You ever try to force someone to work when they know they have certain unalienable rights? Especially when they are disgruntled about being detained in the first place. The prison work camps could only possible work the way they did. These aren't the hardest working people of our society we're talking about. For the most part prisoners end up in prison because somewhere along the way they decided they would take a short cut. If you brought back the work camps without reinstituting the kind of harsh treatment prisoners learned to expect in them, nothing would ever be produced or accomplished.

[Soldier]

"You hungry, prisoner?"

"Yes."

"You want food?"

"Yes."

"Well, nobody gets a free lunch, especially not criminals. You want food, you make enough shoes to pay for your meal."


Which rights does this violate?

[Black Jeebus]

Personally I like your system, but I think detaining someone and denying them the essentials of survival unless they do something for you might fall under cruel and unusual.

Bare in mind this isn't my standard, but that's what I would expect the civil rights people to harp about.

[Soldier]

"Cruel and unusual," hah. They'd have to work for food anywhere else in America; why not make them do so in prison?

[Black Jeebus]

The main problem I see would be that when you take away their freedom, you are expected to then support them (give them the stuff they need to live: food, water, a place to dump their ****).

[Soldier]

Oh, no no no. We didn't take away their freedom; they forfeited it when they broke a law. Why should we be expected to support these people, when they're the ones who made the bad decision in the first place?

[cornflower]

All I can say is that I'm happy to be Canadian, and not to have to live in a country that permits such a barbaric practice as capital punishment.

[Soldier]

Well, I'm sorry that's all you can say - because that is also rather ethnocentric and rude. Perhaps a bit of civility could be tried for?

[cornflower]

I don't understand why you think that comment was rude or uncivil. Perhaps you have a different definition for civility where you come from. Where I come from, civility means keeping your head screwed on, and being rational and not saying something totally unreasonable like, "OMG, YOU SUX0RX! YA A$$HOLE! *insert miscellaneous expletives here*" You had a point about my ending in the post I made during our debate about Gifted programs; here, here I was merely posting something that summarized my beliefs towards Capital Punishment. It WAS all I could say because I was posting it sometime after midnight, I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough. I should have said something to the effect of: "Since it's past midnight, all I can say is...."

I think Capital Punishment is barbaric, and I am happy that Canada's laws decree it to be so. I was not directly attacking the opinions of others who support Capital Punishment. I recognize that as a very large and sensitive topic, and opinions are many and widely varied, so I respect the opinons of others who support it or otherwise. I'm just glad that I do not live in a country that so greatly opposes my beliefs.

P.S. I don't think the word 'ethnocentric' means what you think it means. My post had nothing to do with ethnicity or race.

[Soldier]

Since there is no such word as "culture-centric", "ethnocentric" also refers to matters which have to do with culture.

And, it seems we disagree. I still find your comment rather more acerbic than necessary.

[Rogue]

This might be changed for the better, at least somewhat, if the punishment were made both swift and certain. ...

And public?

[Soldier]

Nothing like a stunning display of mortality to discourage a young man's ideas of invulnerability.

[Philistine]

Nothing like a stunning display of mortality to discourage a young man's ideas of invulnerability.

For most drug-dealers, for example--the swift and stunning displays of mortality at the hands of other drug-dealers are orders of magnitude more common and more sudden than anything the State could provide.

It doesn't really seem to discourage them in the slightest.

--Philistine

[MikeHarm]

I think that discouraging others isn't really the point with the death penalty. Its more that if someone does something horrible enough the rest of us feel better about things if the system stomps on them like a bug to end it permanently. Squish.