BS: Capital Punishment?

Subject: RE: BS: Capital Punishment?
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 06:50 PM

Ahhhh, perhaps a side bar, but a Virgina jury has jusy chozen against the death penalty aginst convicted sniper, Lee Malvo. And this sentence from the otherwise blood thirsty Virginians. Go figure?...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Capital Punishment?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 07:09 PM

McGrath, you might enjoy the new book about Jefferson and the way the slavery issue shaped the Constitution of the US.

re: the statement that what the Nazis did was illegal. Not so, unfortunately! It was all legal under the then current German law.

ddw, the difference between war and terrorism depends on which side you are on. If you are part of a small group [or country] opposed to a major power, would you stand up on the field of battle and make everyone feel better that you had been wiped out the honorable way or would you go underground and become an irregular, waging a guerilla war? One of the advantages of the second method is that you can make it too expensive for the larger power to maintain its activities. The issue becomes more difficult when a non-national group [can be as few as one person] decides that it is at war with a nation.

There was a novel written by Phil Bolger in which it was illegal to imprison people as being destructive to the soul of both the prisoner and the imprisoned. After 24 hours, the accused had to be either freed or executed.

Subject: RE: BS: Capital Punishment?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 07:34 PM

But waging a guerrilla war doesn't necessarily involve terrorism, defined as intentionally killing non-combatant civilians to change the way they behave and think. For example ambushing military units and so forth isn't in itself terrorism, however much the press offices might try to paint it as such.

In a situation where the aim is to "win hearts and minds" terrorism doesn't make much sense for either side. Of course typically that doesn't stop it happening from both sides.

And the fact that the killing by either sides may not be "terrorism", in that sense, doesn't make it any less horrible, or mean that it is justified.

Subject: RE: BS: Capital Punishment?
From: Peace
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 03:10 PM

I am finding myself in agreement with McG of H. We can put whatever spin we want on the 'one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter', but when ya boil it down, it's pretty much the same thing--forget the semantic games. A bullet in the chest really doesn't care who fired it or why. And a dead person doesn't have the luxury of debating the politics or rightness of the situation.