"They're selling postcards of the hanging..." (Dylan)

That "strange fruit" thread a few weeks ago was a shocking reminder for me of how recently it was that American trees bore that srange fruit.

If this thread had come first, I would have known that the lynch mob mentality lives on still. Worse, maybe it lurks deep in the psyches of us all. But that's no excuse for indulging it in law. I find it profoundly disturbing that otherwise intelligent people can see the role of a civilised society, acting in the cold light of day, as being to gratify our crudest instincts.

Midchuck said: "the initiator has opted out of civilized society, so others have no ethical restrictions on what they do to him." Maybe Midchuck, or Jed Marum, or someone of that ilk, could say what shallow kind of a community it is that allows a Timothy McVeigh to destroy its values and reduce it to eye-for-an-eye barbarity. Do they really not question, just a little bit, the way Sharia law is applied in Saudi Arabia? (I know the USA and UK governments don't.)

I admit I won't come close, but I'll take my lead from Mrrzy thanks. If it was between Mrrzy and a hate-filled victim snarling retribution, I'd put my money on Mrzzy to be the one to pick up the pieces and make some sense out of the rest of his life. It beggars belief that anyone can favour the latter as a template for communal values. Pity our children.