Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
The argument is a common one: the death penalty necessary causes the death of innocent people because no court system gets the right result every time… Science has proved it in many cases, but should this be a reason to incarcerate instead?
Am I being a naive pragmatist when I say that I can imagine death as preferable to daily rape in a high-security prison for the rest of my life? If I were convicted of murder (and I would be innocent, there can be no doubt) I think the death penalty would be an excellent get-out unless I thought there was a chance of the conviction later being quashed.
And if the death penalty prevents more murders from occuring through deterrence than the number of innocent ‘murderers’ executed, surely that’s okay?
Lethal injection
I don’t know the answer yet, I find the whole thing uncomfortable, but in cases where there can be no doubt even to the most skeptical juror, I find it hard to resist the death penalty as a just punishment for those who wilfully break societies greatest taboos (paedophilia, murder and rape).
Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
Oh to have written this. Just great.
Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
Scientific American
Are you running out of fascinating trivia? Is someone else beginning to take the familial plaudits? Well stop worrying, the solution’s here:
Scientific American’s Daily Trivia
Excellent stuff!
Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
[Update: Oh dear, I wrote this and now have to retract it… Cameron did say this but look at this]
Cameron today said:
Everything we do will be guided by two core values: trusting people, and sharing responsibility.
- We believe that the more you trust people, the more power and responsibility you give them, the stronger they and society become.
- We believe that we’re all in this together — individuals, families, government, business, voluntary organisations. We have a shared responsibility for our shared future.
- Trusting people, and sharing responsibility: these are the values we need to meet the challenges of the modern world.
- They are different from Labour’s approach, which is to tell people what to do and to assume that everything is the state’s responsibility.
This should put to rest all those concerns people have been having once and for all.
Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
This is non-News - the Guardian is dumbing down!
UKIP influence result
Posted by Gav on January 9th, 2006
When will Peter Mandelson learn to stop damaging the Tory revival? Brown’s a liability and if Mandy damages his chances the Tories will not get such a massive majority.
Brown’s being exposed all over the place - the UK’s pensions crisis is deepening as a steady stream of Final Salary schemes close their books (Rentokil, Co-Op and Arcadia lately); the EU is investigating the UK for breaking stability pact guidelines for public borrowing after he amended the period he defines the ‘economic cycle’ running to and from (link); and his popularity is ten-fold down on May 2005 (link)!
I’m supporting Brown, are you?
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