Monday, January 15, 2007
He's got a good head on his shoulders
Two more of Hussein's cronies were hanged yesterday. One of them was decapitated in the process.
The history of hanging is actually pretty interesting. I always just assumed that people who were hung died from asphyxiation; thankfully, this is not the case. The theory behind modern hanging is that it instantly breaks several vertebrae, causing sudden death. However, whether or not a person loses consciousness immediately is -- of course -- unknown. Remarkably, some countries still perform officially sanctioned hanging by asphyxiation.
There are charts which show how far a person of a certain weight must be dropped in order to apply enough force to the neck to kill but not enough to decapitate. [Before the creation of these charts, all men were dropped from one height, women from another, a rough recognition of the same principle.] The fact that such knowledge exists, and has existed for over a hundred years, just goes to show how incompetent (malicious?) the Iraqi executioners are.
I go back and forth on capital punishment. My instinct is that it's wrong because all human life has value. On the other hand, I think that in exceptional circumstances, two wrongs sometimes do actually make a right. If we ever catch Osama bin Laden, he should be tried, convicted, and killed, if for no other reason than national catharsis. He's such a bad person that I think his life truly is worthless, and he should be treated accordingly.
However, I don't think murderers should be executed, even the worst serial killers. I guess the distinction for me is people who are "common criminals" and those few people out there who are capable of undermining society itself.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a very bad person, but his crimes weren't going to end the United States as we know it. These terrorists not only want to kill for its own sake, but they want to end our way of life. That's intolerable and they've got to go, one way or the other.
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The history of hanging is actually pretty interesting. I always just assumed that people who were hung died from asphyxiation; thankfully, this is not the case. The theory behind modern hanging is that it instantly breaks several vertebrae, causing sudden death. However, whether or not a person loses consciousness immediately is -- of course -- unknown. Remarkably, some countries still perform officially sanctioned hanging by asphyxiation.
There are charts which show how far a person of a certain weight must be dropped in order to apply enough force to the neck to kill but not enough to decapitate. [Before the creation of these charts, all men were dropped from one height, women from another, a rough recognition of the same principle.] The fact that such knowledge exists, and has existed for over a hundred years, just goes to show how incompetent (malicious?) the Iraqi executioners are.
I go back and forth on capital punishment. My instinct is that it's wrong because all human life has value. On the other hand, I think that in exceptional circumstances, two wrongs sometimes do actually make a right. If we ever catch Osama bin Laden, he should be tried, convicted, and killed, if for no other reason than national catharsis. He's such a bad person that I think his life truly is worthless, and he should be treated accordingly.
However, I don't think murderers should be executed, even the worst serial killers. I guess the distinction for me is people who are "common criminals" and those few people out there who are capable of undermining society itself.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a very bad person, but his crimes weren't going to end the United States as we know it. These terrorists not only want to kill for its own sake, but they want to end our way of life. That's intolerable and they've got to go, one way or the other.
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