Posted on 12/31/2006 7:02:22 AM PST by .cnI redruM
I was taking this philosophy class in college and I was the one conservative crank in the room who got annoyed by all the epistemological bong smoke. The professor, though thoroughly leftist in his outlook, liked calling on me. Perhaps he marveled in his sighting of a righty in the mist, maybe he liked being able to show something to his class that didn’t get filtered through the kumbaya echo chamber.
The topic that day was Jeffrey Dahmer. This was before Christopher Scarver did the planet a favor, and the professor was hopping mad that some guy in a newspaper column had suggested that Dahmer get the 500Kw Barca-lounger instead of a 300 year stay in the State of Wisconsin Marriot. He asked us our opinion, and I lacked the necessary right-wing guerrilla survival instincts to demur.
I decided to employ Socratic Method here and ask the good professor a question aimed at eliciting a liminal response. Like Arnold Horshack, my hand shot up in class. I asked the good professor. “If the state board of corrections gave Jeffrey Dahmer a clean bill of health, would you want this guy to be your son’s algebra teacher?”
The question was sophomoric, I admit. But hey, I was a sophomore, and thought Doctor Feelgood had this one coming. The issue at play was whether it was ever right and proper to administer capital punishment. I turned the question around. I was asking. “Ok, let’s say we keep Dahmer, Manson and John Wayne Gacy on taxpayer life support. What do we do with these guys? Collect them and trade them with our friends?”
I remembered this episode from my politically charged philosophy class because of the recent execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It brings the whole question I wanted to raise back to the fore. What would the new Iraq have done with Saddam?
It wasn’t as if the people of Iraq were calling the guy out for an encore. He was loathed and despised. As far as the Iraqis were concerned, no one outside of Tikrit needed to believe in the Boogey Man or The Wendigo. They had Saddam Insane to scare the children with instead.
Saddam went to the Hangman’s Noose utterly convinced that Iraq could not exist without him to take care of its business and sweep up the leftover Kurds and whey. He was about as likely to successfully seek rehabilitation as those internet pervs who get nabbed by Perverted Justice on the news shows. Let Hussein loose, give him another country to play with, and we’d better keep the 82nd on permanent high alert because it wouldn’t take long before Saddam Hussein made their services necessary.
I count The State of California fortunate that Charles Manson was far more psychopathic than sociopathic. The day he went before the parole board with the quaint little Nazi symbol carved in his head removed any lingering doubts, even from the mind of Shirley McClaine, as to whether they could trust Crazy Charlie on his own reconnaissance. The parole board made the obvious choice, and returned Charlie Manson to the isolated room with the heavily padded walls.
But this brings me to a question that sort of makes me itch. Why is the farce of a Charles Manson Parole Hearing even taking place? What is his court appointed attorney going to coach him with? I can hear it now.
“Son, you where a sharp suit and ace ‘em at the parole hearing. We’ll have you out there shoppin’ for Poulan chain saws and leather face-masks in no time.”
This brings us finally to Ramsey Clark, Saddam Insane and the recent hanging over in Iraq. We know that Saddam Hussein would have done everything in his power to ruin the current government in Iraq. We know the guy was known as “The Butcher of Baghdad” for reasons that in no way implicate the livestock or the meat-packing industries. We know that his continued existence was a source of hope to those who seek the destruction of everything the United States his trying to accomplish in Iraq. So what possible purpose does Hussein’s continued life possibly serve?
Maybe my well-intentioned but addled philosophy professor from years passed could offer an answer. However, I think the Iraqi courts have offered a more definitive response. The execution of Saddam Hussein may have been evil in the absence of any context. Perhaps it is always sad when any man swings from The Gallows Pole.
However, the continued life of Saddam Hussein would have brought continued misery to honest, hard-working Iraqi citizens and US soldiers. He would offer the world nothing but his continued desire for unbridled power and uninterrupted self-adulation, even at the cost of untold millions of lives. Thus, it is with all honorable reservations taken into account that I opine that yea verily, the execution of Saddam Hussein was a positive good and will make the world a better place.
Rose Bird
"The execution of Saddam; it was good."
Amen.
Good Old Rosie. Maybe she and Charlie should have been set up with a blind date. She would be better off not watching when Charlie had her over for dinner.
Cellphone's view ~
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532034279766935521
I watched the video of his hanging. Reading his lips and doing a quick Arabic translation I believe he said " I wish I had Johnny Cochran or Jackie Chiles as my attorney instead of Ramsey Clark."
I think Ramsey will henceforth print "Hello, lethal injection" on the bottom of his law firm's business cards.
So? Where are the videos off his neck breaking....????
why do we see the 'Peals' of the world get their heads sawed off and no Hussein death video?
I was just telling my family the SAME thing yesterday. WHY IS HE STILL ALIVE. I know it has to do with the death penalty not being on the books when he was convicted, or the death penalty being overturned for a while here in Calif. But if anyone ever deserved to die it is him. Along with Snotty Peterson
Poor Prison managment by the warden. He should be placed in the Crip's wing of Chino........
Saddam, for the last time, STFU!
The bigger question is WHY ARE THE 1993 WTC BOMBERS STILL ALIVE?
They've lived to see their task accomplished and have continued sending instructions through their lawyer to agents in the field.
I like your writing style.
They probably frown on white meat with a swastika carved in the forehead.
thank you.
Manson is alive because the baby-boomers are a huge demographic and 60's nostalgia is big.
:-)
The other one I linked you to.
I couldn't agree more! I just may ask your permission to use that one in a workshop presentation. I think it's wonderful!!
Thank you so much for brightening up my day!
:-)
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