🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <MS-C.726270852.377401575.mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU>,
 Mark Crispin <mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU> writes...
>Dodd's death was not the gruesome
>horror that the antis portrayed.  No surprise; it's long been known that death
>by hanging is instantaneous when done properly, but science is always ignored
>when it interferes with ideology.

Operative words:  "when done properly".  One item I read in the paper was a
study that examination of skeletons of executed convicts in Ireland showed 19%
died of a broken neck.  The others, presumably, were strangled.  Ignorance of
science?

> 
>Here's another part of the propaganda to debunk: the wierd notion that ``no
>other civilized country has the death penalty'' and that by having a death
>penalty we are in the company of ``such nations as Iraq, South Africa, the
>Soviet Union [never mind that there is no longer such a country] and China.''
> 
>This bit of propaganda presupposes that ``civilized country'' is defined as
>``country in North America and Western Europe.''  This seems to be a bit
>racist to me.  Then again, lefties have never flinched from racism when it has
>been useful.  It is racist to label Korea and Japan ``not civilized'', yet
>they both have a death penalty.  By hanging in both countries, if I'm not
>mistaken.  Isn't it also racist to call Malaysia ``not civilized'', simply
>because it takes its drug problem seriously enough to hang drug smugglers?

I'm not familiar with Malaysia.  When, however, was the last time Japan imposed
the death penalty?  I don't recall anything recent.  As for Korea, I plead
ignorance.

> 
>I'm also not too sure about the use of ``civilized'' to describe Europe.  Now
>that the 45 years of enforced good behavior has come to an end, Europeans are
>gleefully turning back to ``ethnic cleansing'', neo-Nazism, and religious
>warfare throughout the continent.

True, but not necessarily relevant.

								Dan, ad nauseum