O'Sullivan and "Behind the Shed" Justice

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 25, 2012 · 8:16 AM PDT

2012/04/25 · 08:16

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

- Albert Camus

anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

- Leviticus 24:16

I stumbled out of bed this morning with a profound illness. My girlfriend and I had spent the last evening down at Seal Beach, and I had had a Smithwicks and shepherd's pie at one of the downtown pubs. This, as it turns out, was not the best decision I could have made, and after dragging myself into work I felt as though I had been hit by a commuter train the night before, hastily reassembled by first responders with packing tape and wood glue, then unceremoniously hurled up through the second-story window of my apartment via catapult.

To emerge from the weekend in such a state, and then to have to endure the musing of John O'Sullivan, is a fate I do not wish on anyone. Only a serious masochist would compel themselves into that kind of a situation, and I can only account for my behavior by way of my rapidly-declining physical condition, causing an inability to make rational decisions.

This left me in a unique position to empathize with O'Sullivan's arguments about how putting Norwegian mass-murder Anders Breivik on trial is a waste of everyone's time. Which is a strange thing to hear on its face, even in the proper context: he said he's guilty, we all know he's guilty, so why do we have to go through all of the pomp and circumstance of a "justice system" when we can just pull him behind the shed and pop one in the back of his head?

The first such question is: Why should there be a trial at all — or at least a trial that treats the verdict as something in doubt? Everybody knows that Breivik murdered 77 innocent people; we all know just why he did so. His rambling paranoid web attacks on Norway’s social democrats for betraying Christian civilization were given wide publicity on the day after his rampage. Today he is not denying but rather boasting about his crimes. Nothing crucial to justice is in doubt.

No doubt this argument will be described as "thoughtful" or "uncompromising" in some circles. I prefer words like "asinine", "sadistic" or perhaps "dangerous". Read More

I Heard the Noise of Thunder

AriusEx

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 05, 2012 · 7:02 PM PST

2012/03/05 · 19:02

It's important for everyone to have some kind of a routine, especially when they get off work. Whether it's copious amounts of booze, firearms, or just good old-fashioned American self-loathing, we all need some way to sit back and metabolize the day's events.

I spend my evening commute tuned into POTUS, a political analysis station on satellite radio, because after spending a work day aggravating an already ill-tempered wrist and essentially failing at everything I'm paid to do, it's nice to have a relaxing drive listening to news junkies regale me with all of the insane shit spewing forth in the political spectrum.

The booze comes later, once I've safely navigated the iconic California traffic and arrived home. Today it's a delicious mix of Bushmills and Sam Adams Boston Lager, two of my alcoholic staples that never fail to take the edge off a hectic afternoon. On the off chance that they do, however, I have a reserve bottle of absinthe waiting to do the trick. If the military taught me anything, it's to always have a backup plan.

One shot down, half a beer gone. Time to reload and ruminate on the events of the day, take the occasional break to watch the cats dart around the apartment high as kites on the nip. I sometimes wonder if it's acceptable to give them the stuff at only about seven months. Suppose it can't do much harm.

Anyway, to the matter at hand. The talk of the evening was of Sanotrum's plot to address AIPAC along with the other GOP candidates. The press pool at POTUS seemed confused as to why he would leave Ohio, still very much in contention, to try and get the Jewish lobby to swoon over him. Florida is long over and done, why bother?

AriusEx

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 23, 2012 · 6:25 PM PST

2012/02/23 · 18:25

The longer this GOP primary goes on, the more difficult it becomes for me to try and write more detailed posts on the candidates. The crazy is coming too hard and too fast; I grab on to one piece of red meat flung out by the campaigns, sink my teeth into it, and by the time I'm one paragraph in they've chucked out three more.

I had a real juicy one picked out for this week, too, a gem that I thought everyone had missed. Only now I've come to find that Pericles over at DKos has a missive on the same damned thing I'm about to ramble about.

This business is too fast-paced. The minute something goes over the airwaves you have thirty seconds to gin up an article, proofread, edit and post to see if you can beat the three thousand other hooligans doing the same damned thing you are. It's enough to drive one to drink, but since I'm already heavily into that stuff it took an afternoon with a Sig Sauer over at the local indoor shooting range to cool my nerves. Never underestimate the ability of firearms to improve your day.

Back to the matter at hand. I'm forced to talk about Rick Santorum because, despite the efforts of Mitt's Cocktail Hour Brigade and a fantastic push by Dan Savage via Google, the poor beast stands to be the front-runner for the next month or so. It remains to be seen how long that will last; Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Huntsman and Gingrich have all run through the Mitt gauntlet and been left battered, bloodied and dismayed. It's safe to say that Gingrich is staying in the race out of pure malice for the coiffed cyborg, but does Santorum harbor the same levels of self-loathing and ignorance capable for such a devastating course of action?

If he's a good Catholic, I'm guessing we all know the answer.

RSS

O'Sullivan and "Behind the Shed" Justice

I Heard the Noise of Thunder

Rick Santorum for National Patriarch