death penalty - seems to me that the only way to ensure

[ulysses]

both a minimum of suffering and a quick death is to go straight to the source. We've seen recently on DU that even beheading, although final, doesn't preclude suffering by any means. No other method in current use in the west of which I'm aware does any better a job on both counts.

One method used in, if memory serves, some part of the ancient world involved having an elephant stand on the head of the condemned. Gruesome? Sure. But once done, done. None of this business of whether or not the head lived after decapitation, or did the capacity to feel pain continue beyond the first or second injection. Crush the head, and that's all she wrote.

To save the animals the trauma and make the process all the quicker, we can use a pile-driver.

If we're going to be a DP nation, let's not sugar-coat or sanitize the thing, particularly when doing so only causes more suffering.

[billbuckhead]

1. We have plenty of gun guys who would love to blow peoples heads off with 50cals

It would look great on pay per view TV

[ulysses]

2. yeah, but guns still miss.

[billbuckhead]

18. Have several shooters shooting at one time

You'll have plenty of volunteers

[Selatius]

19. That's if you try to shoot a man from afar.

It's not the case if you shoot him in the head standing right next to him like the nazis and communists used to do. Actually, I think they still do that in places like North Korea and China.

[ulysses]

22. but see, that doesn't appeal to the fact that

we all want to belive that we're cowboys, able to take care of varmints at a distance.

[Selatius]

26. That's not cowboyism. That's pushing a red button and watching a target 500 miles away go boom.

If you're going to have a death penalty, then put the barrel of the gun an inch from the head and pull the trigger. If you're going have it, don't do it half-assed. Don't pussyfoot around it. Don't make it out to be something better than vigilante "justice." Dispense with the "humanity" because there is nothing humane or pleasant about taking human life.

If Americans want the death penalty so bad, then have the nation's prisoners on deathrow executed by an officer. Line them up. Force them to kneel. Then have an officer walk by, place the barrel an inch from the condemned man's head, and pull the damn trigger. Put it out in a barren, bricked-off courtyard and film it like the nazis and communists used to do. This way, when people compare footage from the nazis and communists with America in the early 21st century, they'll notice startling similarities. Instead of a Red Army uniform or an SS uniform, it's an American prison guard uniform instead.

When the deed is done, be happy and proud you belong on the same side as countries like North Korea, China, Burma, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others in terms of the death penalty.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. I couldn't have said it better myself

Lethal injection is merely a means for us to stomach the death penalty. If you're going to do it, just blow their brains out.

[piedmont]

23. People with irrational fears of guns will do ANYTHING to hijack a thread

Would you please point one these "gun guys" out for me?

[billbuckhead]

29. It's irrational to fear guns?

I hear people all the time say ""they" should be lined up and shot" just like NRA Congresscrook Duke Cunningham said about war protestors and later about liberals in general.

[knowbody0]

3. i agree

dead is dead. our so called "civilized" executions are anything but.

[nankerphelge]

4. How 'bout getting rid of it...

and joining the rest of the civilzed world?

[ulysses]

5. there's always that, yes. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. My answer to the DP is to make it PUBLIC and

have this on basic TV, on the news

Why? You know why executions moved behind the walls of prisons?

DP support was going down exponentially. So yes, make it public. during lunch hour preempting all TV on the state in question...

Suporters will watch it, you can bet, but support will drop... HARD.

I mean we live in a socity that does NOT show us caskets, and does not show us truly blood and gore... how fast do you think people will stand for their lunch hour interfered with by executions?

In the medium to long run, the people will demand it goes away

[ulysses]

7. yes indeed.

Same idea behind why they don't show war casualties on the evening news. Every DP should be televised.

[depakid]

11. I honestly don't know about that in America today

Executions traditionally drew mocking crowds- and with two generations brought up on right wing hate radio and propaganda on TV (not to mention violence in the media and in video games) it might just make matters worse.

[porphyrian]

8. The recent fiasco here in Florida has executions suspended for the moment, I think they said...

...but let me back up. Florida has been an execution factory like Texas for some time now. Originally, we had the chair, but we switched to lethal injection after an executed prisoner caught fire during his killing. Now, just the other day, a man had to be given a second set of lethal injections as the first failed to kill him. Thankfully, enough of a stink has been raised to have things looked into, from the angle of looking for a more humane way to kill death row inmates.

[ulysses]

9. that was the impetus for the thread, yeah.

The more humane manner is the pile driver.

[Az]

10. The entire idea of a humane execution

Boggles the mind. I am not terribly sure why the proDP people are not for more gruesome executions. I mean that is their intent. To show just what their anger is ready to do to those who transgress the law.

Executions speak to a very brutal form of education. It is meant to teach those who commit crimes that if you go too far we will go too far with you. So if that is your goal then why all the mock civillity? Brutalize the criminal. Beat a man to death on TV. That'll show them. That will show them all.

I am and always have been against the Death Penalty. I really don't get what they think it accomplishes other than exacting vengence.

[ulysses]

12. it's an unexamined thing, I think.

I really don't get what they think it accomplishes other than exacting vengence.

Some few seem to think that exacting vengeance is fine. The rest of the DP supporters, at least on our side of the aisle, seem to be in denial that it's all about revenge.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

20. Here's what I've never understood about those who seek revenge via DP

Wasting away in prison for the rest of your life. Knowing every single day you'll never get out, ever.

Or being put to death and ending it all right then.

Which is more vengeful?

If I wanted revenge for the death of someone I loved, I'd want them to sit out a very long life in prison w/o parole.

[TomInTib]

13. Hell, I have always thought that the convicted should meet their end

in the same manner as the victim.

I know that sounds pretty hard, but I just do not place a whole lot of value on life.

[ulysses]

15. "but I just do not place a whole lot of value on life."

Noted. I was going to ask how effective you thought that approach might be, but I'll pass.

[TomInTib]

24. I have been around way too much instant death

and I do not think the lives that we live hold much sway when it comes down to The End.

We just Go.

Rich and poor, young and old, good and bad.

We just Go.

If life had real value, a sweet kid who had never done ill in his life would not just cease to exist when some other guy bends around a tree and pops him in the head.

[dysfunctional press]

14. how can the fundies call this a christian nation, and still support the death penalty?

:crazy:

[ulysses]

16. it's a "culture of life" thing.

We wouldn't understand, evidently.

[scarletwoman]

17. Ah. Do I take it you read the guillotine subthread I started in another post?

:evilgrin:

Anyway, hell yes! If you're going kill someone then kill them hard and fast. All this pussyfooting around is just ridiculous.

sw

[ulysses]

21. yes I did.

:) I had heard it so, but not in a while, and not since the DP became such a fun issue here. :D

If you're going kill someone then kill them hard and fast. All this pussyfooting around is just ridiculous.

It's all public relations, which I'm sure you know.

[scarletwoman]

25. Like, we're not really doing what we're really doing...

:hi:

[Hippo_Tron]

28. Line 'em up and blow their heads off, as stated above

Not that I'm in favor of having the death penalty at all but if we're going to have it then lets stop this lethal injection bullshit. All it takes is a shotgun and one bullet.