Back
Hey, everybody. I'm back. Will post again soon.
It was nice to have a break from the insanity of American politics and world events. I read almost no newspapers and saw almost no news on my trip. (On the other hand, I hiked to the top of the highest mountain on the Continental Divide. That was fun.) When I DID catch glimpses of what was going on, it made me glad I wasn't paying attention. I would just get these short, impressionistic flashes of the news: Iraq now rather obviously falling into chaos; Cindy what's-her-name, the protest woman, camped near Bush's ranch...seems like rather a kook, but she seems to be having some effect; chaos along the border with Mexico...the Minutemen, doing exactly what I'd do if my land were being invaded and shat upon and my cattle slaughtered...and being called racists for it; more memos suggesting that those of us who were called crazy for saying that the Administration was lying to us in the lead-up to the war were, in fact, the sane ones; Avian flu getting ready to kill us all; the BTK killer getting life when what he deserves is death; John Roberts looking less good than I'd hoped; liberal groups making fools of themselves by trying to make Roberts look less good than he really is;....and pervading it all, always peering from the background, more and more evidence that the President is simply not up to the job.... Maybe we should all be thankful that he spends so much time relaxing on the Lazy W ranch instead of governing. I think we're all better off that way...
Anyway, it was important...more than important...now seemingly imperative...to get out into the mountains and let all this stuff fade into the background. Seen from something of a distance, it all started to seem even more insane than it usually does.
Anyway, more later.
Hey, everybody. I'm back. Will post again soon.
It was nice to have a break from the insanity of American politics and world events. I read almost no newspapers and saw almost no news on my trip. (On the other hand, I hiked to the top of the highest mountain on the Continental Divide. That was fun.) When I DID catch glimpses of what was going on, it made me glad I wasn't paying attention. I would just get these short, impressionistic flashes of the news: Iraq now rather obviously falling into chaos; Cindy what's-her-name, the protest woman, camped near Bush's ranch...seems like rather a kook, but she seems to be having some effect; chaos along the border with Mexico...the Minutemen, doing exactly what I'd do if my land were being invaded and shat upon and my cattle slaughtered...and being called racists for it; more memos suggesting that those of us who were called crazy for saying that the Administration was lying to us in the lead-up to the war were, in fact, the sane ones; Avian flu getting ready to kill us all; the BTK killer getting life when what he deserves is death; John Roberts looking less good than I'd hoped; liberal groups making fools of themselves by trying to make Roberts look less good than he really is;....and pervading it all, always peering from the background, more and more evidence that the President is simply not up to the job.... Maybe we should all be thankful that he spends so much time relaxing on the Lazy W ranch instead of governing. I think we're all better off that way...
Anyway, it was important...more than important...now seemingly imperative...to get out into the mountains and let all this stuff fade into the background. Seen from something of a distance, it all started to seem even more insane than it usually does.
Anyway, more later.
posted by Winston Smith at
8:02 AM
2 Comments:
BTK is the kind of guy who makes me somewhat sympathetic to Eugene Volokh's pro-torturing murders suggestion. However, I do think that the torturing, if it is to be done, should be confined to the families of the victims. What's wrong with the state simply creating a legal space wherein those directly wronged by a murderous piece of shit like Dennis Rader could exact vengeance, if they so chose?
One answer to Matthew's rhetorical question is it would violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. The criminal law is not merely a facilitator of retributive justice. Society is better off when victims of crime have neither the need nor the ability to choose and personally inflict a punishment upon the criminal
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