Today's Random News

[Gohron]

I doubt we'll learn anything that will help us avoid further tragedies, but I'm against the death penalty and wishing death and rape on anyone, even the worst of the worst. We're supposed to be different from them. I'm not animalistic day to day (except in the bedroom, yo), so why should I call for blood in this case? Justice, not revenge.

My opinions on the death penalty are a little different than they were several years ago but I don't think it brings us down to the suspects level if the State does decide to end his life. He has a right to a trial and a lawyer of course (because it's possible that he had nothing to do with it for all we know) but I will not be upset if he's given a lethal injection. As much as it would please many people, I do not think it would be right for us to torture him or remove the dignity that every human being deserves, regardless of their actions. Regardless, a society such as ours should have a certain right to punish people according to their crimes. If he does die, it won't be in a way devoid of humanity. In a way (and maybe morally wrong), I do hope that he is killed and that he begs for forgiveness prior to his death. I hope that he feels some of the pain he has inflicted on other people who were all innocent.

I have not been able to get that little boy and his picture out of my head since I first read about him. There is no rhyme nor reason as to why this happened. The people who were responsible are psychopaths with absolutely no empathy or regard for another's life. I do not know why this particular incident has clung so heavily to my heart but it really has brought certain things into a different perspective for me. I remember hugging my son when he woke up that night after I got home from work and thinking of how lucky I was that he was alive and well. Then I thought about the father who will never again get to hug his son. This entire thing is complete madness.

[Yoshi]

I doubt we'll learn anything that will help us avoid further tragedies, but I'm against the death penalty and wishing death and rape on anyone, even the worst of the worst. We're supposed to be different from them. I'm not animalistic day to day (except in the bedroom, yo), so why should I call for blood in this case? Justice, not revenge.

We are different than them. We only aim to execute those that deserve it. There is no justice for bombing a soft target that can be achieved in a civilian court. What exactly do you take from a 19 year old psychopath that balances the life of an eight year old boy, setting aside the two women? The same logic would apply to the Chinese woman, who by all accounts had a bright future ahead of her, as opposed to the two losers who were living in government assisted housing and one of whom had dropped out of school to try to be a pro boxer.

[GohanX]

I find this interesting.

so far Dzokhar Tsarnaev has not been read his rights, so that the DOJ could "question the suspect extensively about other potential explosive devices or accomplices and to gain critical intelligence."

Now, this guy is a murdering piece of shit, but they are throwing due process right out the window. I also fear what this will mean when he goes to trial. I have also read that Sens. Graham and McCain are calling for him to be considered an "enemy combatant."

[Diff-chan]

That is just sad. Proof positive we have lost our way. What a sad joke.

It's not like that even helps in the end. A lot of those guys are stuck at Gitmo not because they are guilty. It's because the Bush-era DOJ bungled the cases so bad that they can't even get a kangaroo court military tribunal to justify their detention. So we just keep them locked up. So fucked.

It's really sad to see Obama institutionalize this sort of thing. I have a feeling in 50-100 years this is what a lot of people will remember from this era and not fondly - like the Japanese internments during WW2.

[Fe 26]

I do not know why this particular incident has clung so heavily to my heart but it really has brought certain things into a different perspective for me.

I don't know either. Our government does various things every year that kills children.

Maybe people would do something if we posted their pictures on CNN every 20 minutes

[Diff-chan]

Btw fuck Linday Graham. Think of what he gets out of the idea that this entire country is a "battlefield." Think about what we lose.

[Fe 26]

That is just sad. Proof positive we have lost our way. What a sad joke.

We've forgotten the difference between justice and revenge.

We also need to get off of this "we can fuck anyone if we define them as combatants" bullshit. I mean shit, we gave people in charge of nazi oven camps a fucking trial. Have we really degraded this much? No one has any ideals? No one stands for anything in the face of their feelings?

At what point are we just a bunch of apes beating the shit out of each over because we're angry?

[Gohron]

That is just sad. Proof positive we have lost our way. What a sad joke.

It's not like that even helps in the end. A lot of those guys are stuck at Gitmo not because they are guilty. It's because the Bush-era DOJ bungled the cases so bad that they can't even get a kangaroo court military tribunal to justify their detention. So we just keep them locked up. So fucked.

It's really sad to see Obama institutionalize this sort of thing. I have a feeling in 50-100 years this is what a lot of people will remember from this era and not fondly - like the Japanese internments during WW2.

The suspect needs to be given a fair trial and while it's unusual, I don't think him not being read his rights is an issue of concern. I don't believe they can use any further evidence gained from the suspect for a conviction until he's read his rights. Miranda rights have only been around for a little over 50 years. I've never understood why somebody needed to be told what their rights were considering that the information about those rights is public and part of US law. They seem more of a protection for ignorance rather than civil rights being violated. I'd be far more concerned over him being labeled as a "combatant". I hope this event doesn't end up as another leaping point for the Federal government to piss all over the Constitution.

I don't know either. Our government does various things every year that kills children.

Maybe people would do something if we posted their pictures on CNN every 20 minutes

I don't know what you're trying to get at here. I won't boldly defend our government or condone any of these actions but I'd like to think that the US government doesn't target civilians in such a matter. If they are ever found out to, the people responsible for the action need to be prosecuted in the same way as this man.

[Nick]

Justice is a fairy tale.

No, justice is an ideal, and one that America has not abandoned, though perversions like Guantanamo Bay and drone strikes raise a lot of questions about our direction. Still, the end of slavery, the civil rights movement, opportunities for social mobility, the treatment of enemies we have gone to war with (real war and Cold War) - you can find a lot of bad things to point out about all of those developments, but you probably can't convincingly argue that we haven't made tremendous strides for not only justice but human dignity on a scale that is probably unparalleled in all of history.

I'm not just talking about America, of course, but it is easy to see here. A lot of voices crying about injustice because "taxes are too high," "spending is too high," "regulations are too strict," "regulations are too lax," "it's too easy to get a gun," "it's too hard to get a gun," etc. . . . those voices would not have been heard at all before. And it's not only online that we have these freedoms.

It's wrong to throw up one's hands and call our ideals fairy tales. It's unrealistic to say that just because everything isn't even 50% perfect and people aren't 100% free that we are fooling ourselves striving for what we have clearly gotten closer to realizing. Abu Ghraib rightfully outraged us. It used to be that things like that were just business as usual.

We are different than them. We only aim to execute those that deserve it.

I don't care in the least that Tamerlan Tsarnaev died a brutal death. He fully deserved it. However, had we caught him alive, I see no reason we should have beaten and killed him. Look at how a street gang operates, then look at how Dr. Martin Luther King ran his life. One promotes revenge, the other justice.

[MechDeus]

Nick is the Bruce Wayne to Yoshi's Jean-Paul Valley.