DUH! Some Things Aren't Supposed to Go Smoothly!
(The following is a reprint of Rod Senter's editorial reply to the NewYork Times story, "The Nuremberg Hangings --- Not So Smooth Either" by Tom Zeller [Jan 17, 2007])
Arch-Liberals who recoil at the suggestion of capital punishment have only themselves to blame for the cesspool of malignant crime to which our country has descended. When we actually punished criminals instead of coddling them and obsessing over their self-esteem, it seems that there were fewer of them in our midst.
So let's Cut To The Chase:
Is capital punishment really a significant deterrent to violent crime? Don't know and don't care. Murderers* should be hanged by the neck until dead...
a) because they deserve it, and,
b) because most who are sentenced to anything less will be out of jail in a handful of years to commit simlar atrocities to innocent people again.
Now, about hanging in particular: does it really snap the neck, sending the hangee peacefully into lah-lah land as if having fallen asleep watching Jay Leno --- except with a rope around his neck? Gee, I would so hate to think that were true.
Any gallows of my design would have a 1 inch-thick rope placed about the condemned's neck, with the noose positioned --- now listen closely, sportsfans --- smack-dab in the back of his neck, not on the left side as was done with Saddam Hussein. And instead of seven or eight feet of slack in the rope, the poor slob on my gallows would get no more than two feet --- two-and-a-half if he's lucky.
When the trap door opens, the condemned would plunge a maximum of 24 to 30 inches (not a ridiculous 8 feet) before the rope becomes taught and actually suspends him by his neck. That being done, the rest of us can just sit back, pop open a cold one, and watch the show.
What is this you say, flaming Liberals? That this is inumane? Well...DUH! Last I heard, that was the general idea. Humanity is for decent people who work hard and contribute as best they can to the fabric of civilized society, not scumbuckets who measure the quality of their lives by the extent to which can decimate the lives of others.
As someone else in this forum pointed out, the ten Nazis at Nuremberg did not die quickly --- unless you consider the better part of half an hour quick. But to make the scene even more entertaining (for us at least), consider the obvious fact that one of them had to hang first, then second, and so on. Now think for a moment about the last one to be taken: for something like two hours, he would have suffered the mind-numbing agony of listening to nine of his former comrads plunge through the trap door and slowly strangulate to death, before the hangman's guards finally came for him. Of course, a couple of minutes and a flight of stairs later, he would find out what agony really is.
On a slightly more personal note, I'd give a year's pay to have seen the look on his face as he was dragged up the gallows stairs to dance for the hangman himself.
Did you notice that the word murderers, above, had an asterisk (*) next to it? This is because while Ted Bundy-types should be at the front of the line to the nearest working scaffold, by no means should they enjoy exlusive membership. Being an "equal opportunity" kind of guy, I would also admit rapists, dope-dealers, perpetrators of any crimes involving firearms, and I'd make danged sure there was plenty of room for more. A lot more --- 'cause frankly, we have a lot of catching up to do.
The stark truth is that there is nothing wrong with our criminal justice system that a trap door and a good strong rope wouldn't cure. And it would help to create --- or should I say, bring back --- safer streets and neighborhoods for the rest of us.
Sadly, our country's powerful but brain-dead Liberals don't see it that way. And many an innocent person has suffered --- often unto violent and unprovoked death --- because of it. Even worse, many more will follow, largely because of them.
So let's hear it for the self-righteous, hipper-than-thou, deranged-to-the-core Liberals:
Hip hip...go 'way!
Rod Senter
http://cuttothechase.blogdrive.com/