Majority of Obama states now have no death penalty or moratorium

[Vosem]

Horrible, but hopefully if states like Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin restore the death penalty we can end the Obama Administration with it being more common, population-wise, than it was at the start.

[Vosem]

Horrible, but hopefully if states like Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin restore the death penalty we can end the Obama Administration with it being more common, population-wise, than it was at the start.

Michigan has never carried out an execution, and formally outlawed it in 1846.

Wisconsin's only execution was carried out in 1851, and the practice was outlawed in 1853.

West Virginia, 1959.

...until the historic expansion of states performing executions during the second half of the 2010s?

[Vosem]

Horrible, but hopefully if states like Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin restore the death penalty we can end the Obama Administration with it being more common, population-wise, than it was at the start.

You're one bloodthirsty little fellow, aren't you?

Seriously, man. You haven't made any actual argument for death penalty, as "let's have moar executions, rah, rah! HPs, HPs, rah rah!" doesn't constitute an argument by any standards.

Neither have anti-death penalty people in this thread; the entire thread is little but cheerleading for one point of view or another. The reason I personally support a death penalty is because it is my view that the perpetrators of certain crimes (the committers of certain especially heinous murders; serial rapists; perhaps, on a sufficiently large scale, theft) cannot be rehabilitated by society and therefore should not be kept in jails, which on a fundamental level should be tools for rehabilitation. Badger has pointed out an additional argument against sentencing people to life in jail (that "lifers" have nothing left to lose, making them dangerous) as well. Also, it is my view that the justice system, broadly, has two purposes: 1) to enforce the rules of society by enacting punishment or vengeance on those who break them (such as through a death penalty), 2) to try to rehabilitate those who can be so that in the future perhaps the laws of society are broken less. In my view the death penalty aids both goals. I'm also very frustrated by the large number of "progressive" people who believe they are doing society and human rights favors by opposing the death penalty, which can lead to some "cheerleading" attitudes in certain threads as a blowback.

Horrible, but hopefully if states like Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin restore the death penalty we can end the Obama Administration with it being more common, population-wise, than it was at the start.

You're one bloodthirsty little fellow, aren't you?

Seriously, man. You haven't made any actual argument for death penalty, as "let's have moar executions, rah, rah! HPs, HPs, rah rah!" doesn't constitute an argument by any standards.

Wanting certain criminals (think remorseless child rapists or serial killers) removed from this earth in the quickest and most humane way possible hardly makes someone blood thirsty.

One thing the death penalty in this country most certainly is not is quick.

I think I've made the point clear that it ought to be quicker. Sitting on death row for decades on end should be an extremely infrequent occurrence.

Horrible, but hopefully if states like Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin restore the death penalty we can end the Obama Administration with it being more common, population-wise, than it was at the start.

Michigan has never carried out an execution, and formally outlawed it in 1846.

Wisconsin's only execution was carried out in 1851, and the practice was outlawed in 1853.

West Virginia, 1959.

...until the historic expansion of states performing executions during the second half of the 2010s?

I suggest you offer your services to some good death row - preferably, in Texas. You would be a great executioner.

Executions don't occur frequently enough in the US to have a permanent "executioner" hired; usually, they are prison wardens in states where executing people is part of the job description of "warden".

And it is such a wonderful conversation starter: "what do you do for leaving?" - "Oh, I kill people."

Fascinating

BTW, as you are from Russia as well, you must have had a few family members either among executioners or among the executed. Which one was it?

Rather a dramatic way of putting it, but if I understand your question right I suppose the answer is "both". I have ancestors who died in the Holodomor, as a direct (arguably intended) result of Soviet policy, and other ancestors who were military officers and members of the Party. Plural is intentional in both cases.

If you mean pre-Soviet, I am 100% Jewish. While my family history barely traces back to the start of the 20th century, I think I can reasonably assume all my ancestors were in the latter category.

[Vosem]

Executions don't occur frequently enough in the US to have a permanent "executioner" hired;

What a pity, I should say. Robs you of a chance to dedicate yourself to your favorite occupation.

The last Gallup poll had 63% of Americans favoring the death penalty; that does not mean 63% of Americans want to be executioners. I personally would not want such a job, though I accept someone has to do it.

But, you know, you could, I guess, move to China. Or to Saudi Arabia: those amputations should be lots of fun. And the severed limbs must be of great applicability in house decoration.

Are the two of us in the same conversation?

I know, I know, you are 100% Jewish, but that not 100% Jewish state of Israel does not, for some reason, practice stoning these days. How non-Jewish of them!

First of all, you used so many negatives in this statement that I have no idea what you're trying to say. It sounds like you're trying to build up some sort of strawman linking Jewish ethnicity, Jewish religion, the state of Israel, and stoning, but it's impenetrable for me. Может я это предложение пойму по русский?

[Vosem]

I personally would not want such a job

Given your recent bloodthirstyness, I am schocked by this admission. Interestingly enough, you did take some time to consider the option, though.

That's not what I was doing when I was logged off.

First of all, you used so many negatives in this statement that I have no idea what you're trying to say. It sounds like you're trying to build up some sort of strawman linking Jewish ethnicity, Jewish religion, the state of Israel, and stoning, but it's impenetrable for me. Может я это предложение пойму по русский?

Sorry, edited it a bit too much- does read badly.  Should have been

I know, I know, you are 100% Jewish, but that less-than-100% Jewish state of Israel does not, for some reason, practice stoning these days. How non-Jewish of them!

I don't know why your making a point that Israel is less than 100% Jewish (unless you want it cleansed), and I think we can both agree that stoning would not be consistent with Jewish values. Justice is, but it cannot be provided by a lynch mob (or a stoning mob).

I don't know what you're doing by calling me 100% Jewish unless you're trying to draw negative attention to my ethnicity, which I am confident you are not since it is one we share.

Stoning, of course, it the time-honored, properly kosher way of putting people to death.

Not really. First of all, the Torah prescribes different death penalties for different crimes. Second of all, the Torah doesn't condone a group of people throwing rocks at someone until they die, like the way Rajm works today in Islamic countries; what is usually translated as 'stoning' refers to dropping a very heavy rock on someone to crush them to death, which would be quick and painless and was probably the most "humane" way to go about it 2500 years ago before the invention of modern methods of execution.

In any case, I don't think that many parts of the Torah should be taken 100% literally; we've moved on from the times when that was appropriate. If that makes me less than 100% Jewish in your eyes, well, I couldn't really care less.

That Israel does not perform it, naturally, makes it less than 100% Jewish.

'Jewish' is not the only characteristic of the state of Israel.

I doubt you will understand this по русский, or по французский.

Стараюсь понять по английский.