Atomictights

“Any of you that entertain the idea that it is ok if it happens somewhere else is a hypocrite.

We still have Martin Bryant in Gaol!
Australians do not support capital punishment”

Speaking personally, I support the notion of hanging Sadaam Hussein.

I would, equally, support the notion that we should have hung Martin Bryant, instead of keeping him in solitary confinement for his own safety.

This Australian does support capital punishment and would vote for it if the opportunity arose.

I would support it not only for certain killers but for second offence drug dealers.

If you would like a reasoned debate on the topic, I suggest you come back next time with more than just a few ranting lines about hypocrites and a knot in your pantyhose to support your argument.

Can there possibly be a more pathetic argument than "Oh yeah, but that's different"?
If killing people is wrong, then it is always wrong. Howard and Bush both claim to 'worship' Jesus Christ, yet both claim a higher sovereignty than him, ie.
'Jesus says thou shalt not kill, thou should in fact love your enemy, but in this instance, I'll give you permission to kill, because Jesus was only God, I'm a Prime Minister/President'.
Likewise torture can never be justified. The greatest danger in any conflict is becoming your enemy.
The terrorists have already won.

It is very interesting that voters have never been given the opportunity to vote on capital punishment. This is just another example where the elite are contemptuous of public opinion, and seek to carry out their own agenda. The specious legal and ethical nostrums that are peddled today simply stagger the imagination.

Let us look at the benefits of capital punishment:

1. It enables society to revenge itself on the criminal. Many people forget the origin of law; in the early middle ages if someone killed a friend of yours all you could do was to kill him in return. This led to endless tit-for-tat killings and feuds. The establishment of law meant that violence was confined to the state, and it exacted revenge on behalf of the victim and society.

2. It means that we will definitely have no more trouble from this person. There is no way that a bleeding heart in a few years will let him out of jail.

3. It provides a deterrent. If anyone disputes this, look at Saudi Arabia and the level of theft compared to here. (In Saudi you can lose your hand for theft.)

4. It accomplishes all of the above with the least possible expenditure of public money.

The best illustration of the phoney political arguments relating to crime and punishment is the law-and-order auction that goes on before each election.

The reason that the arguments are phoney is that most people don't want people locked up for life at great public expense.

They want them to hang.

plerdsus: "The best illustration of the phoney political arguments relating to crime and punishment is the law-and-order auction that goes on before each election.

The reason that the arguments are phoney is that most people don't want people locked up for life at great public expense.

They want them to hang."

Yeah right. If that was the case, why doesn't any Australian political party campaign on a capital punishment platform? Given the descent by the major parties into the depths of populism over the last decade, if there were votes in capital punishment it would become policy in a flash.

"Speaking personally, I support the notion of hanging Sadaam Hussein.
I would, equally, support the notion that we should have hung Martin Bryant, instead of keeping him in solitary confinement for his own safety."

I would not really compare the two. Saddam was a very intelligent
fellow, who knew how to use extreme violence to achieve his political
objectives and it worked for 30 years or so for him. Bryant is on
the edge of being insane and basically not far from being an idiot,
judging by what I have read about him. I would doubt that he had
any deeper thoughts about what he was doing.

The thing is, people have a sense of justice and Saddam seems to
have affected the lives of tens of thousands, to achieve his
political aims. It was not just one crazy act, but highly calculated
over time. Many of those people have expressed the fact that seeing
Saddam swing was the happiest day of their lives. Fair enough,
I don't have a problem with that and can empathise. People want
justice seen to be done, revenge is sweet as they say.

Evolutionary psychology has examined all this and the finding was
that turning the other cheek is a dismal failure, giving it back
twice as hard, seems to be the best survival strategy.
Fair enough.

Voters in Australia voted Capital punishment OUT in the seventies.