Daria Novak One Step Closer to Replacing Courtney

Richard Blumenthal: Lying Weasel

No Mercy for the Pitiless

It just cant be a coincidence. Every time --that is every single time -- I read one of these obnoxiously pious, sanctimonious, self-righteous, holier than thou, elitist opinions on how the Death Penalty should be abolished, they never say anything about the victims.

Why is that?

You would think that even if the sympathy wasn't sincerely felt that they would at least anticipate that it might be politically wise to put in a word of two about those whose lives were extinguished without pity.

But no.

Why is that? Don't victims count? Don't widows and widowers count? Don't parents who are faced with the unnatural reality that they have outlived one of their children count?

Why don't Media Liberals address the victim issue in these opinions? Why don't they explain to us why the terror the victims felt as their killers tightened their hands around their throats isn't worth the trouble of putting their killers to death?

Why don't they explain how the victims of the family should just get over it? and 'move on'?

Why don't they bring up specific cases and explain why that ultimate crime is not worth the ultimate punishment?

What about Cop-Killers?

What about terrorism?

Do liberals advocate that we just give Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9-11, a life term of free meals in a room without a view for the rest of his days? Would that be a just sentence in light of his crimes against all of humanity?

Has the writer of this editorial ever sat down before they wrote this editorial and contemplated about the terror the victims went through and the worth of their short lives? Some were so terrified that they leaped off the building. Did he think about them before they wrote this? If he did, there is no indication whatever.

The 9-11 terrorists murdered three thousand of our countrymen and yet the Death Penalty should be off the table. The max they should get is a 4 X4 cell without a view and three squares a day.

The 9-11 terrorists executions will be far more humane than the deaths of their victims suffered through, that's for sure. Some of our countrymen were buried or burned alive and suffered unimaginable pain and confusion before they mercifully died.

Then there are those that bravely ran into the burning buildings to rescue complete strangers and never came back out. What are those lives worth?

-- or not worth?

I remember one picture of a woman finding her way through a crack one of the 9-11 towers and looking at the helicopter that must have taken the picture. That lady needless to say did not find the help she was looking for. She is dead. If she didn't jump, she perished at the tower collapsed. I cant get her out of my mind. I wish to God that I could forget that haunting image.

Sorry. Every time I reconsider my position on the Death Penalty, I come back to the victims and the terror they must have gone through especially as all hope died for their rescue.

What about the home invasion in Cheshire? Dr. William Petit lost his entire family. His wife and daughters aged 17 and 11. He is all alone now.

Tell me what else would you do with the killers of three people, let alone three thousand?

And besides we don't call it the Capital Deterrent. We call it Capital Punishment.

We execute those who have earned it. If there is any deterrent effect, (and there has got to be), that is just an unexpected bonus.

Personally I think Death Penalty Reform should be about bringing back Old Sparky. I am an old fashioned kind of guy.

--- Not about leniency for first degree killers. I do feel sorry for the murderers as they are put through the process but that pity is tempered by my pity for the victims.

Linda McMahon is a Woman We Should Take Seriously?

"Why is there always money for war but never money for education?"

That's the bumper sticker I saw at the Mansfield Flea Market on my way back to the car today. I immediately thought of these two photos I had seen a short time before and I had to marvel at the short sightedness of the driver that affixed such a stupidly worded statement on his or her bumper. For the record the photos was in a 1973 soft cover over sized book called "The Best of Life". Life as in the now defunct magazine.

That's a union man for you. "Where is mine?" Leaving aside the unimaginable sum of what this country spends on education every year including the fat unionized teachers checks we write, it is just mind boggling that someone could be so ungrateful for the sacrifices some have paid for country. First of all it is a false choice that we have to have one or the other but not both. Or that throwing more and more money at education necessarily means a better educated student. Second, this person has the gall to quibble about the money spent on securing his freedom as if we could have shopped around to find a better deal somewhere? If only that money had been redirected to "education", than where would we be today? Who would be our rulers? The Nazis? The Soviets?

Or would we merely be one of many mediocre nations like the socialist basket cases of Europe?

I suppose in an odd way these views are the inevitable consequence of having it so good for so long. They have become spoilt like children. They are unappreciative of the sacrifices that have been made because they are so far removed from them. Our World War II veterans are disappearing every day. Soon they will be all gone. Some of us are forgetting the lessons we learned then. Foremost among them is to never be caught unprepared again.

America is special because we made different choices than other nations did and continue to do so. We do not believe in "free". We believe in rugged individualism. We have charity but once you are on your feet again, you are expected to care for yourself and your family. We believe in freedom and if necessary, we will spill our blood to make sure we remain free.

I have always had the utmost reverence for our brave men on the front lines no matter if it is a World war, Vietnam or the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are not cowboys. They must have been scared out of their wits lots of times.

I lost one friend while I was in the Navy. What would it have been like to have the list of your buddies still alive verses those that have fallen

---and the former is the shorter list? Education isn't free any more than freedom is. But when and if it came down to choosing one or the other it is beyond question what choice has to be made. The best education in a fascist state is not a life worth living.

Some people forget that.