Happy Holidays!!!

Mr. Reaper

The recent execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams in California has thrown the debate over capital punishment to the fore once again. It also got me thinking about the death penalty, so I figured I'd throw some thoughts down here. Let me know if you have opinions.

First of all, it's important to note that the death penalty has been around since pretty much the beginning of human history. "Might makes right"; "Survival of the fittest"; "The strong survive".....pick your cliche. They all pretty much mean that those who run afoul of those in power will pay the ultimate price.

But in a society ruled by laws, one which is attuned to a certain set of moral guidelines, does this practice have a place? Perhaps.

The main rationale for the death penalty is deterrence - it is around this point which most debate revolves. Murder is the ultimate wrong, and if we can deter others from perpetrating that act by enacting capital punishment, then we should do that. The key phrase there is if. How real is this deterrence factor? I think it's pretty safe to say that while the evidence points to the area of little to no real deterrence value, it has not been conclusively proven (for if it had, the debate would have shifted).

John McAdams, a political scientist often cited by those pro capital punishment, said the following: "If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."

And this in a nutshell represents the viewpoint I've heard from those of my friends who support the death penalty. Their bottom line is: if it has even the possibility of deterrence, then it's a no brainer.

Of course, the other side disagrees pretty vehemently. As I remarked earlier, the debate here centers around deterrence, and the lack thereof. Since they claim that there is no detterence value, then we have to look at other factors.

For example, capital punishment trials and incarcerations cost an average of 30-40% more than your average 'life imprisonment' trials and incarcerations. This extra cost can go into the millions or tens of millions of dollars for states with lots of executions, and that is money that could be spent elsewhere more productively. Another argument is a moral one: that of hypocrisy. By murdering the murderers we stoop to their level, and therefore become no better than they. Oddly enough the religious wing of the country, which has been historically very pro-death penalty, has been coming out against it recently. They cite the ideals of forgiveness and redemption, and God's commandment that "vengeance is mine".

I don't know whether it's an effective detterent or not. I believe Mark Twain when it comes to statistics, and so I'm going with my gut on this one. I think that the criminal is probably more deterred by his chances of getting caught for a crime than the sentence involved, unless the differences are extreme, and then only slightly. I also find it odd that we only execute a small percentage of murderers and a high proportion of minorities, which makes me think this punishment might not be evenly applied.

And ultimately, I can't condone it, because I can't ask someone else to do what I won't.

Charlie Brown television

Let's give a shout out to Mr. Schultz and his amazing creation: the Charlie Brown television specials.

These things have been on since as long as I've been around, and probably a good deal longer. Last night I saw the Charlie Brown Christmas special.....it was great!! Just as I remembered it from my childhood. And who could forget the Halloween special, with the Great Pumpkin? Classic.

These shows have really old school animation, no cursing or even remotely adult-oriented content, and even have some random preaching in the middle. And yet I know kids today who love them. I swear it's like Shakespeare: classic and timeless, to be enjoyed by generations. The moralizing is not very subtle, yet so clearly genuine and unpretentious that it's impossible to resist.

And I have to say, the soundtrack to these things always rocks. My roomate has them, and they're great (actually some really cool jazz pieces on there).

Landlines
(with apologies for recent lack of posts)

This past Thanksgiving I visited my parents in their new (or very old, depending on how you look at it) house in Washington DC. I was chilling by the fire one evening, enjoying a book and James Bond flick when I heard a phone ring.

My cellphone is always on vibrate (a subject for another post), so I proceeded to search for the offending cellphone that someone inconsiderately must have left out to disturb my reading. And to my dismay I discovered not a cellphone, but a regular phone. A landline phone. It was so foreign, I almost did not know what to do with it. Let's be honest: the age of the landline phone is over. The age of the cellphone/ipod/blackberry is here. Landline phones are dead. The only reason to have a landline at all would be to use it in order to get internet connectivity, or if you live in a place with horrible cellphone reception.

A landline phone service will run you, for a decent plan including long distance (meaning within the US, but outside your zip code), almost as much as a cellphone plan will cost you. Yes, the cellphone will probably be about $10 more a month depending on circumstances, but the added benefit of having a your phone be portable is well worth it. In fact, in most developed countries it's expected that you would have a cellphone, so that it's almost a necessary part of participation in society (odd and somewhat tragic as that may seem). Most companies, for example, will insist that all it's employees have cellphones so they can be reached in an emergency. Also, the cellphone industry is super competitive, which should drive prices down much further in the next few years, to the point where there will be no financial benefit whatsoever to have a landline. And at the rate that they're putting up cellphone towers across the nation, reception in all but the most remote places will not be an issue either.

Add to all of this the emergence of VoIP, with such products as Skype and Google Talk, and you can really see the death of the landline phone. With these products you can talk over your internet connection, to anyone else with an internet connection - anywhere else in the world - for free. Talk about competition.

So get rid of your landline phones. It's over. Finis. And say hello to the next stage in telecommunications: free wireless internet everwhere, and mobile devices that can access that internet, and through use of VoIP talk to each other for free in unlimited amounts. All paid for by ads. Cellphone companies might even be paying you to use their service in 10 years. Now that's a sweet thought.