Rambling Rhodes

What about the photographer? Seriously.

I find it perplexing that TPTB would allow that photo to be taken, disseminated, and not retaliate against the person who took the picture.

Yeah, I thought about the photographer, too. I can only guess that the Chinese governement wanted the picture to be disseminated as a warning to whatever political dissidents they were knocking off here. I mean, it's not as if Chinese human rights violations aren't common knowledge or anything. Ugh. The way the one guy is restraining the girl, obviously to limit the amount of blood that will get on him, is just super disturbing. I was perusing a Fark.com comment thread, and this was just sitting there, and it's been haunting me all morning. Yuck.

Any idea what the story behind it is? Is she the child of dissidents or what?

Flaming, according to this thread:

http://pekingduck.org/archives/002266.php

She's either a convicted murderer, or perhaps a Tibetan dissident. Either way, it's a pretty nasty method of capital punishment.

Yeah. When we execute people by firing squad in the US we shoot them in the heart.

That's much more humane.

Yeah, Joshua, and we do it all the time. Well, 130 times since the 1960s, or somewhere around there. But, yeah, forget the moral relativism. And forget that wall in the picture, where, apparently, a lot of other people are getting the same treatment, which apparently extends for some distance. The U.S. does this regularly, doesn't it? When it's not desecrating a holy book, I mean.

BTW. I watched the Bullshit! Showtime thing on the Patriot Act tonight, about how much bullshit it is, and I agreed with almost every fucking word. But, I'm still a lock-step Right Wing conservative, I imagine, like you and Grenier like to spout.

Christ.

*I support the war in Iraq = Conservative Right Wing bullshitter, and you wonder why I'm backing away from political discourse. Duhhhhhh-fucking-uhhhhhhhhhh.

Either way, it's a pretty nasty method of capital punishment.

See that? That's what I was responding to. Method, not volume.

As far as your right-wingishness or your closet liberalism: whatever. It kind of reminds me of how Michele kvetches about how people impugne her character by assuming that just because she voted for George Bush she's anti-gay-rights, anti-abortion, pro-gun, and pro-ten-commandments-in-front-of-court-houses or whatever. In Michele's case I can say, "Well, whatever your stated position on those issues, it is what you voted for."

You don't talk about who you voted for. Lately you seem to go out of your way to have any explicit political stance at all. If I didn't know better I'd think you were working your way up to some kind of "Ha, ha-- I actually voted for [someone other than Bush]. You guys all lept to an inaccurate assumption!" punchline.

Again: whatever. You support the war in Iraq. Your commentary on current events has always been completely lopsided. I don't think anyone who reads your stuff has any doubts about your political leanings. David and I hassle you about them because we disagree with you, but we're not the only ones who perceive you to be right wing. Rob clearly thinks you're batting for his team. Likewise Amelia and various other regular commenters.

And yet again I say: whatever.

Whether or not Ryan is "batting for" my team is up for debate, but he averages about .900, so "yay, team!"

Yeah. When we execute people by firing squad in the US we shoot them in the heart.
That's much more humane.

Humane, provides for an open-casket funeral AND, unlike a Chinese execution (where the executioners run circles around the condemned and line up in a different position), is at the end of what we here in the US call DUE PROCESS.

5th Amendment: No person shall... be deprived of LIFE, Liberty or property without Due Process

Argue as much as you want about whether individuals are receiving Due Process (and, given the circumstances of the individual case, I might agree with you. Wesley Cook being the exception), but by adding that part about being "deprived of life," the Founding Fathers specifically distinguished it from "cruel and unusual punishment."

So, it's incredibly easy to eliminate the death penalty in this country...

A Constitutional amendment repealing that part of the 5th.

Otherwise, it's up to the states, as it should be.

I'm batting for the Iraq war, Joshua. It's been no secret that that's my hot-button issue. Maybe, just maybe, that's why my commentary on current events has been completey lopsided? Maybe because the Iraq war and war on terrorism are the defining issues of our day? Abortion rights; gay rights; gun control. . . they're all secondary issues for me right now. If that makes me a conservative, then so be it. All hail the conservative manifesto!!

Oh, and for what it's worth, since it apparently has been burning at you for some reason, I did, actually, leave the president slot blank on election day, because, even though I support the Iraq war, I didn't think the Bush admin's handling of it at that point was anything to be proud of. It still needs a lot of work. Alternatively, Kerry struck me as such a pansy fucking milquetoast I couldn't vote for him if you paid me. So, yeah, on the most important election in the history of the entire fucking world--to hear some people tell it--I decided to let the rest of America decide. I'm sure that pisses you off to no end, what with me shirking my civic responsibility and all that, but you've been making such a stink out of it, I figured you'd like to know.

I did, actually, leave the president slot blank on election day

Swing and a miss, strike 3 and the end of the inning.

I'm wondering when the labels of Republican and Democrat suddenly became 1) completely defining and restrictive and 2) indicative of undying part loyalty. I'm a lefty and used to date this right-winger. He was a great guy, but we argued a lot about politics. But he wasn't a lock-step party guy and I spent a lot of time urging him to get actively involved in the Republican party - knowing if more people like him were active, the party would move away from the fringe and back to the center. This is probably overly optimistic of me. I don't support the Iraq war, I never did, but I like having a multi-party system, and I wish there were more Republicans like Ryan.

I knew that would kill you, Rob. So sorry.

Pretty horrifying image. I can't even begin to imagine what she was thinking in those last few minutes of life. Or what the soldier with the rifle is thinking.

Terrible world we live in.

And Ryan, I'd not known that you abstained from voting on election day. I understand why you wouldn't support Kerry but am proud of you that you didn't want to support Bush. Though I would have written in "Dirty Mushroom" for kicks. Think how cool that would have been to hear as the polls trickled in. "This just in, a surprising surge for Dirty Mushroom in Minnesota. I didn't even know he was running."

I don't know if the world is ready for Dirty Mushroom Republicans. Our logo alone would give people the vapors. *rim shot*

*rim shot*

So to speak.

I knew that would kill you, Rob. So sorry.

I'm not mad. Just disappointed.

HAHA!

Good point you made about secondary issues. I think those (abortion, gay rights, guns, drugs, etc) all should be left to the states to decide whether to ban or allow them. That's why they are secondary issues to me, irrelevant in a federal election.

Call me a fiscal conservative and a social federalist.

Good point you made about secondary issues. I think those (abortion, gay rights, guns, drugs, etc) all should be left to the states to decide whether to ban or allow them.

So what about that thing where the Republicans in general and Bush in particular are actively undermining states' rights on these very issues?

Oh, you mean THAT THING about...

A) abortion? Yes, Republicans in general and Bush in particular are actively stumbling all over themselves to overturn Roe v. Wade, which would keep the status quo and turn the issue over to the states.

Next...

B) gay rights? Yes, Republicans in general and Bush in particular are actively promoting sending an amendment banning gay marriage to the states.

C) guns? Republicans in general and Bush in particular are actively undermining states rights by allowing a federal ban, the Brady Bill, to expire.

D) drugs? Yes, it was the Republicans in general and Bush in particular who actively ruled against states rights on medical marijuana the other day.

I was with you until the last one, Rob. It was, indeed, the Bush admin in particular that did request the appeal on medical marijuana. From there, it was the Supreme Court justices largely considered liberal (or at least more liberal than the three dissenting votes) who overturned the ruling. Politics, man, it can be so weird and confusing. Makes me want to bite my pillow.

well, you know, you're right... bad example.

It is something with which I disagree with the administration, but, like we both said, secondary issue.

I'm just waiting for the Big Hair to get home, then we can take our, ummmm, medications. Heh.

A) abortion?

I guess I was more thinking about the federal ban on late-term abortions in 2003. And maybe the Bush administration's constant push to attach anti-abortion riders to education and healthcare funding.

B) gay rights? Yes, Republicans in general and Bush in particular are actively promoting sending an amendment banning gay marriage to the states.

Where 3/4 of states can declare gay marriage illegal for all the states under all circumstances, eliminating a right they had up to this point. Due process? Sure. States' rights? No.

And let's keep in mind that the populations of the states that would push something like that are likely to be much smaller than the populations of the states that would go against it. So Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and Utah get to decide what New York does around gay marriage. Due process? Sure. Democratic? Not particularly. Libertarian? Not at all.

C) guns?

Pass.

D) drugs?

Ryan nailed it— with standard Ryan-ish "looking for any way, not matter how vague or unsubstantiated, to spread the blame away from Republicans and conservatives" qualifications.