Had to post this... Harper's interview was just too "good"...
(Posted earlier over at Blast Furnace and the Scott Ross):
Here's what I posted over at Blast Furnace (and this is all a very clear sign of the real Harper).
Where's the media on this? Last election, he practically had to BEG his people to "shut up" until they get their majority (remember the closed door meeting in Southwest Ontario?). How much more obvious could a stiffled agenda be - let's not call it hidden.
The death penalty - or any other form of State-sanctioned murder - is NOT about what the public wants, BUT is all about human rights. The death penalty is a basic violation of the Universal Human Rights Declaration - something we give China much grief about.
Sure, we'd love to see people like Bernardo suffer (and I'm sure his fellow inmates are doing that, or will, given the opportunity - and much more likely than if he got the easy way out of his miserable life). There is also a faint hope that he will reform, or at the very least show some genuine remorse. We reform a huge percentage of our prison populations, with a low recidivism rate.
Arguments "for" the death penalty seem to brush over the ultimate punishment often (and I do mean OFTEN) given to completely innocent people. How can civilized humans justify that? I mean given both situations, the person incarcerated for life still suffers - most likely more than the one who gets the easy way out (death penalty), gets to watch his friends and family suffer, etc., etc. The alternative scenario is the state-sanctioned murder of someone who is completely innocent - as is understood to be the case in 25-30% of US death sentences.
As Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind". It's true.
