Let’s talk candidates (30 Mar 2008)

Last week’s P&P was canceled, but a couple of us showed up and we started in on the death penalty. We’ll reprise that (briefly), then open up for a general discussion and a straw poll on the national election. Some of us will pick candidates because we like what they are promising to give us (free health care, safety nets for bad investors, and “what about the children?”). Others of us will pick candidates because they promise to follow principles we find important (”let them eat cake (that they buy themselves)“).

It promises to be a contentious and foundational night … don’t miss the next Politics and a Pint.

Legal details (in appropriately tiny font):

What: Politics and a Pint
Where: The Contented Cow
When: 6-7:30PM, 30 Mar 2008

Well, before we talked politicians we talked (again) about the death penalty.  At the end of the night we had a pretty good solution, but we left the numbers as an exercise for the interested student.

I argued that the numbers only allowed me intellectual honesty in that I could pick a position knowing that I condemned some (unknown) innocents to death (whether because I (through the state) executed them or because I (again through the state) let them live and possibly kill again.

Some people were unable to separate their emotions from their thoughts while others simply did not care to connect the dots, but there was little direct support for the death penalty.

One interesting comment made later was that perhaps life in prison was worse than death (if we take away the TVs, the exercise rooms and the human contact). Perhaps such prisoner’s could be offered a “little yellow pill” once a month that they could take to end their meaningless and unredeemable existence. Seems harsh, but at least such a death would not be done “in our name”.