What's in a name?
This weekend, lilyk mentioned that I need a new screenname. I wholeheartedly agree. My old one (XtraordnarilyDAV) was originally an inside joke (XtraordnarilyAVG) with Subrosa that I altered to reflect me a bit more, but it still clearly sucked. My original name (tenjqkace) is still unweildy.
For the time being, I like OO7. However, I might change it. Any suggestions?
This weekend, lilyk mentioned that I need a new screenname. I wholeheartedly agree. My old one (XtraordnarilyDAV) was originally an inside joke (XtraordnarilyAVG) with Subrosa that I altered to reflect me a bit more, but it still clearly sucked. My original name (tenjqkace) is still unweildy.
For the time being, I like OO7. However, I might change it. Any suggestions?
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
I don't know if it would be accurate to say that I "don't have a problem with the death penalty." I think that it is too often handed out arbitrarily for crimes of uneven magnitude, and that it draws out some of the worst aspects both of unthinking revenge-nuts and the pseudo-moral superiority of opponents who haven't really examined their own thoughts either. I think that it leads to some deeply troubling situations (ex. Cory Mayes -- but, on the other hand, he is very likely to be exonerated because his case has the added urgency of being a death case, whereas he might have sat in prison indefinitely, unnoticed, otherwise. Is this a silver lining? I'm not sure).
As an abstract proposition, no, I'm not troubled by the idea that society can designate the worst criminals for execution. It seems to me that the people who are troubled in that way are the ones who believe that every life has some intrinsic worth and no human deserves such punishment. I can respect that opinion (when it's not phrased in preschool absolutes, as is too often the case on the boards), but I don't share it. I do think that some people are unworthy. By their own actions and their own choices, they have become unworthy. Society is free to designate the consequences as long as they're fairly imposed.
Where I do have problems would be with how society designates that punishment and who the "worst criminals" are deemed to be. That's the crux of my ambivalence on this issue.