Issue 107
This issue is the darkest one yet, it's practically to the rest of the Blog what Life is Worth Losing was to the rest of George Carlin's corpus. You have been warned.
News: The Death Penalty Revisited vs. The Ian Brady Bunch
In case you don't know, Ian Brady was a serial killer who killed at least five children in Britain in the early 60s. If you didn't know, now you do. The reason I bring him up is because he is now suing the state to allow him to be sent to a prison where he will be allowed to starve himself to death. Brady and his partner Myra Hindley both narrowly escaped the death penalty due to its abolition a month before sentencing. For the last 8 years at least, he has been suicidal due to the fact that he will never be released and knows he no longer serves any purpose in life, and as a child-killer knows that at least some people want him dead. I personally have a nuanced view towards the death penalty, since there remains the possibility that a person is being killed for a crime he (or possibly she) did not commit. However, there are still many prisoners like Brady, who eagerly await the hand of the Reaper coming upon them and do not want to wait for a natural death. With Brady's story in mind, I wonder about a system of compromise between the Pro- and Anti- death Penalty sides. In the system, prisoners (for practical reasons, limited only to those who are either in life sentences with no parole in sight, or in unrealistically long sentences, like a 50-year old man in a 120-year sentence, up for parole in 70) who wish to die will be authorized by prison staff to be euthanized on a strictly voluntary basis (differing it from the involuntary nature of the Death Penalty) either directly or indirectly. They would not strictly be killed for their crimes, but because of their lack of both desire and reason to continue living. Admittedly, this would necessitate some serious review of the morality of euthanasia, but then again, the question would have to boil down to: You have a man who has no will to live and no discernible reason that others would truly want him alive. Which is more cruel: To let him die or to let him live?
Band Name of the Day: Godless Piece of Fluff: "Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?/No sir, no sir, I'm a Godless Piece of Fluff."_Colbert.
Film Reviews of the Day: Two films will be reviewed, one of which is a movie already out, and one which is available on youtube.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This movie is a film adaptation of one of the goriest musicals ever written, so yes, there will be much singing, and there will be much gore, although much of it looks clearly fake, most notably in the final scene (but I won't give it away until you watch it or read about it on Wikipedia).
Apaches. This is technically an educational film from Britain (in their terms a "Public Information Film" or PIF). The title comes from the game of Cowboys and Indians that is played for most of the film, although one sequence has them playing Starksy and Hutch. In essence, the film is about how a group of six kids manage to cause their own demises on a farm one-by-one by various means (from relatively mundane things as accidentally poisoning oneself to falling into a huge pit apparently full of animal waste). This is one of the more notorious PIFs due to its content. One wonders what was worse: The fact that they decided to film this kind of thing at all or the fact that kids as young as six were shown this film in schools.
Quote of the Day: "Some inmates say that violence is the worst thing we gotta face. For me, the worst thing is the great yawn. How do you fill day after day? We got these routines that are supposed to give our lives order and meaning. But I'm here to testify that I'm less afraid of getting shanked in my back than the routine. Cause the routine, man, the routine'll kill you."
_____Augustus Hill.
Quote of the Day: Apaches, for your viewing pleasure, if you dare. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
And here's a recut version for those not ready to see the real thing.
News: The Death Penalty Revisited vs. The Ian Brady Bunch
In case you don't know, Ian Brady was a serial killer who killed at least five children in Britain in the early 60s. If you didn't know, now you do. The reason I bring him up is because he is now suing the state to allow him to be sent to a prison where he will be allowed to starve himself to death. Brady and his partner Myra Hindley both narrowly escaped the death penalty due to its abolition a month before sentencing. For the last 8 years at least, he has been suicidal due to the fact that he will never be released and knows he no longer serves any purpose in life, and as a child-killer knows that at least some people want him dead. I personally have a nuanced view towards the death penalty, since there remains the possibility that a person is being killed for a crime he (or possibly she) did not commit. However, there are still many prisoners like Brady, who eagerly await the hand of the Reaper coming upon them and do not want to wait for a natural death. With Brady's story in mind, I wonder about a system of compromise between the Pro- and Anti- death Penalty sides. In the system, prisoners (for practical reasons, limited only to those who are either in life sentences with no parole in sight, or in unrealistically long sentences, like a 50-year old man in a 120-year sentence, up for parole in 70) who wish to die will be authorized by prison staff to be euthanized on a strictly voluntary basis (differing it from the involuntary nature of the Death Penalty) either directly or indirectly. They would not strictly be killed for their crimes, but because of their lack of both desire and reason to continue living. Admittedly, this would necessitate some serious review of the morality of euthanasia, but then again, the question would have to boil down to: You have a man who has no will to live and no discernible reason that others would truly want him alive. Which is more cruel: To let him die or to let him live?
Band Name of the Day: Godless Piece of Fluff: "Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?/No sir, no sir, I'm a Godless Piece of Fluff."_Colbert.
Film Reviews of the Day: Two films will be reviewed, one of which is a movie already out, and one which is available on youtube.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This movie is a film adaptation of one of the goriest musicals ever written, so yes, there will be much singing, and there will be much gore, although much of it looks clearly fake, most notably in the final scene (but I won't give it away until you watch it or read about it on Wikipedia).
Apaches. This is technically an educational film from Britain (in their terms a "Public Information Film" or PIF). The title comes from the game of Cowboys and Indians that is played for most of the film, although one sequence has them playing Starksy and Hutch. In essence, the film is about how a group of six kids manage to cause their own demises on a farm one-by-one by various means (from relatively mundane things as accidentally poisoning oneself to falling into a huge pit apparently full of animal waste). This is one of the more notorious PIFs due to its content. One wonders what was worse: The fact that they decided to film this kind of thing at all or the fact that kids as young as six were shown this film in schools.
Quote of the Day: "Some inmates say that violence is the worst thing we gotta face. For me, the worst thing is the great yawn. How do you fill day after day? We got these routines that are supposed to give our lives order and meaning. But I'm here to testify that I'm less afraid of getting shanked in my back than the routine. Cause the routine, man, the routine'll kill you."
_____Augustus Hill.
Quote of the Day: Apaches, for your viewing pleasure, if you dare. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
And here's a recut version for those not ready to see the real thing.
Labels: Death
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