Peter Pilz, a leading member of Austria's environmentalist Green Party, said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be stripped of his Austrian citizenship for allowing the execution of convicted murderer Donald Beardslee.
Beardslee was executed by lethal injection after Schwarzenegger rejected a clemency petition seeking to commute his death sentence to life without parole, and the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeals.
Pilz whined:
Schwarzenegger is possibly the most prominent Austrian abroad, and he shapes the picture of Austria. I don't want that picture shaped by someone who commits state murder. That does not correspond to the political culture of this country.Arnie's mistake appears to be that he allowed the execution of a man who actually deserved to die. If only he had sent Jews to Hitler's death camps instead, he could have been Austria's president.
7 comments:
No one deserves to die.
Not even murderers, child molesters or rapists.
Not even Hitler.
To determine, by weighing and measuring ones actions,
that someone should be put to death is as barbaric
as the action of the accused for which we are trying
to punish.
Maybe even more so,
because it is even more calculating and we put
thought and rationalization behind it.
To tell the "third world countries" that we are better
because we do not commit genocide, as in what happened
in Rwanda, while we are the ONLY "first world country"
who still commits Homicide (which is defined by Webster's
as "the killing of one human being by another." please
take NOTE that it does not distinguish that the one
being killed has already killed or not.) and to be all
high and mighty about all the genocide STILL going on
(and yet us doing NOTHING about it) but we will spend
MILLIONS to commit Homicide and rationalize it, is
simply outrageously narcissistic.
It is this narcissism that spurs on fanatics.
Do not get me wrong I love this country, but I wish
it were a bit more willing to look at its flaws and
say... we need to work on this, and this and that.
And be willing to grow in trying to be more humane!
Even us the determiner of what is and is not humane
in the WORLD... really needs to take a look inside.
Thank you for letting me spew my thoughts.
Right next to my bumper sticker, Get Out of Iraq
is my Support our Troops.
Posted by judy
When you undermine support for the American presence in Iraq, you are not supporting our troops, you are merely indulging your own pacifist tendencies at their expense. Keeping our troops safe from harm is not the same thing as supporting them in their mission.
But then again, if you really believe that Hitler did not deserve to die, and that sentencing him to death would have been an act worse than the crimes he he committed, there may be no reaching you.
By the way, Japan also has capital punishment. Do you not consider it to be a first-world country?
America constantly looks at its flaws and changes itself in response. It is an ongoing process. You are just unhappy because America at present does not conform to your own personal views.
You say you love America, but I ask, why bother? If America is so flawed, arrogant, inhumane, and unwilling to change, while so many other countries around the world are getting it right in your view, what is it in particular about America that you love so much? Wouldn't you be happier in a more sophisticated country somewhere in Europe?
Have the courage of your convictions. If you don't like America, step right up and admit it. No need to pretend.
Posted by GaijinBiker
Also, I checked out your site. Sorry to hear about your pets.
When I first saw the URL "freetoagoodhomemovie", I read it like "Free to a Good (Home Movie)... like you were giving something to someone's home movie.
Also, I left a comment on your site about how to fix your HTML problem but it looks like it didn't show up. Let me know if you need it again. Basically, you have to make sure the total width in pixels of the posts column and the sidebar column is not wider than the total content column.
Posted by GaijinBiker
Actually, I see you were talking about your main site, not your blog. Oops.
Anyway, on your blog it looks like the column widths are OK, but you have a long URL in one of the posts that is taking up too much width and pushing the sidebar to the bottom.
Posted by GaijinBiker
Ok...so much to say so little time.
First, thanks for the info on the website stuff.... I have NO idea what it means
but I am sure when I figure it out, it will be most helpful and wonderful! And I
so appreciate all the help I can get. I was talking about my links page, my blog page I tried to mess with but when I posted another blog the blogger did their thing and messed it up. On my work computer it looks messed up like it sounds like you saw... but my home computer it looks ok now. Good GRIEF.
Second, thank you for your comment about the loss of my pets.
Third, now the comment. I am not entirely certain I know what you mean in
your first paragraph >>Keeping our troops safe from harm is not the same thing as supporting them in their mission.<<
I am not undermining support for the presence in Iraq. I don't even think
I mentioned anything about that. I thought I was talking about the
death penalty. I think if we are in Iraq then we should give the troops the
tools they need to stay safe. I think its (can I say? Half-Assed?) to be there
and NOT give them armored HV's etc. I think we have figured out that
we probably should not be there, and need to find a way to get them all
out without leaving the place more messed up than when we arrived. But
frankly, I am not even sure it is possible. People say it feels like VietNam,
not sure if they mean like in the sense that we will be there forever.
I am not certain I am a pacifist. I thought it was good we went to Bosnia. And
thought we should have gone to Rwanda. And Japan rarely imposes death as a punishment, while in some states (oh president BUSH) it seems they kill
people in a whim. (South Korea also uses the death penalty.)
And I was wrong is using the word Deserves. I was using the wrong word.
Some people may deserve death that does not mean we have the right
to impose it. I should have said, No one should be put to death by our legal
system. And who decides who "deserves" to die.
I also think living in prison is worse punishment. It is our anger that compels us
to want to impose death on someone. Anger and revenge. You cannot ever
get even with someone who killed. That will never bring someone back who
was killed by a murderer so putting to death someone is acting out of anger
and revenge and rationalizing it. Which seems really unhealthy to me.
If someone I loved was murdered I would want to kill the person who did it, but
it would be coming from a place of sorrow and grief and anger and revenge.
And possibly even fear. I would not want the government to give in to those
feelings for me.
You posted at 4 AM? Don't you sleep? I skimmed through some of your posts, What are you an encyclopedia?
I have to go to work, and preferably change out of the towel before doing so.
Have a good day.
Posted by judy aka bohemianblogger
Wow, I need to stop using the return key. You can fix that... right?
Posted by judy aka bohemianblogger
You wrote in your original post:
"Right next to my bumper sticker, Get Out of Iraq is my Support our Troops."
That is what I was responding to in that part of my first comment.
Posted by GaijinBiker
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