Listening in, as I do periodically, to right wing talk radio station KSFO in San Francisco - to the consternation of my liberal friends whose radio dials have become permanently welded to KPFA, where everyone's voice has the same dull flat sound of the morally superior - I happened on an outraged debate about the stay of execution at San Quentin. The condemned man, Michael Morales committed a terrifyingly shocking crime - he killed a 17 year old girl. But as a committed opponent of the death penalty, I'm glad to see that the 'medical ethics' of lethal injection are finally permeating the discussion, and the conscience of the courts.
During the program on KSFO, the 'hosts' - why do they call themselves hosts? Aren't hosts the people who take you to your restaurant table, or weren't 'hostesses' more associated with sleazy cocktail lounges and airplane peanut deliveries before 'flight attendant' became all the rage? I think 'host' is just a cover all word when you can't think of a more appropriate job title - anyway, the hosts were steamed about yet another left wing conspiracy to deprive the American people of a tradition of which we can be proud - the right to kill selectively.
It's galling to think that there are still those who believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, or that it is administered 'fairly' in America. Anyone who saw the photography book about lynching which was published a couple of years ago, will remember that good ol' boys were still stringing fellas up over trees and lamp posts less than 50 years ago, and that America's frontier justice is but a Baby Boomer away. At the same time as Britain was ending capital punishment, men in the South were dragging civil rights workers to their deaths for voter registration. The two things are not unconnected.
Jeez, I've been depressing myself lately. Got to get back onto something more lighthearted, right? Suggestions please, on a postcard to.....
Bloody brilliant Jill - especialy the stuff about early feminism. Dear god - some of us could do nothing right - and it's still going on. Only last year some damn RO lesbian raised her eyebrows at me about having a male cat!
Stuff about our dear 'leader' - what a farce - see private e-mail about her!!
And don't you look cute - even more gorgeous than the dog.
Posted by: berta | February 23, 2006 at 02:10 AM
Posted by: berta | February 23, 2006 at 09:37 PM