tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post7336421504505900634..comments2024-02-11T03:50:53.613-05:00Comments on Counterlight's Peculiars: Justice vs. RevengeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-12825471682423469162011-09-27T12:08:39.289-04:002011-09-27T12:08:39.289-04:00The quote from Camus was excellent. Thanks.The quote from Camus was excellent. Thanks.Samnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-40274948039242719762011-09-24T15:00:39.017-04:002011-09-24T15:00:39.017-04:00The horror of a given crime, even the Holocaust, s...The horror of a given crime, even the Holocaust, should have NOTHING to do w/ a random, non-guilty person dying for it. [Consider in 1945: pre-DNA, what are the chances that there MIGHT have been a lookalike "Hans Doe" put on trial for Hitler's crimes?]<br /><br />Can we EVER be 100% certain that a given person committed a given crime? What w/ evidence-tampering, eyewitness error, false confessions? [Anybody's DNA can really end up anywhere: I'd hate to be convicted of murder just because I had a inopportune flake of dandruff! :-0]<br /><br />I don't think so.<br /><br />[And that's BEFORE the (im)morality of "killing to demonstrate killing is wrong"!]JCFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-32991484189402219172011-09-23T13:11:47.726-04:002011-09-23T13:11:47.726-04:00Keep in mind that I'm no judicial expert, but ...Keep in mind that I'm no judicial expert, but it seems to me that a case like that would be more a matter of war. Then that would raise the issue of war itself as just.<br /><br />In situations like that, I generally agree with Gandhi's caveat that it is better to do something violent than nothing at all. And remember that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, no warmonger, was involved in a plot to kill Hitler.Counterlighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345956180434795401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-88161118049273347512011-09-23T12:59:12.182-04:002011-09-23T12:59:12.182-04:00I agree with what you say, with one caveat. When I...I agree with what you say, with one caveat. When I married, my wife's country, Sierra Leone, was in the middle of the most dreaful civil war. The rebels were little more than a gang of bandits, intent on stealing the country's diamond wealth to enrich themselves and make their boss, Charles Taylor, president of Liberia. At the time it all revolved round one man; remove him from the equation, and the war would grind to a halt. The same argument applies to Hitler; how many lives would have been saved by killing him? Of course, this is assassination more than judicial execution, but with the very rare exception of killing someone to end a war, we're on the same page.Robert Brenchleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17006227551531676492noreply@blogger.com