THOU SHALT NOT KILL...unless your death satisfies our baser natures.

[NoodleyAppendage]

I guess the cloud god's commandments are optional for his followers, or alternatively they only pay attention to the commandments that are convenient and do not get in the way of revenge and bloodlust. Friggin' hypocrites.

If you want to go "eye for an eye," then fine by me but DON'T YOU DARE slink back and hide behind a religion for which a central tenet is the sanctity of ALL LIFE.

J

[Erika]

1. "Punishing a crime with another crime"

Per the papacy on the state executed planned murder of Saddam.

[Blue Fire]

2. Saddam's getting better than he deserves.

One nice thing about being an atheist is that I don't have to wallow in hypocrisy.

[Erika]

3. So you believe in murder?

I'm also an atheist.

[Blue Fire]

7. There's a big difference between murder and justice.

I fully subscribe to the idea of 'live and let live'.
But when somebody's idea of living involves the torture and execution of innocents, then it's time to clean up the gene pool.

[LibraLiz1973]

9. I agree. What he did in no way constituted a lifetime spent in jail

as opposed to death.
He gets what he put out there

[Erika]

14. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword

We have just debased humanity once again.

[Erika]

10. That is not for you to say is it?

Two wrongs will never make a right. An addage as old as time itself.

[Blue Fire]

15. It isn't for anybody to say, really.

We all make our own choices.

[NoodleyAppendage]

4. True. At least you are morally consistent...

I would posit that the vast majority applauding his neck swinging by a rope will be going to church this weekend and acting pious.

J

[Erika]

6. I am sickened by this whole thing

This was an unjust war, thousands of innocents are dead, and now we are going to add yet one more death.

It is insane, illogical, and immoral. Yet it just goes on.

[malaise]

5. How ironic that the Fundies and their

new prophet George the sick fuck Bush are celebrating Christmas. These people are seriously sick. Karma is coming.

[Erika]

8. I believe so also.

The hate and death they have created in this world will catch up with them all. Karma, indeed.

[ShortnFiery]

11. Yes, the Neo-Con's blood lust is being satisfied tonight ...

Almost a pity that the rest of The World is SICK of warmongering.

The only people who should be happy tonight aside from the Neo-Cons and Right Wing Kool-aid drinkers, are the uber wealthy and fatted War Profiteering Conglomerates that make up the USA's Military Industrial Complex. The increased violence that will result from Saddam Hussein's hanging will help fuel their "endless war" wet dreams tonight.

[malaise]

12. Bush is taking some serious licks on BBC

this is a spectacle.

[Igel]

13. They also take other Christians to court.

That's a no-no, right?

The men divorce their wives if they find them sleeping with a football team, and their wives divorce their husbands if they're caught naked with the team's cheerleaders.

They sit in juries, and serve as judges, even though their Jesus said not to judge, and their Jesus said *he* was the judge.

Hell, they even swear on the Bible, when their Jesus said not to swear at all. And many hate politicians they disagree with, hardly a Christ-like thing, and worship the "lord of the sabbath" on the day *after* the sabbath, following the traditions based on papal authority.

But in this case it's harder to find the hypocrisy. There's justice; that's Saddam hanging, a harsh step, to be sure, even if there's little doubt of his guilt. There's mercy; presumably that's letting him go free, but that may well lead to more death ... so is that really merciful? And it's not like the Iraqis are especially Christian about things; they have their own, more ancient, traditions. But one thing I see little justification for in any of Christianity's original documents is locking a person up in a cage for the rest of his life; that doesn't strike me as merciful, and animal rights activists say keeping animals in a cage is cruel. But people can disagree as to which is worse.

I lament justice, and believe it would be better had Saddam not done what he did; but I assent that his execution is justice. If life is sacred, there can be no higher crime than taking the lives of innocents, and allowing somebody who would probably take more lives to continue walking: Saddam's life isn't worth that of others, nor does he deserve 20-30 years of cruelty.