Out of sync with Europe, you mean? Singapore, Japan are as developed. I don’t really know what it says that you think India and China are less civilized than Europe. Do they have lower quality of life and per capita income? Yes. I’m not sure we have the same definition of civilization though. You seem to be confusing the term “civilized” with “industrialized”, and “consumer-society driven.”
How can something be “medieval” when it predates the “medieval” era, and continued well past it pretty much everywhere? You realize pretty much no historian classifies the early 1900s as the end of the medeival era, correct?
Okay, so to recap–majority opinion = correct, and all states must go with majority opinion? Except for the states that aren’t “civilized” which incidentally is almost all countries in the world outside of Europe. So what you’re basically saying is: Europe is best, and most moral, so the rest of the world needs to do it our way or they are bad and immoral.
Man, I thought most modern European types were virulently anti-Imperialist and supremacist, to the point of it being nonsensical at time, but I guess I was incorrect. You wanting to see the British Empire rebuilt too, so you can make sure the dumb folk follow proper values?
Well thank you soooo much for pointing out what a bunch of viscious barbarians you are. Just make you sure you don’t strain something patting yourself on the back. :rolleyes:
Because we all know what a civilized and progressive state Britain has always been.
I actually have to say, I’ve always been somewhat off-put by the Brits who are so deeply ashamed of their treatment of the Irish and their Imperial monstrosities that they are essentially ashamed to be British to some degree or even timid in expressing any pride in it. It’s refreshing to see a British supremacist, I thought I’d only get this experience when I tuned in to Downton Abbey and listened to the Early pontificate on the wrongs of all other ways of doing things. Good performance sir.
Velocity, ever heard of the Indian Wars? Oh, except the Boers got to live on in South Africa and Jan Smuts got to be president and… well, seriously, if you think Americans have got enough moral high ground to scold anyone over the Boer Wars, you’re deluded.
What happened when a bunch of American states decided they didn’t want to be part of the US any more? Any worse than happened to the Boers?
As others have said, it would never be approved (which, I assume, is your whole point). Personally, if we are going for gruesome ways to kill people in order to really bring home how bad the death penalty is while making sure it’s 100% effective, cheap and, oh, gruesome and all, I favor the diving suit method. Basically, you put someone in an old fashioned diving suit, take them down 100 feet and make sure there is no cut off valve and then let the pressures equalize. Cheap, 100% effective (since the entire diver will be compressed into the helmet almost instantly), and gruesome (since the entire diver will be compressed into the helmet almost instantly).
Is this a whoosh? Isn’t Japan pretty much by definition part of the Far East?
Anyway, for the OP, I’d use your two slabs, but one would be flat on the ground, and the other would be winched up to a great height, and then allowed to fall via gravity. Maybe a few guide wires to keep it in alignment with the bottom slab. NO chance of a screw up there. Gravity is mighty reliable.
(although, parenthetically, I’ll add that I’m not in favor of making the death penalty painless in the first place. I’d rather it be gruesome AND painful)
I don’t understand–is this a team sport, where I must cheer either McDuff’s killings or his executioner’s killings, where I must choose a side?
Variants of this argument show up constantly, and they’re wholly unpersuasive. Folks who oppose capital punishment know that its victims are generally among the worst people on the planet, that they’ve cause far more suffering than capital punishment will cause them. That’s not at issue. What’s at issue is whether the remedy for their horrors is to kill them.
Reminding folks of their horrors might be interesting, or satisfying, or clever, or something, but it’s not new information for the debate.
I’ve never heard of a botched firing squad or guillotine, though I would welcome examples. There are multiple examples of botched hangings, gas chambers, electric chairs and lethal injections. Also, it’s easier to find competent marksmen willing to participate in state sanctioned killing than it is to find medical professionals moonlighting as assassins.
Not sure what you’re getting at. Scuba divers who are ~33 feet underwater breathe in air at 2 atmospheres. Pressure goes up with depth and sports divers can dive at up to 100 feet. (Or beyond, but 100 feet is the recommended maximum.) If you pumped air into a diving suit at say 6 atmospheres at 100 feet, I assume the suit would rupture.
Nitrogen isn’t poisonous, it’s near enough inert and makes up the vast majority of the air you are breathing right now. There’s no such thing as “nitrogen poisoning”, at least at anything like normal atmospheric pressures.
By replacing the atmosphere with nitrogen, all you are doing is removing the oxygen without allowing the brain to detect that fact. Cause of death is hypoxia, but because the brain doesn’t notice, it’s utterly painless. (According to the hundreds of people who have been revived from unconsciousness due to accidental exposure.)
Fair enough. By “hypoxia” I was referring (admittedly incorrectly) to putting someone in a chamber and evacuating the air until a near-vacuum state (or at least a lethally low pressure) is achieved. Nitrogen displacement is likely to avoid any possible “altitude sickness” symptoms, which is one reason I see it as preferable in addition to the painless unconsciousness you describe.
“Nitrogen poisoning” may not be an accurate descriptor, but I think it conveys the intended meaning well enough.
As for methodology, I can picture the condemned strapped in a chair in an airtight chamber the size of a phone booth, air (containing oxygen) is evacuated from the bottom while pure nitrogen gas is injected at the top. Not difficult.
Of course, this is just an analysis of methodology. Canada does not currently have the death penalty and I’m opposed to its return on practical grounds, though there are a number of incarcerated individuals I wouldn’t object to putting down if the families of their victims were okay with it.
Not a British Supremacist- more like a civilised world supremacist. I speak for Canada, Mexico, the whole of Europe (including Russia but excluding Belarus), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel, who have all abloished capital punishment and many other countries who have ceased the act de facto.
Wikipedia says:
“58 nations actively practice capital punishment, 98 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, 7 have abolished it for ordinary crimes only (maintain it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 35 have abolished it de facto (have not used it for at least ten years and/or are under moratorium).[3] Amnesty International considers most countries abolitionist; overall, the organisation considers 140 countries to be abolitionist in law or practice.”
The prime perpetrators are:
Rank Country Number executed in 2012[69]
1 China People’s Republic of China 4,000+Officially not released.
2 Iran Iran 314+
3 Iraq Iraq 129+
4 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 79+
5 United States United States 43
6 Yemen Yemen 28+
7 Sudan Sudan 19+
8 Afghanistan Afghanistan 14
9 The Gambia Gambia 9
10 Japan Japan 7
11 North Korea North Korea 6+
12 Somalia Somalia 6+
13 Palestinian National Authority Palestinian Authority 6
14 Taiwan Republic of China (Taiwan) 6
15 South Sudan South Sudan 5+
16 Belarus Belarus 3+
17 Botswana Botswana 2
18 Bangladesh Bangladesh 1
19 India India 1
20 Pakistan Pakistan 1
21 United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 1
Nice company to keep eh?
I suggest you stop the ad hominem attacks and address the problem of Judicial Killing.
I forget which fallacy this is, but bringing up collateral but unconnected information is frowned upon. Many countries have engaged in unjustified killing in the past (the USA not excepted) but this does not excuse current barbarism.
Botched firing squad executions do happen, usually when none of the bullets strikes the heart. Google “Wallace Wilkerson” and “Ginggaew Lorsoungnern” for examples, but there are probably others.
Botched guillotinings are rare, I would think. The main objection is that the procedure is gruesome for everyone involved. As already pointed out, the main reason for death by injection of drugs is that it doesn’t look like a violent death, and so enables the perpetrators to feel better about what they are doing. Guillotining is very explicitly violent.