Rather capital.
Yesterday, I encountered perhaps the most severe case of "because it says so" in recent memory. My memory, that is.
A friend of mine is working on a campaign to stop capital punishment, and more specifically, the slated execution of a person in her local community. I wrote something to the effect of "good luck" and that I thought capital punishment was "cruel and unusual."
I wasn't really looking for an argument, since I don't have much time for them these days, and I don't know how productive a debate on capital punishment would be. At this point, all the arguments for pro and con are fairly well-known among anyone who's taken the time to read up on the subject. We'd just be trading barbs.
Nevertheless, my comment did attract the attention of one person who informed me of the following:
You are using technical terms . . . I'll spell it out for you: 1) the 8th amendment makes cruel and unusual punishment unconstitutional 2) courts have upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment, therefore 3) capital punishment is not cruel and unusual.
Well, that won me over. Anything that gets upheld by the Supreme Court is by default legal, and therefore just. I'll just take my convictions and go home now.
A friend of mine is working on a campaign to stop capital punishment, and more specifically, the slated execution of a person in her local community. I wrote something to the effect of "good luck" and that I thought capital punishment was "cruel and unusual."
I wasn't really looking for an argument, since I don't have much time for them these days, and I don't know how productive a debate on capital punishment would be. At this point, all the arguments for pro and con are fairly well-known among anyone who's taken the time to read up on the subject. We'd just be trading barbs.
Nevertheless, my comment did attract the attention of one person who informed me of the following:
You are using technical terms . . . I'll spell it out for you: 1) the 8th amendment makes cruel and unusual punishment unconstitutional 2) courts have upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment, therefore 3) capital punishment is not cruel and unusual.
Well, that won me over. Anything that gets upheld by the Supreme Court is by default legal, and therefore just. I'll just take my convictions and go home now.