Air Travel and the Death Penalty

Don't have a whole lot in common, but they're on the plate today.

First off I got in from my little trip about 8:00 last night. Left Friday and two days and four planes later I was back in TX.

So I left work too damn early Friday thinking that the airport was going to be a mad house with all the heightened security. I was wrong...took me 12 minutes to get from the parking garage to the gate. It wasn't that they weren't checking, but evidently they just weren't checking as slow as I thought. There was an additional carry on check point right before you could get on the plane...I checked it all...avoiding the hassle.

So everything went pretty smooth...everyone threw their stuff out and didn't try to push the rules...well, almost everybody. I was watching the news early Saturday morning (by early, I mean 3 or so) and they were interviewing all these people who were "inconvenienced" by having to part with their gels and liquids...let me tell you what is an inconvenience...getting blown the fuck up!

So I said almost, and this is what I mean...there is a lady who is coming through security on the flight home. She's an attractive, thirty-something lady...a soccer mom for sure...looks like every other soccer mom that I'd like to....errr...I mean....looks like every other nice surburbanite mother of three who is involved in the PTA and the booster club. Well, she gets randomly selected and she turns into mega-bitch. She immediately starts to question the authority, she wants to know why they are choosing her, and then sits and refuses to have the security woman run the wand around her a few times and pat down her sides. The security lady is being as nice as possible and telling the woman that it'll only take a few seconds (it took about 35), but mega-bitch just sits down and folds her arms. This is where the supervisor or some other gentleman of authority walks over to her and asks her what the problem is. She says that she doesn't understand why she's been picked to be checked, and that she wasn't doing it. He responded with (and oh man I was cheering him on) "Fine, you don't have to do it...please exit the line and the airport." Yeah, he told her to move the fuck on! Well, she was absolutely appalled. She finally steps on the little feet and 35 seconds later its done.

BUT WAIT!!!

Stupid soccer bitch's bag gets searched...and she's packing some hair gel. "It's just hair gel, what's the big deal???" This was Sunday, its not like all this wasn't on every news and radio station all weekend. It's not like it wasn't posted every 20 feet in the airport. No, she wasn't a terrorist, but she definitely was a dumb ass!

ROUND TWO

So my buddy Jane left a comment on my last post, and I want to expound on my position.

I do believe in Capital Punishment...and I have a few reasons why. I agree that sometimes it would be more of a punishment for someone to spend the rest of their lives in prison. These cases are where the prisoner is completely isolated from the outside world...where they are left with nothing but their thoughts and dreams. Where they have nothing else to do or think about, but being in a small cell. I agree with that, and that is probably the worst punishment of all.

But, I do believe that there are cases where someone should be put to death i.e. Pre-meditated murder, or anything involving small children. Here are my reasons why.

If you believe in God, or at least an afterlife that is rendered by how you spent your life on earth...then you'd think that the death penalty would actually just be the beginning of the true punishment. For those who commit the most heinous crimes, then their death would lead to the most heinous afterlife. Whether you believe that they will spend eternity in a fiery lake, or as a insubordinate object, or getting boned in the ass by well hung midgets, the true punishment would be after death and not before.

I also think that it is not uncommon for "lifers" in anything, whether it be the pokey or the post office, to come to terms with their conditions and learn to be happy there. If I knew I was going to be in Prison the rest of my life, I would find ways to make those days somewhat happy. Sure I couldn't just run down to the watering hole for a cold one, but I could learn how to paint. I could learn how to play my guitar better. I could write a book (got nothing but time), and these things are encouraged. Remember that people in prison are being rehabilitated! Rehabilitation in the big house isn't a walk in the park, but its also not necessarily having to truly pay for your crimes. An eye for an eye and all that jazz.

Last, (I could go on for a while, but I have things to do) there is something scary about knowing when you're going to die. We all know that we're going to die. It's one thing that is truly inevitable, but our happiness is that we live until that day. We don't know when that day is...could be tomorrow....could be 50 years from now...and since we don't know, then most of us don't spend our days worrying about it. For the death row inmate, he spends his hours thinking about the time. He spends his time hoping that he'll get a reprieve. He spends his energy trying to change the fact that someone is going to take his life. He has no control over it. Neither do we I guess, but at least we don't know that someone else does (don't drop the God thing here, I'm talking about humans only) We don't know that on some specific day, at some specific hour, someone is going to take our life from us. How'd you like to live with that.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a great day...be sure to visit the new girl on the block. Go ahead...click it....you know you want to!!!