My second liberal view: Corporate greed

I'm finally getting to the second liberal view that I had been meaning to get back to for quite a few days. That is the many instances of CEOs and other corporate bigshots who give themselves whopping raises while cutting salaries of their employees, if not shipping their jobs overseas and laying their employees off. First, I understand that these companies are private businesses and that they can do what they want, including indulging in sickening examples of avarice.

However, it's more than just a touch of chutzpah to rake in all that money while telling your employees that the company will need to make cutbacks by cutting their pay or their jobs. It's also bad when companies then complain about the lack of company loyalty. Loyalty works both ways. I tried to find a website that posted such examples, but I didn't find one in my initial search, which is one reason why it took me so long to make this second post. If there is such a website out there, then they need to make themselves more visible. I can't believe that some liberal out there hasn't thought to do this already. If and when I find such a site, I'll post a link here.

What I should have done is look for the stories that provided examples of what I'm talking about and linked them here. I'll do that later so that I can make a more thorough post on this topic. But the examples that I had come across before would make you sick to your stomach. The solution to dealing with something like is NOT government intervention, but rather public exposure. The press, in other words, needs to put the word out on such examples of runaway greed. And a prominent website needs to make itself known as a reference for such examples. Maybe I'll do this myself. Hm......

Finally! My liberal views

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but after much thought, there are really only two views that I hold that today would qualify as “liberal”: My opposition to the death penalty, and the outrageous pay that CEOs get. Being in favor of free speech and the freedom of worship and expression used to be considered liberal views, but nowadays liberals have proven to be just as bad as they say conservatives are on those issues. Anyway, on to one of my liberal views.

The death penalty

I thought about the following question the other day when discussing the issue of the death penalty: Why don’t we have public beheadings anymore? Or drawing and quartering? There’s also crushing by boulders or by elephants. And of course, the classic hangings, electric chair, and firing squads.

Why don’t we do any of that anymore? Yes, it is still done in other countries, but why don’t we do that here, since we allow the death penalty? Oh, I see! It’s too barbaric! That’s why we now do the lethal injection thing – because it’s more humane!

No death penalty supporter has been able to answer the following question in a good way: Humane as compared to what? Isn’t the person strapped in the gurney just as dead afterwards as those who were executed in the other ways?

Some people who know that I’m Catholic also know that the Catholic Church allows for the death penalty, but what they don’t often know is that it is allowed only when there is no other way to stop someone from doing harm. If there are alternatives to stopping a criminal from committing crimes, then that alternative is to be used instead, and we have that alternative in the locking of them away for life. That’s what the late Pope John Paul II had advocated.

Don’t the other methods of execution make you squeamish – to say the least? Notice how we’ve gone from the more barbaric and ghoulish methods of execution of the past to those of more recent times that are considered "more humane”. This reflects the changing public perceptions of execution. As our sense and definition of humanity has grown and developed, then our acceptance of the death penalty has diminished. We still have the death penalty, of course, but we don’t do the more violent methods of execution that existed in the past.

I don't think that, among current death penalty supporters, any of them would accept a return of French Revolution-style public beheadings, nor would they be in favor of such gruesome executions as drawing and quartering. Not only are such methods barbaric, but it would also make "their side" of the debate look bad. That's why executions are now hidden away from public view - so that the actual acts themselves won't disturb anyone’s consciences.

So why even hang onto a death penalty? Part of it is because those that lost a loved one to a violent crime want the satisfaction of seeing their loved one's murderer brought to justice for their crime. In truth, I can understand that desire. If I lost a loved one to a violent crime, I have to admit that I might feel the same way. I also have to admit that I honestly don't know how I'd react in such a situation.

But I hope that I can at least accept that putting my loved one's murderer to death won't bring my loved one back. And any satisfaction of seeing that murderer brought to justice would only be momentary. In other words, by desiring a violent death of the murderer of my loved one, I am giving in to my emotions.

Justice based on intense emotions has a way of becoming less about justice and more about surrendering ourselves to our darker emotions. Giving in to our darker emotions has a way of turning us into the very things that we despise. Desiring justice for an evil done is not only right, it's also completely natural and expected, but there are limits to how much justice can be done and still be called justice.

And last, even death penalty supporters should be frightened by the prospect of the state having that much control over our lives - that they can even end it if it suits their needs. It seems to me that the less control that the state has over the ending of our lives, the better for us all. That's because the state has a funny way of desiring more of what we choose to give it. And when I say "funny", I don't mean "funny ha-ha".

Coming next, my other liberal view.

Weekend Wrap-up 8-4-2007

And now the return of the Weekend Wrap-up!

Mother cuts son's allowance
First off the gates is this story of a woman who is fed up with her son's misbehavior, so she cut his allowance and took away his keys and dragged him off the the local police station so that they could talk some sense into him! So how old is this guy? 17? 18?

Nope. Higher.
23? 24?

Higher still.
30? 35?

Higher still.
No way! 40? 50?

Try 61!
Wow!

He must be some sort of "trust fund" baby. ;-)

Dating outside your race
I may comment more on the attached article later. I find the topic very interesting. Anyway, read this article and see what you think of it. Then think about your own experiences or of those you know.

I am an ar-teest!
Being an artist apparently means never having to say that you're sorry. ;-)

In what can only be called clueless in this post-9/11 age, an artist in a replica of a submarine based on a 200 year old design, floated too close to the Queen Mary II. No, the Queen Mary is an ocean liner. You're thinking of Queen Elizabeth II, who is the current queen of England. Ha, sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anyway, the poor dumb yutz was hauled away, no doubt to be lectured by his mother, who most likely will cut his allowance.

New chic space suit to come soon
After 40 years, NASA astronauts may get a new look for their "Michelin Man" space suits that they have been wearing since the advent of the space program. This article did not provide any pics, but it said that the new suit would weigh 40 lbs, which sounds like a lot until you hear how much the old suits weigh: 300 lbs! You may wonder how astronauts get around in something so heavy. Think! In space the suit is weightless! However, it is very bulky, and the new suits will help them move around a lot better. I just hope that they don't start decorating them like those NASCAR outfits....

China troubles
What is it with China lately? We've been getting TONS (literally!) of their defective crap! We should send it all back, get refunds, and buy from other countries instead until China straightens out. This will work, because China is going to be hosting the Olympics next year, and they want to avoid bad publicity like the plague. We should be all over this making China bend over backwards to make amends. How often do we get a Communist country to roll over and beg for us? I hope our government has some balls for once to do the right thing. We don't deserve the kind of junk we've been getting, and we shouldn't put up with it. Right now, the candidates for president of both parties should be on this issue like lawyers on ambulances!

Editorial Statement for August 2007: My liberal views
For this month - but not starting today - I'm going to list the views in which I'm a ranting looney lefty liberal. Next month I'll list my views in which I'm a radical right wing nut job. And the month after that, I'll list the views in which I am neither looney liberal or whacko conservative. So during the course of the month, watch for my blog entries in which I have in the title: "Editorial Statement for August 2007: My liberal views", and in that entry, I'll list a view in which I favor the left wing. I thought that this would help you good folks out there to know better how I think, and why.

After that, hopefully you'll see why I can't be totally a liberal or totally a conservative - and why I can't be moderate at all (defined as "being in between the two viewpoints"), because like I say on my profile, I take stands rather than try to find the middle ground. Then maybe you good folks will learn how to define your own views, and you'll see that you are probably a lot more like me than you are like Michael Moore or Rush Limbaugh. By the way, I'd still like to see a Smackdown! match between those two.