Death penalty

Lethal injection room image courtesy of Wikipedia

The US Supreme Court is taking a look at the process that Oklahoma uses to administer the death penalty.  They decided on this review a week after denying a stay of execution for a prisoner there who was sentenced to death.  If it was fine one week, then why would it need to be reviewed the week after?

I was dealing with a sinus infection for a while, so I had time to mull over a few different topics, and capital punishment took up a bit of that time.  Georgia just executed a prisoner within the past few weeks as well as Oklahoma.  I actually have a high school classmate sitting on death row in Alabama right now, and his case has caused me the most conflict with my views on capital punishment.

That classmate killed a friend of mine and a few other people in a robbery.  A decision to not come home from school on a Friday afternoon was all that likely kept me from being a victim in that same robbery.  For the longest time, I harbored guilt over not being there to protect my friend.  I also harbored fear that my life could have ended more than 20 years ago that night.

In light of the ramblings on the ISIS killings and other countries using capital punishment around the world, I have come to the opinion that the death penalty no longer serves a purpose in America.  If you seek revenge for the death of someone else, then it’s there for you.  As a deterrent to crime or criminal activity, it is as useful as teats on a bull.

We can’t call people on the carpet for human rights abuses when we house 25% of the world’s prison population.  When we’re using unproven combinations of drugs to execute prisoners, that should be a wake up call to square our actions to ensure that we are not acting hypocritical when we tell others they need to treat their people better.

Maybe this SCOTUS review is a good thing.  I don’t think it hurts that drug companies have decided they no longer want to play a role in executing people.  Whether by lethal injection or beheading, the end result of capital punishment is the same.  Death.  If we’re going to claim that we act better than others, then it would help the case if our actions mimicked our words.

Related articles

• Lawmakers introduce bill to abolish death penalty
• US supreme court to review execution procedure in case brought by man already put to death
• Georgia inmate executed after Supreme Court declines appeal
• Statement from ACLU of Oklahoma Regarding Attorney General’s Request to Stay Upcoming Executions
• Advocacy group calls for halt to Missouri execution
• Here’s a snapshot of the modern era of capital punishment in America
• Why the Supreme Court is acting on lethal injection and what that could mean for the death penalty
• Florida Won’t Follow Ohio and Oklahoma in Halting Executions

2014 NCAA Football Preseason Rankings

The first NCAA polls have been released, and of course the 2013 National Champions sit at the top of the polls.  That’s to be expected, but that is not the purpose of this post.

Instead I’ll ask you to focus on the highlighted team in the #2 slot, my beloved Crimson Tide.  Last year, they were preseason #1 after winning their second consecutive national championship.  They didn’t get the hat trick with a third championship in a row though, and they ended up losing the last two games to finish out the year.  The only time Alabama has ever started and finished #1 was in 1978 when Bear Bryant won his 4th of his 5 national championships.

This year, I’m wondering if we’re having a bit of deja vu in play.  Let me explain why I say that.

This is the 6th consecutive year that The Tide has been ranked in the top 5 in the preseason poll.  Three of those years ended with Saban and crew hoisting the Coach’s Trophy over their heads in a shower of confetti.  In 2008, The Tide finished off the year with two consecutive losses, with the second one coming against Utah in the Sugar Bowl.  Last year, it was Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl for the second loss.

This is how the preseason poll looked in 2009.

This is how the final poll looked at the end of that season.

There’s quite a few weeks from the opening weekend until that final poll is released.  History has a way of repeating itself, and I will not be upset if this particular history repeats itself once again.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALLLL!!!!!  ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!

Related articles

• No surprise, Alabama second in preseason AP poll
• AP poll: defending champion Florida State is No. 1
• Preseason College Football Rankings 2014: Breaking Down First Coaches Poll
• Blog Post: 2014 Alabama Crimson Tide Football Schedule, Preview
• Bama players motivated by sour ending to season
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The religious argument for Single Payer

It’s one thing to have your beliefs and want to live according to them.  It’s something entirely different to try to force your beliefs onto others, some of whom likely do not share your same belief system.  This whole ordeal about religious freedom in regards to health care decisions is something I think will be the ultimate catalyst to push us into a Single Payer system.

When it comes to the Hippocratic Oath, there is indeed a part that speaks on abortion.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

According to Wikipedia, a pessary is “a medical device inserted into the vagina, either to provide structural support, or as a method of delivering medication.”  Unless a woman has an issue with taking birth control pills, she is not inserting them into her vagina at all.  When you look at the “modern” Hippocratic Oath, there is no mention of abortion at all.

We don’t live in a theocratic society.  There are many who like to think this country was founded and built on a particular belief system, but our founders ensured that our government could not favor one religion over the others so that they could all be practiced equally.  How do we determine which religious belief system decides what happens here?  There are many different religions recognized by the federal government, and they all have quite a few followers.

I think we’re stepping a bit too far over the line when we start trying to dictate what medications can be prescribed to people we don’t know or have any intent of knowing.  I wasn’t a big fan of Single Payer initially.  I have since come to the conclusion that is the only way we can ensure people can get the medical care they need without other people stomping on their rights in the process.  America is all about freedom, and these actions are the most anti-freedom things any American could ever do to another.  As a Christian, I think it’s time to quit allowing other followers to use religion as a means of controlling those who do not need to be controlled.

 

Catholic healthcare firm tells doctors at Oklahoma facility to stop prescribing birth control (via Raw Story )

Birth control access for women in Oklahoma and several other states will be cut short as part of a new directive by a Catholic-affiliated healthcare firm that recently acquired another company. The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reported on Monday…

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