Re: Apple IIe seen in Discovery Channel documentary "2057: The Body"

[Charlie Springer <RAM@regnirps.com>]

On Sun, 13 May 2007 23:23:42 -0700, mdj wrote
(in article <1179123822.085614.278690@e51g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>):

> Of course, it's glossing over the fact that somebody else,
> euphemistically phrased as "the law" has to take that persons life
> from them. So I must ask the question, do you believe that
> administering justice and extracting vengeance are the same thing?
> 
> If those are your beliefs, that's fine, but I think you should call a
> spade a spade, and conceed that killing people as a form of justice is
> essentially an act of righteousness and hatred, and justify *that*
> statement rather than one designed to hide the true nature of the act.

Have you ever noticed that Justice is holding the scales and blindfolded? Of 
course there is a difference between justice and vengeance. The killer acts 
in passion or tragic awareness or ... In any case, it is easy to determine 
who is wrong. It is the person who initiates the use of force. If you 
consider defense to be murder, then I can see how you would come to your 
conclusions, but you are wrong. In the administering of justice, those who 
were attacked gain security. Without it you have a thug society.

Most classic tragic stories involve a character who must accept 
responsibility for his/her actions even if their judgment is clouded by 
potions of spells. There is no mitigating circumstance nor insanity plea.

In the Greek city states, a burglar who stole farm implements at night was 
punished by banishment. One who stole by daylight was considered much more 
dangerous as they did not fear discovery and they were punished by death. The 
law emerged from experience. Leaving them alive invited your own death. (And 
taking farm tools could kill a family group who depended on them for 
producing food. It was literally taking their livelihood).

About 20 years ago I had several long conversations with a 100 year old man 
who grew up in a midwest town with no law, and everyone lived in fear of a 
few large men who did as they pleased. At an outdoor dance when he was about 
12, one of these men started a fight and injured several men. A stranger 
walked up behind him and laid him out with an axe handle. He produced a gun 
and a badge and announced that he was the Federal Marshall and if there was 
any trouble, to get him a message and he would see to it. He hog tied the 
fighter and took him off on horseback. The town changed over night. The 
people were glad to share the responsibility for whatever befell the violent 
man.

The movie, "High Plains Drifter" is a story of what happens if the people DO 
NOT want to take responsibility and points to the system of today in which 
very dangerous criminals are routinely freed.

-- Charlie Springer