Santorum Gives Up
I think this is good for the world, as he would have made one of the worst US Presidents ever.
With all the religiously-driven troubles around the world, the one thing we don’t need is an extreme right-wing Catholic, totally out of kilter on womens’ issues and humanity in the White House.
He should crawl back with the dinosaurs and reeducate himself about the real world, where contraception and abortion are commonplace and legal, women work and guns and the death penalty are something you read about in history books.
Abu Hamza Can Be Extradited
I’m not going to comment on the legal reasons, as it does seem to me, that the verdict of the European Court to allow the extradition of Abu Hamza may create more problems than it solves.
After all, it’s unlikely he’ll get a slap on the wrists in a United States court, so what will be the reaction of his apologists here in the UK, when they realise he’s not going to come back? I think it might be better for everyone here if he was kept in a nice warm cell and released when his time is up.
But then I don’t have to get elected in a few years time.
The EU could put a whole cap on it, by passing a law that says that no-one could be extradited to a country with the death penalty on the statute book.
Japan Joins the Evil Empire
Yesterday, Japan hanged three men.
The death penalty is barbaric, but in Japan, they just take you in the morning and hang you, after you might have been in jail for twenty or thirty years. Your relatives aren’ even told.
That though is truly barbaric. Even when we had the death penalty, it was carried out as humanely as possible, according to the standards of the time.
So Japan now joins the Evil Empire of Iran, China and the United States.
FT Says Afghans Want Local Trial
The shooting of Afghans by a rogue US serviceman, is absolutely awful and I dread to think where it will lead. I think if I was a soldier out there now, I’d be watching a few Black Adder Goes Forth videos, to get myself invalided home.
The FT this morning is claiming that the Afghan government want a local trial.
I hope that Afghanistan doesn’t have the death penalty!
Interviews Before Execution
This article on the BBC web site, puts a whole new slant on reality television.
We’re back to the public executions at Tyburn that finished in the last 18th Century. The list on Wikipedia of those who were executed there, includes Oliver Cromwell, who was actually posthumously executed, after exhumation of his body from Westminster Abbey.
Web Programmer At Risk of Execution In Iran
This is from Amnesty International.
Web programmer Saeed Malekpour could be executed at any time in Iran. His death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 17 January 2012 and a court official has indicated that his death sentence may have now been sent for implementation.
Saeed Malekpour, a resident of Canada and Iranian national, aged 36, was again sentenced to death on 19 October 2011 by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, and it was confirmed by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court on 17 January 2012. On 14 February 2012, one of Saeed Malekpour’s lawyers visited both courts to ask about his case, but learned that the file was being held at neither court. Comments from a court official suggested that this is because Saeed Malekpour’s file has been sent to the Office of Implementation of Sentences.
Saeed Malekpour was sentenced to death for “insulting and desecrating Islam” after a program he had developed for uploading photos online had been used to post pornographic images without his knowledge. Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death in October 2010 following a trial that reportedly only lasted 15 minutes. After a June 2011 announcement that the Supreme Court had returned the case for further review, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court imposed again the death sentence as well as prison sentence of seven and a-half years. Amnesty International understands that although he has legal representation now, for much of his detention Saeed Malekpour has had no access to legal counsel.
Saeed Malekpour had been living in Canada since 2005, but was arrested in October 2008 while visiting his family in Iran. He was allegedly tortured while held for over a year in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison. In 2009, Iranian state television repeatedly aired a “confession” by Saeed. In an open letter dated March 2010, Saeed Malekpour stated his “confession” was extracted after prolonged torture following orders by Revolutionary Guard interrogators.
I see many e-mails like this. To the Iranians justice seems to be a word with seven-letters and that is all.
This one touched me, as I’ve written programs to upload pictures and othe files to the Internet. As far as I know no-one has used them for any illicit purposes.
An Obituary For an Unknown in the Fight Against Capital Punishment in the UK
I have said before that C used to visit prisoners in Holloway Prison in the early 1970s.
Yesterday, the Times and other papers carried reports of the death or full obituaries of the death of Stella Cunliffe.
Here is the report of her death on the Surrey Today website.
I have a feeling that C used to visit Holloway prison in a group, which involved this formidable lady. She seems to have provided the statistical evidence for the abolishment of capital punishment in parts or all of the UK. The obituaries vary.
There’s more here on Wikipedia, which states she was one of the first civilians to go into Belsen.
I think I met her a couple of times in about 1970 and we never knew what she did. Her male friend and they were just that, was a senior hospital manager and one of the best practical jokers that I’ve ever come across. I have to admit to stealing one of his best jokes.
The Americans Don’t Have A Sense of Humour
It’s all here.
I rest my case!
Now we have even more reasons to not visit the Land of the Hi-tech Death Penalty!
Dami Killers Should Have Been Hanged
This was front page headline in the Evening Standard and it is the words of Damilola Taylor’s father Richard on the release of the two Preddie brothers who killed his son. Read the story of the case here.
I of course don’t agree, especially as the brothers were just 12 and 13 when they killed his son. They actually got eight years youth custody for manslaughter.
I know what it is like to lose a son, but I can’t help feeling that the Death of Damilola Taylor was avoidable, if the various agencies and parents on both sides had taken more care and stood by their responsibilities.
But what I object to, is that newspapers are increasingly going on that the death penalty is the solution to the problems of violence and knife crime. But we all know sensationalism sells newspapers.
One point we should always remember, is that the Taylor family relocated to the UK to get treatment for Damilola’s elder sister’s epilepsy. Surely with all it’s wealth Nigeria could do more to look after the people rather than descending into endless criminality and religious violence.
God Isn’t Listening
Apparently, Texas is in the midst of a drought.
According to The Times today, last April Rick Perry, the governor and Presidential candidate, lead a prayer for rain in the state.
And guess what?
It hasn’t rained.
Either God doesn’t exist or he/she doesn’t like the fact that Rick Perry executes a lot of people in his state.
The Anonymous Widower 