My feelings about Saddam Hussein are like my feelings about the death penalty. Because, fundamentally, I am inclined to think that the death penalty is wrong, yet I'm not one bit sorry Ted Bundy is dead.My relief at hearing that Bundy died wouldn't make me support the death penalty, because most of the time it's not fair, etc. And that probably really sounds stupid after the smart posts in here.

I wonder who was slapping Pvt. Lynch during the incident that inspired the Iraqi man visiting his wife (a nurse there) to both walk six miles to inform the U.S. troops of her whereabouts, and then to take his family and go into hiding.

From the whole story, I gather that there were guards when she was first brought in:

Private Lynch’s military guards would allow no other doctor to tend to her ...

But by the time the "rescue" occured that they had run off. The doctors used deception to keep them from taking Jessica with them.

On April 1 the local Baathists fled al-Nasiriyah for Baghdad and arrived at the hospital looking for their prize captive. Dr Harith moved her to another part of the hospital, and other doctors told the soldiers that he was away.

“They said that they thought Jessica had died, and they didn’t know where she was,” he said. In their haste and confusion the soldiers left, leaving behind only a few critically injured soldiers.

In short she was almost certainly abused with the doctors doing everything they could to mitigate it, and then the doctors hid her while the abusers ran off.

And the next day our troops burst in and destroyed medical equipment, and knocked around the doctors and such.

BTW - you did note that the story was in The Times - which strongly endorsed and does endorse the war. Not the Observer or Guardian, or the UK left press.

Hey Angus is Robson Green preferable to Havers?

ION it looks like we've managed to piss off Canada

Ottawa/Santo Domingo — Just one day after cancelling a presidential visit to Ottawa, the White House announced yesterday that Australian Prime Minister John Howard will visit George W. Bush on his Texas ranch.

Mr. Howard will travel to Crawford, Tex., on May 2 and 3, just two days before Mr. Bush had been scheduled for a state visit to Ottawa. >The White House postponed that visit, and did not reschedule it, after U.S. complaints about Canada's decision not to participate in the war in Iraq.

And an Australian take on one of the biggest of the big ...

MICROSOFT MAKING $51 MILLION A DAY

Microsoft reported its March quarter profit overnight and it is worth contemplating the enormity of the numbers in Australian dollars.

Profits were up marginally to $4.65 billion for the quarter - that's an incredible $51 million a day. Microsoft is making bigger profits than the big four Australian banks and Telstra combined.

And what about those amazing profit margins. Revenue rose 8 per cent to $13 billion for the quarter - equivalent to $144 million a day.

Therefore, each night when Bill Gates goes to bed he knows that he's sold $144 million worth of goods and services that day, incurred $93 million in costs and pocketed $51 million in profit. That's a net profit margin of 35.4 per cent. That's what you call monopoly market power.

If you want to know why America is a super-power, look no further than Microsoft which has paid tens of billions in taxes which help fund the world's biggest military budget - a budget enhanced by superior technology provided by the likes of Microsoft.

Edited to say, not at all Trudy, it all sorta hinges on 'does the end justify the means?'

My relief at hearing that Bundy died wouldn't make me support the death penalty, because most of the time it's not fair, etc. And that probably really sounds stupid after the smart posts in here.

Pish tosh. I think that's a perfectly reasonable way of putting it. Two wrongs don't make a right.

opens can of worms.

I actually think that, for me, the death penalty would be fair enough a thing to have IF one could magically be sure that it would only ever be used on people who were genuinely guilty of t insert heinous crime. In an abstract way. I've thought about it quite a bit, and my conclusion for my own personal sense of morality (YMoralityMV) is that there are some crimes for which the death penalty would be appropriate, if one could be sure that it would only be invoked for people who were genuinely guilty of t insert heinous crime . BUT the fact that, lacking a magic wand, one cannot guarantee that it would always be guilty people who were executed - that's what ultimately has me against the death penalty. Not the inherent sacredness of human life. There does come a point when I think "Okay, good luck with your soul and I hope that God forgives you and all that, but you're now more of a threat to society than we need to put up with." It's not a point that one reaches quickly, mind, but I do think there are circumstances in which giving a shit about somebody's right to life just ends.

In the abstract. In practice, as I said, I'm anti-death penalty, because most of the time it's not fair and I'd rather let guilty parties live than inadvertently kill innocent/redeemable people.

t /secret fascist

Fay - I'd add another reasons for being against the death penalty.

We should not kill people, even dangerous horrible people, when we have a reasonable alternative. It is one thing to kill in self-defense; it is quite another to kill someone you already have safely locked up. Not so much for what it does to them as for what it does to you.

Crimes hideous enough to kill someone for are probably probably hideous enough to torture someone for. I mean some of the more gruesome serial killers, I probably would not shed many tears if they were made to suffer a bit before being executed. But I am against the death penalty and the addition of a torture penalty for the same reason: even if applied only those obviously guilty of truly awful crimes they warp the society that carries them out; and locking the guilty up is a reasonable alternative. Er, I hope it is obvious that I am not bringing the issue of torture up as a straw man. (You said nothing about it.) I bring it up because I believe it has genuine and enlightening parallels to the killing of murderers as punishment/protection.

Fay, you're speaking for me.

BTW, I see that a certain person was so incensed by my recent Nigel Havers diss that she mentioned it in her LiveJournal! This amuses me vastly.

t whistles innocently

Well, I *WAS* somewhat intoxicated.

You will note the list began with "#1. I am a SPAZ.

And ended with "#5. scotch is nummy."

ION, we've been hooked on Coupling. Curse you, wee Brits.

ION, we've been hooked on Coupling. Curse you, wee Brits.

But seriously, what other choice did you have? I mean, really.

BTW, Ple, did you hear that Kylie Minogue was stopped from boarding an airplane until a staff member could take her to her seat? Apparently they mistook her for a minor.

BTW, Ple, did you hear that Kylie Minogue was stopped from boarding an airplane until a staff member could take her to her seat? Apparently they mistook her for a minor.

No! That's hilarious.

But seriously, what other choice did you have? I mean, really.

We were all set to settle in with cocktails and The Avengers, you see. But no, Coupling caught us.

We were all set to settle in with cocktails and The Avengers, you see. But no, Coupling caught us.

You're talking Avengers the series, right? Because that could cause moments of indecision. But no, you made the right choice. The only choice. (Which Coupling ep?)

You're talking Avengers the series, right? Because that could cause moments of indecision. But no, you made the right choice. The only choice. (Which Coupling ep?)

The series. Black and white (I think we're still on the last DVD of 1965, but we could be up to 1966).

Umm. The one with the bisexual girl, the bathroom with no lock, and the pizza.