Althouse: "The Time Has Come to Say No to Death," by Bianca Jagger.

February 27, 2010

"The Time Has Come to Say No to Death," by Bianca Jagger.

All right then: No!

You hear that, Death?

39 comments:

Alex said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/10, 7:40 PM
Alex said...: Bianca Jagger can suck my cock. Brain-dead liberals who try to make us pity murdering monsters make me gag.; 2/27/10, 7:44 PM
Trooper York said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/10, 7:45 PM
Big Mike said...: I think we overuse the death penalty in the United States, but I would never leave a man alive with nothing left to lose.; 2/27/10, 7:50 PM
sarainitaly said...: when will it be time to say no to murder?

it's easy to avoid the death penalty - just don't kill anyone.

it wasn't so easy to avoid being murdered for a lot of people, though...; 2/27/10, 8:04 PM
rhhardin said...: Immortality will not always be a negation.

- Lautreamont; 2/27/10, 8:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Is Ms. Jagger against all death?

Or only the death of duly convicted murders?

Is she against the death that occurs in abortions ... you know, the death of the babies?

Since she's touted as a "international human rights and climate change advocate" I kinda suspect she only has sympathy for the murders and rapists, but not so much for the unborn kids.

Look ... if you support abortion, you can't be taken seriously in your protestations against the death penalty.

Sorry.

Pick one.; 2/27/10, 8:09 PM
rhhardin said...: That's the birth penalty.; 2/27/10, 8:11 PM
Penny said...: These are words that Ms. Jagger and I could agree on.

"It is a place where life, liberty and happiness are all too often replaced by the pursuit of death, imprisonment and hatred."

Then, of course, we would talk through the night about our very different interpretations.; 2/27/10, 8:12 PM
Anonymous said...: What's her position on senior citizen rockers charging $500 bucks to hear their tired music?

Now that's a crime wave I can get behind stopping.; 2/27/10, 8:13 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/10, 8:17 PM
Kev said...: (the other kev)

It's oddly appropriate for Jagger to be on Huffington Post, since neither woman would have gone anywhere without fucking successful men.

And as for Ms. Jagger's argument, I'm not happy with how the death penalty is administered right now, but some people have forfeited their right to live by their crimes.; 2/27/10, 8:19 PM
Alex said...: I'm glad someone finally had the guts to say it! No means no.

Ah yes because Hollyweird hasn't been making statements against the death penalty for years like:

Dead Man Walking

Psychopathic left. Do they EVER make movies for the victims?; 2/27/10, 8:19 PM
Alex said...: I'm also unhappy with the death penalty.

* not applied enough
* do away with the endless appeals. Execute the murdering monster within a few weeks at most.; 2/27/10, 8:20 PM
The Scythian said...: Bianca Jagger wrote:

"During the failed efforts, Mr. Broom winced and grimaced with pain. After the first hour's lack of success, on several occasions Broom tried to help the executioners find a good vein. 'At one point, he covered his face with both hands and appeared to be sobbing, his stomach heaving.'"

Awwwwww, poor baby! He grimaced and cried! He covered his widdle face!

Even so, he didn't face one tiny fraction of the horror and pain that he visited upon 14-year old Tryna Middleton when he brutally raped and murdered her in an abandoned lot. Fucking scumbag.

(Also, his veins were so hard to find 'cause he was an IV drug user who had collapsed his own veins. Betcha he didn't weep and sob when dealing with those needles.)

Why should anyone give a shit what Bianca Jagger has to say anyway? Her entire claim to fame is that she married a rock star. Her entire career has been nothing more than trading on that connection.

Fuck Romell Broom and his crocodile tears, and fuck Bianca Jagger's bullshit pity party for him.; 2/27/10, 8:20 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/10, 8:21 PM
Alex said...: Like I said, let me know when one of these celebrity-psychopaths has 1/100th the ounce of compassion for the victims of the murderers they support.; 2/27/10, 8:23 PM
Alex said...: Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.
Heinrich Himmler

Another area lefties and Hitler agree.; 2/27/10, 8:25 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Just say No to death... that's what Nancy Reagan says.

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.; 2/27/10, 8:26 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I for one would be willing to revisit Capital punishment in exchange for some restrictions on abortion on demand.

Libs would never go for that of course.; 2/27/10, 8:32 PM
rcocean said...: "Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility— "

Death is a Gentlemen - unlike Flipper.; 2/27/10, 8:32 PM
Henry said...: I agree with her, even if she is Bianca Jagger. The death penalty is expensive (in the U.S. at least), arbitrary, and a grant to state power.; 2/27/10, 8:46 PM
Unknown said...: And we should listen to her, why? I remember when SNL did a parody of her "sharing wine, cheese and grapes" with her "and a few of her close personal friends". She had an overinflated view of herself thirty years ago.

Like The Zero, she thinks we should be more like the Euros - because they're doing so swell.; 2/27/10, 8:51 PM
Palladian said...: Is Bianca still wearing her Halston-tailored Sandinista uniform?; 2/27/10, 8:53 PM
knox said...: it's easy to avoid the death penalty - just don't kill anyone.

Well, to be fair, there have been people on death row who were later exonerated by DNA evidence, no? I just poked around on the web a bit and the number that keeps popping up is 130 of them since 1973. And something like 20 who were actually executed, and later found to have been innocent.

I am against it for that reason. I don't like the government to have that power.

If there were some way to make the system perfect, I'd have no problem with it. I don't think it's inhumane and I think it probably is an effective deterrent--notwithstanding what its detractors always say. But not worth it because of the risk involved.; 2/27/10, 8:54 PM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: Are the death penalty opponents willing to work as guards in a prison full of murderers? I knew a man who was murdered during a prison riot. I worked with his wife. He was a guard. The rioters also murdered fellow prisoners. What consequences are there for these people? A few years earlier, a prisoner murdered a teacher who worked at the prison. He slit her throat with the lid of a coffee can. A murderer who murders in prison literally gets away with murder if there is no possibility of capital punishment.; 2/27/10, 9:04 PM
SteveR said...: I agree with Lem's position and also agree the DP has been wrongely applied and poorly executed (pardon the pun).; 2/27/10, 9:04 PM
knox said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/10, 9:14 PM
knox said...: Are the death penalty opponents willing to work as guards in a prison full of murderers?

No!

Seriously, those are horrible stories. But our legal system is far from perfect: innocent people end up on death row. Unfortunately, the maximum penalty should be life in prison.

If it makes you feel any better, I think a lot more violent offenders should indeed be locked up for life.; 2/27/10, 9:16 PM
KCFleming said...: The death penalty makes Bianca Jagger's butt look really huge, so, really, not a surprise.; 2/27/10, 9:38 PM
Henry said...: Are death penalty proponents willing to work as public defenders for potentially innocent people?

In the end, despite the horror of individual anecdotes -- the murdered prison guard, the innocent man put to death -- the question is largely symbolic. A tiny percentage of criminals commit a crime our society considers worthy of the death penalty. A tiny percentage of innocent people are harmed by the choice our society makes in dealing with this problem, either way we decide it.

While I could support a highly bounded application of the death penalty -- egregious crime + scientific evidence + eye-witnesses -- that ideal is often trumped by egregious crime + "just enough" evidence. With that as a starting point it is no wonder that the appeal process takes forever.

So pragmatically I can't support the death penalty for the reasons I stated above. It is arbitrary, expensive, and a power the state should not have.; 2/27/10, 9:41 PM
KCFleming said...: Can't Bianca find a cop killer to release, or a dictator to hug?

Free Tillikum!; 2/27/10, 10:00 PM
Geoff Matthews said...: For everyone who is opposed to the death penalty because of results like project innocence, I have to ask "why?" With more fact-based evidence, we should feel MORE confident in the application of the death penalty now than ever before. If we can say for a certainty if someone was the perp based on scientific evidence that is FAR BETTER than a decade ago, then what's the problem?

What I'd like is a serious study that examines the level of error in applying any punishment for serious crimes (ie, murder, attempted murder, robbery, etc.). Let's find that probability level, and work from there.; 2/27/10, 10:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: Death is a grave offense against humanity. She is right about that. The Death Penalty is a check and balance. Without it, only the criminals exercise that power. It is the murderers that make us do it to balance the power relationship.; 2/28/10, 3:24 AM
bagoh20 said...: All punishments except fines are irreversible. The fact that convictions can be made in error is not a reason for opposing the death penalty any more than any other penalty. As long as the mistake level is very low then all that matters is the effectiveness and morality of the penalty. The death penalty is 100% effective at stopping repeat crimes and is the only moral penalty for many, but not all murders.

Other institutions make fatal mistakes all the time, but we don't abandon that institution, because we deem it worth the cost of the errors. For example: surgery, driving, warfare, Chemotherapy, extreme sports, abortion (ok, not exactly a mistake), SWAT entries into homes, etc. Even the use of DNA evidence has or will likely lead to the execution of someone by mistake or fraud.

Perfection is not a prerequisite in how we judge the appropriateness of anything else.

Love the new layout, BTW.; 2/28/10, 8:37 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm largely against the death penalty for the reasons that other posters have mentioned (with an exception for those who have done widespread terrorism-type acts- think Saddam Hussein or Osama Bid Laden, where I think the penalty is neccessary for closure to the people).

That said, I'm always very turned off by people who make a big deal out of being against it. Of all of the problems in the world, of poverty, abortion victims, child abuse, illness, crime victims, war, etc, etc, why on earth would you choose to put your energy towards feeling sorry for people who have done atrocious acts towards other human beings?; 2/28/10, 9:02 AM
Chris N said...: Also, Nature, what's with all the Death? Volcanoes, earthquakes and such...

Somewhere in there is a profound and subtle moral argument against the death penalty. Somewhere...behind the causiness and celebrity of it all.; 2/28/10, 10:58 AM
jeff said...: She has been a dim bulb for 40 years, I see nothing to change that. However, while I am totally on board with executing killers, the death penalty has been abused by malicious prosecutors instead of used on the worst of the worst. The Cory Maye situation illustrates what I mean.; 2/28/10, 4:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Death to Bianca: See you soon.; 3/1/10, 12:14 AM