tomorrow is my housewarming party and already my family has started arriving. bob came up last night because he wanted to have time to wander around the lake. the easiest way to get a visit from bob is to send info about the nearest lake and he will show up with a boat and fishing rods. mom and lee are driving up tonight as are my grandpa and uncle. everyone seems to want to hang out in lawrence. i just wanted them to come visit, i had no idea the prospect would be so enticing. joshua has helped around the house and even cleaned the garage a bit despite the fact that he would rather play with the new toy he is building for defcon. we are headed out there next weekend and he just had to enter a contest. i have never been to vegas for work before so this should be fun. am i allowed to write off meals eaten in a casino called circus circus? we got the paperwork back from the irs (finally) approving our 501(c)4 status. i am officially an employee of a non-profit organization.
on a happy note, i finished ny constitutional law class today and turned in the paper i wrote for a final project. bob asked me about my subject over breakfast this morning and i had to tell him that his daughters were liberal and he did not want to know that information. he replied that at least one of his daughters was a liberal. my answer was that cheryl followed my lead and then that my paper was about how the death penalty violated the eighth amendment. that was enough of an answer for him.
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I've recently modified my position on the death penalty (thank you, Penn and Teller's "Bullshit!") - however, i disagree that it is "cruel and unusual". I'm curious how you based your argument on the 8th amendment when it's really a 10th amendment issue (state's rights).
the only crime (as i remember it) that is mentioned by the Constitution is Treason. If we assume that Treason was singled out because it was the worst crime against the state, then we should look at the limits on punishment for Treason.
The only limit on the punishment for Treason is that the punishment can not extend to the descendants of the accused and that any propery confiscated by the gov't must be passed to the heirs upon the death of the accused. Art III, Sec 3.
Since death is not explicitly excluded, we have to assume that it is open as an avialable punishment.
And, since it is up to the states to decide if the death penalty is appropriate for their citizens, it becomes a state's rights issue.
Of course that's just my opinion... i could be wrong. :)
the death penalty has to follow evolving standards of decency (Trop v. Dulles) and since the trend is moving towards states not using it, i argued that it should be banned. I also used arguments from Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia (dissenting opinions) to state that the justices agree with me. i also threw in stats about the 123 countries that do not practice the death penalty and how the us is 4th in killing citizens after china, iran, and saudi arabia. not good company.
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