From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 17:27:46 PDT
To: ianf@simple.sydney.sgi.com
Subject: Re: Government and Repression
Message-ID: <199409020027.UAA17306@pipe1.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Responding to msg by ianf@simple.sydney.sgi.com ("Ian 
Farquhar") on Fri, 2 Sep  8:32 AM

>Of course, you've got to question whether capital 
>punishment is _ever_  justified, and I would argue that 
>it isn't.  This is way, way off the topic  of 
>cypherpunks, and I don't intend to get into that 
>discussion on this  forum.  I am very glad to live in a 
>country which has signed international  conventions 
>which prohibit it indulging in brutal and callous 
>judicial  murder of a person, despite the occasional 
>state government loony who  pines for the good old 
>days.


An enlightened view like this is never off topic where nuclear 
weapons and molten spray in tank hulls are chatted up with 
relish.  State-mandated homicide gotta have its dehumanized 
professionals to do the dirty work.

And your suggestion of giving kids the vote at an earlier age 
adds sane countervalence to the

     parent /
     teacher /
     caseworker /
     cop /
     prison guard /
     executioner

escape from responsibility algorithm.


John