Till Death Do Us Part

Much flap lately about the death penalty. And there's a quite useless feel-good meme going around of a pie chart showing that the only result of gay mariage is gays will get married. So last night in a dream I put two and two together and came up with the idea that "till death do us part" is kind of a death penalty which will now be applicable to gays.

---

But seriously:
I am not opposed to the death penalty, but I think it should be rarely applied in only the most heinous crimes.
I am opposed to prosecuting someone based only on circumstantial evidence.

One of the few precepts of Jewish law with which I completely agree is the rule for convicting a person of a crime:
Circumstantial evidence is inadmissible; to convict the defendant two qualified witnesses who have no material interest in the case are required. Prosecution witnesses are disqualified if they are motivated by a desire to testify in order to escape punishment. The witnesses must be warned about the graveness of perjury in general and in connection with capital punishment in particular.[1]

Troy Davis. The folks who have been moaning the loudest about the injustice of the execution are fond of pointing out that seven out of nine witnesses against Davis have recanted their testimony. That leaves two who did not. And that's all it takes, if those two meet the above requirements. Looking more closely at the records of Davis' final appeal, not all seven of the witnesses had actually recanted, and whether Davis was the person who pulled the trigger or not is irrelevant, since all witnesses confirmed he was at the scene and took part in the violence which resulted in a person's death. So his conviction and sentencing may have been "kosher". There does not seem to be reasonable doubt that he participated in the fatal event.

Another part of the hue and cry about this case is the defendant is black, the victim white. IMHO, more of a trigger for the push for the death penalty is the fact that the victim was a police officer. A police officer who was off-duty and attempted to stop the senseless beating of a homeless person, and was murdered for his humanitarian actions. I call that a heinous crime.

--
OTOH, the cheers at the GOP events when Perry brags about how many people Texas has put to death - that's disgusting. Texas should be ashamed of the fact that they place so little value on the lives of their own citizens.
--

For those who are against the death penalty, I sympathize and see your points. I just believe there are a few people who should not be allowed to share our planet, and putting them in prison does not make us safe from them.

A Day of Closure

Two major milestones today. First was the final concert of the year for Ye Olde Towne Band, with the accompanying after-party. It's a potluck, and this time we had leftover main courses, but salads and desserts were in short supply. Usually it is the other way around. The other milestone was making the apartment aquarium-free. A nice middle-aged couple came over to claim all the fish, which took a huge weight off my conscience, and then I drained the tanks, unplugged everything and hauled the whole kit and kaboodle out to the dumpster area. Maybe someone will want the stand. An unexpected bonus closure is when I went out to the dumpster,  90% of the mess PG&E had made was gone. If they are really done, it will be all gone tomorrow, and good riddance. But the pipes which have been stressed to 1,000 times their load-bearing specifications remain, 20 feet from the nearest apartment units, and each apartment has a gas furnace, so the sooner I am out of there the safer I will feel.

Lost Altos did a world class WTF today - it took me half an hour to go the length of the town en route to the concert because they applied asphalt to the right lane on both sides of the main street, and blocked off all the side street access (because with all traffic in the left lane, it would have to cross the wet asphalt to get to the alternate routes). Glad I left for the concert way early to get my potluck items in the fridge.

One more closure item to take care of, which I need to get a dolly for - haul the old exercycle out to the dumpster. I would donate it, but it won't fit in the car, and it has some cosmetic rust which I don't have the wherewithal to clean up. There are some other items to go to Goodwill, but none of them are major milestones.

One of the side effects of de-tanking the livingroom is I was able to put the big speakers in their original locations, which improved the sound from the A/V box significantly. I also moved things around to put the center surround speaker in the center, in the audio stand under the TV, which is also an improvement. All this will be even further enhanced, I hope, when I get into the new place and can put the entertainment center against a wall instead of 5' from the glass patio doors. It all depends on where the piano fits. Tonight I think I'll go online and look at the floor plan again.
 
( cat TMI )

Watched Sunday Night Football. I like how their announcers call the game without talking about unrelated games and gossip, and explain why they think a call was made rather than giving advice to the coaches and players and trying to call the plays themselves. And their camera crew and director rarely mess up, which is tough to do in a live game situation.

Which reminds me, yesterday's Oregon game in Arizona provided a cute little WTF. The Oregon cheerleaders all had deep tans. The Arizona cheerleaders looked pale.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work (team meeting at 10)
Hello dolly? OSH probably.
Monday Night Football