I never cease to be amazed by the capacity for brutality the human race carries around inside itself............. and ironically enough, I think this entry is going to be rather brutal......
So I'm sorry; but here goes:

I have spent the majority of my life arguing against the death penalty. For a variety of reasons, among them that I didn't believe it was actually serving as a deterrent of any kind, it is simply NOT the way a society which describes itself as "civilized" should allow itself to behave and mostly because THE VERY FIRST TIME YOU PUT AN INNOCENT MAN TO DEATH YOU HAVE BECOME THAT WHICH YOU TRY TO PREVENT!!!!! Hello....... how difficult is that to comprehend? Imagine then, how inconceivable it is to me that if I could pick up a highly powered handgun (a .357, a 45, a gloch......) and fly across the country to put a bullet in the head of a man I've never met........
I would do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I think there are other things I'd do to him first:
Like put a bullet through his kneecap. It's incredibly painful but not life threatening............. and I don't think I want his death to be either quick or painless. Then, 1-by-1, I'd put a bullet through each of his hands and both of the feet he walks on. His hands have been used to cause unimaginable pain and his feet put him in the position to do what he has done to another human being, not once but three times. I understand that belly wounds are also quite painful and having had a problem with a bleeding ulcer, I find that quite easy to believe........... I think, at that point... I'd just let him lie there and be in pain. One hour for every hour he's caused someone I care about the kind of pain and anguish it is beyond me to imagine........ and clearly, I have a vivid imagination.

This man, this monster violated his own daughter then raped the friend of the family who caught him doing it (she turned him in) ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS!!!!!!! He blames my friend for the loss of his child! Death is too good for this animal. Hell, I'm not even sure he's high enough on the evolutionary ladder to deserve torture....... but what else is there?????????? Maybe guys like these should be used in place of the animals we do "product testing" on.............. Yeah, that actually appeals to me! Let's let the "animals" of our species be the ones who serve to test the safety of products the rest of the species uses to make their lives better!!!!!! This is good. This is a solution! Want to cut off parts of someone's face to see if makeup is safe? USE A MAN WHO HAS MOLESTED HIS CHILDREN!!! Want to perfect surgical techniques, products or drugs of any kind? USE A RAPIST!!!!!! They drag each of us down into the muck with them every time they hurt someone else so why shouldn't the price for that behavior be "Community Service" of a new and different kind!!!!!!!!! Don't you think people would consider their actions if the consequences would turn them into a lab rat for the rest of their lives (cause I have a real love for rodents, as many know, and I cringe every time I think of someone hurting these quiet and intelligent creatures...... although I actually have to exclude my Luna from the list of intelligent rodents because the boy has an IQ of 2!!! *smile*).......... so let's do it to the people who behave like rats (figuratively speaking) instead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give them a lifetime of fear and pain in exchange for the lifetimes of fear, pain and shame they have caused. Because I don't care what Christianity says about forgiveness......... THERE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE FORGIVEN!!!!!!!! And the price for those actions should be as horrific as the acts themselves.

I come from, and live in, the state that produced Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgeway/The Green River Serial Killer.......... I was at Sammamish State Park the day Ted asked one of my girlfriends to help him get a canoe to his car (she said it was the only time she was EVER grateful that her mom was "a paranoid freak"..... or words to that effect), which she declined....................
I can honestly say, and I did say it at the time and have been since, that when Ridgeway went on trial I knew he would be up for and should get the death penalty. He didn't....... and I saw it coming too. There were too many unresolved homicides, too many families who didn't know what became of their girls. So they gave him life for locations.........
I knew at that moment the decision would come back to haunt us..... because if you don't put Gary Ridgeway to death, how can you do it to anyone else? Which is EXACTLY the argument now being used by the attorney of a man in this state being accused of mass murder........... And you know what, the argument is a valid one........
So where the hell does that leave us?
It leaves me with the desire to get on a plane, fly across the country, and start putting bullets in a man I've never met..........

And I don't like what any of this says about me or about our society in general.