Theocracy alive and well in Utah (and considerations of the death penalty)

Theomorphic I think the fact that we accept laws as a means of maintaining order says a lot about the level of civilization we live in.On the other hand I cannot honestly state that I would adhere to civility were it one of my children who had been killed.This is coming from a man whos daughter was sexually assaulted by her step-dad.There are days when my daughter is angry at me for not having taken matters into my own hands.
There are days when I am even angrier at myself.

Rei I do put emotion aside. If I did not the discussion of what to do with people who take a life would literally include me.The thing with being atheist is that I do not hold that the man will "get what is coming to him"and so I allow him to live through acceptance of my humanity.Revenge will not change what happened but I have days where I could find satisfaction in its implementation.As for the big picture,years ago,I read a book on war poetry by a soldier named Wilfred Owen.There are passages that I often remember because they dealt with the actual gritty aspects of conflict between individuals who are soldiers but ,more to the point, are human first.InsensibilityIHappy are men who yet before they are killed
Can let their veins run cold.
Whom no compassion fleers
Or makes their feet
Sore on the alleys cobbled with their brothers.
The front line withers,
But they are troops who fade, not flowers
For poets' tearful fooling:
Men, gaps for filling
Losses who might have fought
Longer; but no one bothers.IIAnd some cease feeling
Even themselves or for themselves.
Dullness best solves
The tease and doubt of shelling,
And Chance's strange arithmetic
Comes simpler than the reckoning of their shilling.
They keep no check on Armies' decimation.IIIHappy are these who lose imagination:
They have enough to carry with ammunition.
Their spirit drags no pack.
Their old wounds save with cold can not more ache.
Having seen all things red,
Their eyes are rid
Of the hurt of the colour of blood for ever.
And terror's first constriction over,
Their hearts remain small drawn.
Their senses in some scorching cautery of battle
Now long since ironed,
Can laugh among the dying, unconcerned.IVHappy the soldier home, with not a notion
How somewhere, every dawn, some men attack,
And many sighs are drained.
Happy the lad whose mind was never trained:
His days are worth forgetting more than not.
He sings along the march
Which we march taciturn, because of dusk,
The long, forlorn, relentless trend
From larger day to huger night.VWe wise, who with a thought besmirch
Blood over all our soul,
How should we see our task
But through his blunt and lashless eyes?
Alive, he is not vital overmuch;
Dying, not mortal overmuch;
Nor sad, nor proud,
Nor curious at all.
He cannot tell
Old men's placidity from his.VIBut cursed are dullards whom no cannon stuns,
That they should be as stones.
Wretched are they, and mean
With paucity that never was simplicity.
By choice they made themselves immune
To pity and whatever mourns in man
Before the last sea and the hapless stars;
Whatever mourns when many leave these shores;
Whatever shares
The eternal reciprocity of tears.I am lucky in that the the color of red can still hurt my eyes.

TheoMorphic"emotions should not be the arbitrator for right and wrong. subjective emotions will produce an increadibly inconsistent system of justice"
We who have a justice system in place are certainly bound to adhere to that law if we expect to reap of its benefits.When the injustice occurs to my offspring it is a whole other thing to find the strength to adhere to the principle.I wonder though ,in places where the rule of law is violence and degradation, how anybody maintains the grip on a concept of justice.

Doyle I do agree with you on this issue of dysfunction in family. What steps can a justice system take in order to address the obviously more efficient use of limited resources that would occur by taking aim at the factors that influence dysfunction in the first place?
I,as a human being,understand that inequities in social status and material goods influence the behavioural aspect of humans as it relates to their willingness to participate in maintaining order through laws.
Since it is the better of choices not to have government dictate the economy of a nation and the means of dispersal of wealth perhaps it should fall to the responsibility of the individual person to change our attitudes as a society in how we define successful living.I grew up through some of the greatest expansion of wealth creation that the planet has yet experienced.I am no more happy when making large sums of money than when I am not and ,yet,there is all the "background noise " that pervades our society in the form of marketing of products. If you don't have this how can you be happy recognised admired healthy etc.Damn, we have become what we hate haven't we?
I read recently that,in order for all the people of Earth to live at the standard of living currently available in the United States we would require 6 more planets.I find that a frightening statistic.Living a full life,for me, no longer means going full bore, chasing I know not what.It took me 45 years to see that the journey is the thing ,not the destination.If we cannot slow the pace of life to where we can actually live it will only continue to go faster and criminal behavior IMO will only increase through the need to survive.
I hope I can instill a sense of calm in my children before they are forced into situations where they cannot make an honest decision.