On the Death Penalty, Suicide, the Wallstreet Bailout and the joys of plumbing without a House Joe

(Originally posted as my Open Thread on WWL)

Yesterday, what I really woke up thinking about, before I read Aristeides “Make Peace” essay and got sidelined into my careful optimist ramble, was the Death Penalty.

Why? Hell, I don’t know. I would venture it was because my 9 year old asked a few days prior “Suicide is against the Law?”

We had been watching a show, and some agent or another was tricking a guy into testifying, by claiming she would arrest him for attempted suicide if he didn’t ‘fess up.

I answered, laughing, “Yeah, Jake, but its kind of hard to arrest someone who actually does it.”

::I stand, Look at imaginary dead body on the floor::

“You have the right to remain silent.”

::Dramatic pause, glance at Jake::

“Check. Looks like that one’s covered.”

~~kid starts giggling at me, I look back at the floor~~

“You have the right to call an attorney.”



::Dramatic pause, roll eyes at kid::

“Not gonna happen. Even if I gave him the dime.”

~~kid laughing like crazy~~

We cracked up. He’s far too young for the question to have been frightening as it may be during the teen angst years, and I could tell he just thought it weird.  But the idea of legislating life and death reappeared in my brain, with a bunch of thoughts stuck to it.

Not the least of which, individual suicide is against the law, yet businesses who are legal ‘people’ get money for trying to commit suicide.

Your suicide? Arrest! Wallstreet suicide? Punishable by REWARD.

Anyway, I have long advocated against the death penalty. In fact, one night sitting around my kitchen table with my friend Doug, more than a few years back, quite wasted on the righteous bud he picked up in Costa Rica, and the icy beer we washed it down with, it came up.

It seems his sister is a high fallutin’ Lawyer who had to make the case in a Federal Court. So he called her in Washington and put me on speaker phone. Apparently I said something brilliant, because she was ecstatic. Wish I could remember what I said. The roomful of Lawyers she was brain storming with cheered. (No, nothing I say here will be it, it is lost in one of the survival of the fittest battles of my brain cells forever. It was mind-blowing bud, I tell you. It is gone.)

My obvious objection is State-endorsed barbarism.

I agree with the argument that if murder is in fact illegal, the State should not perform an illegal act. The State cannot be above the Law. (….Yeah, the Bush years messed that sap so far into the tree it’s now amber…..)

Then, there is the obvious fact that mistakes are made all the time. People are railroaded, or burned out cops or prosecutors are sloppy with evidence. You cannot appeal with new evidence from the grave.

I mean, there are rights of an individual, numero uno being LIFE. There are privileges, such as remaining in a free society, which can be lost. But by taking the LIFE of a person, have not we requited them that right and made it property of the State. In essence made Citizens’ lives themselves property of the State, property that can be eliminated?

I cannot abide it, any way I look at it.

I digress, but that all passed through my brain when his little innocent face said “Why is it illegal?”

I couldn’t answer, really. I told him, “I have no idea really. I mean, killing yourself is an awful idea, but if people think about it, they usually just want help.”

Then I paused, and said, “Well, really its probably the result of people’s religious views becoming laws they forced on everyone.”

Then the commercial was over, the moment lost.

So, I thought, who owns our lives anyway?

God? ~ Gee, I thought Religion was optional in this country.

The State? ~ REALLY? Have we gone there without noticing it? They can take away, but you cannot? Our lives, their property? We made them Gods then?

We, Ourselves? ~ In that case, if we choose to die, its our own business, eh? If we choose to live, they have no right to take our lives.

I thought Jack Kevorkian, helping those terminally ill who with full understanding chose not to suffer longer, was both righteous and right.

On the other hand, some messed up teenager having a bad trip on hormones and perhaps trying their first new drug? Needs help. Not arrest. Not a hands-off, let them die thing.

I have known many people who tried, some effectively, some not. Most who had a failed attempt are forever glad now that they failed. Of course, I tend to draw the type.

I see something I cannot help but call a streak of the gods in mentally ill types. I always see that grain of good in them, and try and hold up a mirror so that they will see it too. But often insanity also has a wildly cruel streak as well, and I often end up burned.

I have to think suicide is situational. I try and intervene from a friend/family point of view, even was an ally in involving the police once….

….but now, I wonder if that was the right thing to do.

Whose life is it anyway?

The flip side is the State trying to impose another Religious based law, forcing women to have babies, no matter what their situation.

It is human to think life is precious. Humans value themselves, even without the religious indoctrination.

But whose decision is it, if it is a life of suffering we create by forcing unwanted pregnancy on women?

It is barbarism to let the State again, impose life and death like we are their property.

I’d go on, but its time to get the kidlet up and get ready for work. (did I hear a sigh of relief when I said that?)

OH! The plumbing thing. Manufactured houses plumbing sucks. Tiny lines, coupled fittings to fit standard, yadda yadda. Honestly its no surprise to see the likes of a 24 hour plumber charlotte nc going up and down the neighborhood at all hours fixing the messes the buildings started with.

Our kitchen faucet has been a piece of crud for years. Leaking, nasty, low thing.

New faucets are expensive as hell, but I found a half-way decent one for 88 bucks at Home Depot last night, enroute to getting Jake new blinds. (4 bucks! woot) Its what I wanted for x-mas! So it shall be.

We have one hole taken up by the dishwasher aerator, so I had to get a three hole one. Apparently 3 holes are not very popular, and it was on sale half-price.

So now, after work, I have to figure out and install the blasted thing. My husband has no patience at all for that type of thing, and if he muscled it around, it would certainly bust the stupid plastic lines.  Besides, I fit into the tiny space better than him.

I’ll probably have to uninstall the garbage disposal (I put that in too) to get to it.

Yet another case of, I have no idea how to do it, but will learn it in the process.

Did I mention sometimes I hate being GOOD at this kind of stuff, because I always get stuck doing it?

LOL!

Where’s MY Joe, huh? Huh? HUH?

Hell, now I’m Diane the Plumber as much as Joe is one, where’s my 15 hecking minutes? Interview this, why don’t you!

Wish me luck.