Mr. Death and the Pope: Capital Punishment and Capitol Torture

...Or Which Is Cheaper - Lethal Injection or Waterboarding?

As everyone in America knows, death is not cheap: funerals rarely come with discounts and some of the remaining next of kin find themselves in debt. But how much does it cost to execute someone?

The Leuchter company's lethal-injection system, at $30,000, is the cheapest execution system the company sells. (Prices do not include installation.) The Leuchter electrocution system costs $35,000, and a Leuchter gallows would run about $85,000. More and more states are opting for Leuchter's $100,000 "execution trailer," which comes complete with a lethal-injection machine, a steel holding cell for the inmate, and separate areas for witnesses, chaplain, prison workers, and medical personnel. Leuchter's gas chambers cost nearly $200,000.

"When I was a kid," he says, "and used to go with my father to Massachusetts prisons, there was a story about another small kid, another prison worker's son, who once sat in the state's electric chair. Eleven years later he was killed in the same chair. He'd gotten mixed up in some murder. Anyway, a legend developed that if you sat in the chair, you'd die in it. Well, I sat in that chair too. And I didn't get electrocuted in it later. I sat in the chair and now I make electric chairs."

He smiles. "I created a new legend."

Susan Lehman, 1990, Atlantic Monthly

There is a documentary regarding Fred A. Leuchter titled Mr. Death, The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter (1999). It focused primarily on his involvement for the defense of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. (Trivia: Leuchter and his new bride at the time of his testimony for Zundel honeymooned at Auschwitz).

Very strange: I've googled Fred A. Leuchter and, while still possibly alive, there is no mention of his life after 1999.

And remember: those are 1990 prices.

Just in time for Pope Benedict's appearance in the U.S., the Supreme Court upheld the use of lethal injection in execution. So what did Benedict say on that topic? Well... nada. Of course, he upholds John-Paul's views on capital punishment, but he didn't say anything specifically damning on the subject. One interesting statement made about John-Paul and the death penalty:

In order to avoid being considered a hypocrite for asking people to go against Scriptural requirements concerning the death penalty, Pope John Paul II should "attempt"* to make an infallible declaration against the death penalty. The teachings of God are infallible. They can be further expounded but never diminished or reversed. God is consistent not capricious.

And what about Benedict's views on torture? Here's an interesting twist: he's beatifying (the next step to sainthood) a Filipino priest who was known to take an active part in the torture of another Filipino priest:

According to written testimony from the victim, [Father] Olaso participated in the 1896 torture of a Filipino priest named Fr. Mariano Dacanay, who was suspected of sympathy for anti-Spanish revolutionaries. Dacanay's own account asserts that Olaso and a handful of other Augustinians encouraged guards who were administering the torture, and that at one point Olaso himself kicked Dacanay in the head, hard enough to leave the suffering priest semi-conscious.

So, on count one, nothing. And on the count two, a bit of relativism.

Oh, and what about the cost of torture?

Justin Lindborg in a symposium on torture

Why do we walk in the gray areas? Do we, as a nation, desire utter peace of mind so much that we are willing to sully ourselves by flirting with such techniques? How can we with one arm punish violations of the Geneva Convention and with the other arm commit the very atrocities we condemn.

But to the general American public, we don't really condemn torture: it's condoned in our very media of "entertainment". Movies and TV routinely feature forms of torture with some benefits for the torturers (us).

This was posted on John Cole's Blog Balloon Juice:

[In an article discussing the TV show The 24 and it's protaganist, Jack Bauer who routinely uses torture] The new article provides a nice holistic picture of torture in America. The guys at the top – Dick Cheney, David Addington and his clan of neoconservative insiders – clearly wanted torture so badly that you wonder if they wrote those memos with their pants on. Jack Bauer was hardly needed with those guys. However, the peope at the other end of US power don’t have such black souls. The privates and NCOs with more ordinary American values, guys who would soon be called on by their superior officers to do morally repulsive things, would need some extra motivation. To get over their resistance to abusing helpless prisoners Jack Bauer, maybe the first mass media “good guy” who tortured on a regular basis, clearly made a major difference.

The cost? I can hear: "hey Vojir, give us dollars and cents!"

After reading about execution and torturing, I find that I can't. Sorry.

Borgias and Nazis and Queers PART II

The Hypocrisy of a Pope Behind Kind Words

In the post below, I said that Pope Benedict XVI would never be seen shedding tears at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall. However, today he was seen visiting a synagogue in New York and well as addressing a group of Christian evangelical leaders:

The Jewish community makes "a valuable contribution to the life of the city," Benedict said. "And I encourage all of you to continue building bridges of friendship with all the many different ethnic and religious groups present in your neighborhood." ("a valuable contribution" - just not the right contribution)

At his visit with Christian leaders, the pontiff said allowing individual congregations to interpret the Gospel undermines evangelism at a time when "the world is losing its bearings" and needs "persuasive common witness" to salvation in Christ. (i.e. you cannot interpret the Bible - only church theologians and hierarchy. THEY will interpret it for you - THEY will tell you what to think!)

"Only by holding fast to sound teaching will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world," Benedict said at the evening service with Protestant and Orthodox clergy at St. Joseph's church, which was founded by German immigrants and still regularly celebrates Mass in German. (And who determines sound teaching?)

"Only in this way will we give unambiguous testimony to the truth of the Gospel and its moral teaching. This is the method which the world is waiting to hear from us." (What? "the method" - should clergy study Stanislavski?) ("unambiguous testimony" - sounds dangerously like a fundamentalist - for a noted theologian, he's not very bright on this score.)

I wonder if Pastor John Hagee will call him a whore if he meets him.

And I still don't see him shedding any tears for anyone.

In the Roman Jewish Ghetto

EXTRA!! Movie About Christian Anti-Semitism Premiers Today!

Good Timing!

The book, Constantine's Sword, deals with Christian anti-Semitism from the time of Emperor Constantine's "conversion" (313 CE) to today's Benedict XVI and all of the Christian Right. Written by former Catholic priest, James Carroll it was the winner of the 2001 National Book Award. It's very large (750+pages) but very engaging. Carroll takes you through the astonishing struggle Judaism has had under Christianity in a largely personal way. He was interviewed yesterday on ABC News and, while struggling to seem unbiased, has to admit to the Catholic Church's complicity in the events leading to the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust: i.e., while many people have called Pius XII "Hitler's Pope" Carroll correctly defines the pope as "Hitler's Cardinal" (before he became pope, Pacelli as the Vatican's Secretary of State, was directly responsible for the treaty between the Vatican and Germany - the ReichsConcordat of 1933).

Today, a documentary based on the book premiers:

In reviewing the Ben Stein movie Exposed (see post below), TV Guide reviewer Ken Fox has this to say:

Check out the documentary CONSTANTINE'S SWORD, released in theaters on the very same day as this slickly produced bit of nonsense, if you need a reminder of the atrocities fueled by terrible distortions of religious beliefs. --Ken Fox

John Anderson (Newsday) In "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore went looking for the heart of darkness in American culture. In the considerably more serious, sober and oh-so-solemn "Constantine's Sword," writer and ex-priest James Carroll goes looking for the genome of violence in Christianity and has little trouble finding a churchly culture based in conquest and awash in blood.

Ron Wilkerson (Monsters & Critics):

Although the film starts out as an apparent frontal attack on the Catholic Church, it subtly widens its perspective to look at a much larger and more important picture. The real issue becomes the genesis of hate replacing love as the central doctrine of organized religion. The present day microcosm is the Air Force Academy’s apparent obsession with evangelical Christianity, which has reached the point of obsession based on the documented reports of anti-Semitic slurs and harassment by the cadets. Remember, these cadets are the guys who will control your nuclear weapons in a few years.

Andrew Sullivan (New York Times Book Review):

And it is a book of a deeper sort -- a rigorous theological and moral dialectic that Carroll, the author of ''An American Requiem,'' never removes from the personal necessity of choice, for good over evil, for memory over denial and for love over power.

I intend to see this movie. Hope it's as good as the book.

Borgias and Nazis and Queers, Oh my!

Lucretia Borgia

Or, Why Benedict's Baggage Couldn't Fit on the Plane

As a "recovering Catholic" many things about Catholicism are difficult for me to write about: blogging about my childhood religion brings on a guilty pleasure, the same way I felt while seeing Monty Python's Life of Brian. But the one thing I can't laugh off is the feeling I get when Pope Benedict XVI appears: to me, his benign smile is more like the grin of the Grim Reaper. His image chills me.

With him, we can see all the staid ritual and pomp the Papacy stands for. Behind him, however, is a long line of abuses of power stretching some 1600 years. The later popes, for example, would rather forget one Pope Alexander VI who kept mistresses, held orgies in the Vatican and was the father of Lucretia and Cesare Borgia. In the role of doting father, he married his daughter off to three dukes (in succession - they were politically expedient) and made Cesare a cardinal before he was twenty-five.

Closer in time was Pius IX who wrested a Jewish boy from his parents (he had been secretly baptized by a servant when he was will), declared the papacy infallible, and while becoming increasingly anti-Semitic re-established Rome's Jewish Ghetto. (Hmmm... a bit more like Benedict - one pope you won't see shedding tears at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall)

And besides the papacy, Benedict comes with additional, if not curious, baggage. Joseph Ratzinger has been many things during his 81 years: devout Catholic, Hitler Youth, seminarian, German soldier in the Infantry for two years during WWII, cardinal, and, most importantly, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as The Inquisition. I

n a strange sense, I guess you could have called him the "censor" of the Catholic Church: his narrow theology banned professors from teaching anything but traditional theology. He could also ban books. His pronouncements crushed careers. He forbid liberal theologian Hans Kung to teach and very nearly excommunicated him.

Benedict also seems to dislike everything established after Vatican II (in which Hans Kung was considered a young, but prime influence on John XXIII). His rhetoric is classic but beneath it is a longing for the Church to repeat its days of glory - at any cost.

From Wikipedia:

The Congregation also has jurisdiction over other matters, including cases involving the seal of the confessional, clerical sexual misconduct and other matters, in its function as what amounts to a court. ... [and in a letter to the clergy, Benedict] clarified the confidentiality of internal Church investigations into accusations made against priests of certain crimes, including sexual abuse, [and he became] a target of controversy during the sex abuse scandal. While bishops hold the secrecy pertained only internally, and did not preclude investigation by civil law enforcement, the letter was often seen as promoting a coverup.

In office, Ratzinger fulfilled his institutional role, defending and reaffirming Catholic doctrine, including teaching on topics such as birth control, homosexuality, and inter-religious dialogue. During his period in office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith took disciplinary measures.

His statements as pope have even been incendiary:

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

In regards to the sex abuse scandals:

“It is a great suffering for the church in the United States, for the church in general, and for me personally that this could happen,’’ he said on the plane, dubbed Shepherd One. “If I read the histories of these victims, it’s difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing and to give the love of God to these children.

We are deeply ashamed, and we will do all that is possible that this cannot happen in the future.’’

And some anti-immigrant people are gonna be mad:

(Houston Chronicle)

"I want to encourage you and your communities to continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new home." (In other words, "if they can pay, they can stay")

Associated Press:

The American church has paid more than $2 billion in costs related to the scandal since 1950 — the majority of that in just the last six years.

"I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said on the flight from Rome to Washington, speaking in English as he responded to questions submitted by reporters ahead of time.

Another cause for alarm, especially to ministers like John Hagee, is his call for every Catholic to be a missionary for their faith. In his address to Catholic University, he said that the 200 Catholic universities have become too lax (and too secular).

We will hear similar pronouncements within the week. But will American Catholics go so far backwards as to sell all that they have, give to the Vatican and wear sack cloth and ashes?

Like his cohort, Urban II*, Benedict will probably cause a war.

Try as hard as I can to trust this man - I can't

Cesare - rather cute, for a Borgia Papa - Lucretia was a useful tool

*Urban II called for The Crusades - probably the root of all Middle Eastern animosity towards the West.

The T Squad: Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Torquemada

“Why are we talking about this in theWhite House?
History will not judge this kindly.”*

*John Ashcroft over some beers and a pizza with the White House's official TS (Torture Squad)

One week ago, the folks at ABC News let loose with a potential bombshell of a story:

(ABC News) In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

On the right: an appropriate George W. Bush portrait - composite of pictures of the soldiers killed in Iraq

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Rough Interrogation and Alternative Set of Procedures are terms that the Bush Administration uses to describe methodsof aggressively extracting information from which is purportedly necessary in the War on Terror despite the alternate name, the United Nations, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights First (HRF) and Physicians for Human Rights (PFH) Elizabeth de la Vega, and many other experts consider this to be torture, and also consider the techniques ineffective. For its use on Canadian citizen Omar Khadr Canada listed the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture.

But that's kind of a tradition in Washington isn't ? Keeping things secret so that the American people won't find out about them? What I hate most about American politics: it's making a conspiracy theorist out of me! And what's even worse: I don't care! I'll grab onto any 'ole conspiracy you give me and I'll believe it just to spite any Washington politician. (Well maybe not just any politician, but some Democrats and a great deal of Republicans.) So Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Cheney and Powell decided how to torture, how many times to use the same torture and who to torture. And they knew that if their secret meetings and the subject matter ever got out, careers - not heads - would roll.

Torquemada to the rescue!

But they did have those meetings and they did approve torture methods. And where was Torquemada during all of this? Certainly not in their brains. How prescient was Ashcroft when he made the remark about history? Did they think that no one would find out before they could cash in on those post-administration lecture tours?

While reading about our beloved administration, I happened across information about MKULTRA. Never heard of it? Now THERE'S a conspiracy! It was the CIA's attempted research into - mind control. The only problem with their research lay in the fact that most of the time, THEY DIDNT TELL ANYONE - NOT EVEN THE SUBJECTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS:

Frank Olson, a United States Army biochemist and biological weapons researcher, was given LSD without his knowledge or consent in 1953 as part of a CIA experiment, and mysteriously committed suicide a week later following a severe psychotic episode. A CIA doctor assigned to monitor Olson's recovery claimed to be asleep in another bed in a New York City hotel room when Olson jumped through the window to fall ten stories to his death.

Olson's son disputes this version of events, and maintains that his father was murdered due to his knowledge of the often-lethal interrogation techniques employed by the CIA in Europe, used on Cold War prisoners. Frank Olson's body was exhumed in 1994, and cranial injuries indicated Olson had been knocked unconscious before exiting the window.

Just how extensive was the CIA's research? It encompassed:

44 American colleges or universities, 15 research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like, 12 hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with universities), and 3 prisons are known to have participated in MKULTRA.

And I'll leave you with this conspiracy: John Wilkes Booth was not acting alone when he shot Abraham Lincoln. On that same day, Secretary of State Seward, along with his family were attacked in their home./ Several people were hanged for conspiracy. One such person was Lewis Thornton Powell:

April 18th: Intelligent Design Hits Theaters!

...And Theatergoers Above The Bible Belt!

Yes, this blog will be commenting on a film I have not yet seen. I will not be so hypocritical as to agree with the following critics and say they are spot on. Instead, I'll say that until the time that I saw an ad for this movie, I respected Ben Stein. Yes, even though he started his career by writing speeches for Nixon. Even though he debased himself with the whole "Win Ben Stein's Money" bit ($5000 top prize? Proof that higher education and swift mental abilities get you squat in this world). By becoming sooo Right Wing Judeo-Christian-Anything-But-Evilution, he's become a reactionary who couldn't possibly be taken seriously. That, to me, is incredibly disappointing. Maybe he needs the money.

Some reviews of Ben Stein's Expelled - Intelligence Not Allowed

(Josh Timonem - Richard Dawkins.net): [note: this one is to be expected, but I threw it in because it was so exceptionally vitriolic.]

Expelled is said to be opening in 1,000 theaters nationwide on April 18th. Please don't give them any of your money to see it. If it tanks in the theaters, and you have the stomach for such garbage, I'm sure you'll be able to see it soon by other means that don't involve supporting Creationists.

It really was an unprofessional showing, and a terribly unprofessional film, aside from the content. "The Wall" The film opens with scenes of the Berlin wall being built, brick by brick. The footage and title cards are affected to look old, like a 50's educational film. The effect doesn't look professional, and by this point I was already starting to question the technical quality of the film. They're really trying to push this in national theatres? Don't they have someone sympathetic to this nonsense that knows how to make a film?

We see Ben Stein preparing to speak in a college auditorium. It really felt like they were trying to emulate Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. USA #1! Ben Stein is the narrator, and is as terrible as you can imagine. He gives a monologue about how freedom is what makes America great, over images of flags around the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, Stein walking by the mirror pond, and so on.

(Dan Whipple - Colorado Confidential): "...the film is so intellectually garbled it's hard to summarize. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is Summa Theologica compared to "Expelled."

Roger Moore (Orlando Sentinel): I lost track of the number of times Stalin's image hit the screen, and in the ways the movie equated science with Darwinism with atheism with Hitler or Stalin. Subtle, it's not.

Stein (he co-wrote it) builds his movie on classic Big Tobacco Tactics. Create just a sliver of doubt about evolution by pitching this argument in terms of academic freedom. "Legitimate" learned scientists are being silenced by the Darwinian cabal of thought police. Says Stein. (Emphasis my own)

(Jeffrey Kluger, TIME) It's in the film's final third that it runs entirely off the rails as Stein argues that there is a clear line from Darwinism to euthanasia, abortion, eugenics and--wait for it--Nazism. Theories of natural selection, it's claimed, were a necessary if not sufficient condition for Hitler's killing machine to get started. The truth, of course, is that the only necessary and sufficient condition for human beings to murder one another is the simple fact of being human. We've always been a lustily fratricidal species, one that needed no Charles Darwin to goad us into millenniums of self-slaughter. (Emphasis my own)

(Robert McHenry - Britannica Blog) You laughed at his affectless droning high school economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ; you may have enjoyed his repartee with Jimmy Kimmel or his command of trivial knowledge on “Win Ben Stein’s Money”; you may even have run out and bought some eyedrops on his recommendation. But don’t ask him about evolution, Charles Darwin, science, or any related topic, for on those Ben Stein is an ignoramus. Since he is demonstrably intelligent, it must be concluded that he is a willful ignoramus. (Emphasis my own)

Evolution of a Republican

Evolution of a Republican
Originally uploaded by DiscoWeasel

OK This is a little meanspirited, but it points to how the Republian Party is perceived to be controlled by Right Wing Religionists. Note that decline starts with militarism (NRA take note!)