The Daily Dose/November 3, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
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In The News
Tennessee executed Edmond Zagorski Thursday night, electrocuting him for killing two people in 1983. He was the first person executed in the electric chair in the US since 2013 and the first in Tennessee since 2007.
Tennessee is one of the few states that gives their condemned the choice of how they will die and Zagorski’s other option was lethal injection. Don’t kid yourself, though, these choices are given not out of consideration for the condemned, but for our benefit, existing only to make us feel better about the process, giving us the illusion that we have something to feel good about.
There is nothing for us to feel good about, though. The death penalty degrades everyone, the prosecutors who seek it, the juries obliged to consider it and those condemned to experience it.
The real illusion is that either method is humane. Zagorski had a choice between two doses of electricity being applied or having chemicals sent into his body. In the first method, the first jolt is designed to kill the brain and render the condemned unconscious. The second jolt is intended to kill whatever other vital organs survived the first. No one knows if this is what really happens.
In lethal injections, the first dose renders the condemned unconscious and the others stop the lungs and heart from working. It is not particularly reasonable to think either of these methods are painless.
We can do better than this. If we are hell-bent on killing criminals there are more humane ways available: we can shoot them at the base of skull or sever their heads or put them down as we do dogs, which seemed pretty humane when put our dog down. All of these are probably more humane than the methods offered Zagorski.
But we should be better than this, too. As we say regularly on the campaign trail, America has executed innocent people. To believe otherwise is folly and for this reason alone America must stop executing people.
Editor’s Note: Gaylon is the Libertarian nominee for Congress from Colorado’s 3rd District. He was their nominee for this seat in 2016 and for the United States Senate in 2014.
Today At The Site
A busy day for Sparrow on The Diary of a Nobody. First, he sleeps in, then heads into town and votes at the courthouse then reports for a full shift at the retailer. He also takes a call from a voter wondering what his position on blacks is.
I don’t usually take unscreened calls, but it was from a town in the district and figuring it was a voter I answered…It was a voter, a woman who greeted with “Shalom” of all things and I thought crap, I’m about to be asked something I am unable to answer cogently, hardly unprecedented in this campaign…I said hi and she said uh, hi, and then asked what was my position on black people?
Today’s Thought for the Day is an encore from October of last year, a quote from the old Dragnet TV show about one of life’s great prizes.
The work that we find to be worth doing doesn’t have to make news or make us rich, it merely has to be something that is important to us.
Rewrites on my forthcoming classic novel Criminals, Courtesans and Constables continue. Read the latest, including a character list, here.
On This Date
In 1903 – The Republic of Panama is established. Formerly a province of Colombia, Panama had declared its independence from Spain in 1821 and immediately joined the Colombian confederation. The United States immediately recognized the new country and two weeks later the two countries signed a treaty granting the US the right to build what became the Panama Canal. Colombia did not officially recognize Panama until 1909.
In 1996 – Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers has three receptions for 45 yards and a touchdown, becoming the first player in NFL history to have 1,oo0 receptions. Rice would retire after the 2004 NFL season with 1,549 catches, still the all-time NFL record. The 49ers defeated the New Orleans Saints that day 24-17.
In 2018 – Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line are at #1 Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for the 48th consecutive week with Meant to Be, the longest any single has spent at #1 on any Billboard chart. The song also went to #1 in Israel.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Before going into aviation, Howard Hughes was a successful filmmaker.
Today’s Stumper
How many times did Jerry Rice lead the NFL in receptions for a single season?
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