[thelist] Re: [thechat] Mumbai bomb blasts

[Tara Cleveland]

William Anderson wrote:
> However, the definition of a murderer is one who kills unlawfully.  If the
> law mandates that an appointed person is to execute the murderer once
> apprehended, convicted and sentenced, the executioner is carrying out a
> lawful act, and is therefore not - by definition - a murderer themselves.

I think the point is summed up rather well by the chorus of an old Holly
Near song (yes, I did grow up in a very hippie household):

"Why do we kill people who are / killing people / to show / that killing
people is wrong?"

Sorry if I've munged it up a bit. It was taken from the childhood memory
drawer in my brain. It could apply to "just wars" (esp. ones that don't turn
out to be so just) as well as the death penalty.

Tara