dog or higher

Deranged

Who said this?

Simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death, does not establish the sort of "objectively intolerable risk of harm" that qualifies as cruel and unusual. ...

Th Supreme Court of the United States this morning in ruling it lawful for states to use lethal injections as a means of execution.

I'e been quite forthright on what I feel about capital punishment several times here, but to see the highest court in the US, "rationally" discuss the legality of not only the barbaric act of state sanctioned murder, but whether on top of everything else, inflicting pain while doing so is acceptable, is, to put it bluntly, sub human.

While this case has been pending before the SCOTUS, there has been an effective moratorium on the application of the death penalty in the US, surely a positive step. Will that come to an end now?

And with many US states now expanding the range of crimes for which the death penalty may apply to crimes other than murder, are things getting better of worse in the nation which holds itself up as the light on the hill for freedom, values, democracy and so on?

apophenia*?

Apart from the new arrival, one of the reasons for the slow posting (ie almost non existent) posting of late is that few weeks ago I moved house, and am still waiting for the broadband to be transferred.

In the meantime I've been using a HSDPA network by a major provider - which has been as slower than my memories of dialup.

Well, tat changed this morning (ironically, the day the broadband is due on) - while not ADSL2+ speed, it's tens of times faster.

The question is why?

Is it atmospheric conditions?
Has there been something wrong with the network access where I live for the last few weeks?

Or is it something else?
Last, night, sadly, a mail plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Sydney airport - only a short distance from where we live (the place is abuzz with helicopters, television OB vans, and so on). I wonder whether the network coverage in this area, which is at the edge of Sydney, has been bumped up by the provider?

Anyone have any thoughts?

Something is definitely going on, I'm just intrigued as to what.

* the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data