A pfennig for your thoughts?

Today’s topic: arguments you can accept vs. arguments you can’t. This subject came up the other day at the bar (the kind Norm goes to, not the attorney licensing bureau.) What are your thoughts on the death penalty? Okay here’s the thing, I’m not here to argue for or against, that is not the point of this discussion. It’s the reasoning one uses to formulate their position.

Many people are opposed to the death penalty on moral grounds. They believe it is immoral to kill another human being. I don’t necessarily agree, but I can however accept the argument. Some people are opposed to the death penalty because it supposedly places a greater cost burden than simply incarcerating murder convicts for life. I don’t think that is necessarily true, although it might possibly be in states where death row inmates remain there essentially for life, in a whole lot more comfort and protection than if they were placed in general population. Again, I may not necessarily agree, but I can accept the argument.

Now - here is an argument that, not only do I not agree with it, I can’t accept… at all. There are those that will argue that the death penalty should not be administered on the basis that the convicted individual might actually be innocent. Wait… what? So, then why the hell did you convict him or her in the first place? You obviously have reasonable doubt. It’s okay to relegate someone to a life of hell on earth (prison isn’t a fun place, nor should it be) that for many, practically amounts to a death penalty except in a more painful and drawn out fashion, yet it’s not okay to actually give them a death penalty? Oh I get it - innocent people do get convicted. But that’s an entirely separate problem.

Oh, a note on the Pfennig. One hundredth of a Deutschmark. The predecessor of the Euro in Germany. Back in the 1980’s, when young Army soldiers plied the Strausse for the rows of GI bars serving cold beer of which were also gathering points for young local ladies in search of a ticket to the US, it was common practice to carry a Pfennig on one’s person. Failure to produce a Pfennig at the bar, when a Pfennig check was called, could result in the offender having to buy the next round of drinks for the table. Now Bruce Highland, being an MI Corps warrant officer, didn’t run in the same circles as the junior enlisted. Unless of course an espionage investigation dictated otherwise.

Let’s hear your thoughts. Don’t be shy on the comment section.