It's come and gone now, and the moment will be quickly forgotten by most, but since capital punishment was resumed in the United States, the 1,000th person (Kenneth Boyd, in North Carolina) has been put to death by the people. For the eye-for-an-eye folks, it would be proper if it were possible that Boyd be put to death twice, given that he put two people to death.
The 2,000th American military person to die in Iraq was Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander, Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, who died in Samarra, Iraq. (Those geographical names ooze with irony. Killeen, isn't that the town where a nut drove his dualie into a restaurant and massacred a couple of dozen people with his gun? And Samarra is the place where the man in the folk tale had an appointment with death. But I digress.)
"The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq ... is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives." (That was Lt. Col. Mark Boylan, spokesman for the Iraq military operation about 125 or so deaths ago.)
Well, "ulterior" means undisclosed or beyond what is explicit and I am here and now saying that my motive is to oppose the culture of death (war, guns, capital punishment, and, yes, abortion) and the lust for revenge that seems to reign among the powerful in this nation. Yes, my agenda is specific.
Considering how many of my opponents have spoken out of turn lately with incredibly fatuous utterances (v. Bill Bennett, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and of course Messrs. Bush and Cheney, our glorious leaders), I was waiting for someone to spew forth the "artificial mark" remark anent the 1,000th execution. I probably missed it.
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