Today sees the bogeyman of my youth sentenced. This is the phantom that my parents used to keep me from hitch-hiking, regardless of the fact that I wasn't a prostitute. 48 consecutive life sentences seems like an appropriate punishment. Of course, my view on the whole death penalty thing is that, rather than punishing, let's just get rid of him, not have to deal with him anymore. Punishment is one thing, but I'm not a big eye-for-an-eye kind of guy. I would rather just not have to think about him anymore. Some people were angry, feeling betrayed, that they did not seek the death penalty. For me, though, death is not a punishment, it is brushing him aside and out of the world. A life sentence with no parole is a punishment. Actually, a suitable punishment might be the rest of his life in a hole, naked, with no light and no interaction at all with anyone or anything, just sitting in a hole slowly going mad until he find some way to kill himself. Now, that's a punishment.

I'm encouraged that some of the people who confronted him found it in their hearts to forgive him. He was an evil man, killing because “because he hated prostitutes and didn't want to pay them for sex.“ However, what is done is done, he is caught and no longer allowed to do what he does. Some people still found it in their compassion to forgive him. Good for them!

Now, back to being safe to hitch-hike!