Alex as a benevolent dictator.......

Would you still need to bleach your hair?

Yes, if I wanted to be master of the universe (which is not the same thing as god). I'd also need a sword and something approximating a muscle, but really it all starts with the hair.

I know! That's what I'm always telling people! Well, I'll bleach it for ya, n/c.

The message I get from the quote is, you can't undo death, nor can you know for certain whether taking a life is the right decission, so using death as punishment should not be taken lightly.

Athiests are one thing. Fine if they think there is no god to create life and take life away. But if they think they have the right to kill a man, then they are animals and not men.

Ha, an atheist might claim that a man is a member of the species homo sapien. And I would retort that it is not the fact of being a different species that removes one from the animal kingdom, already consisting of thousands or millions of different species. It is the moral rising above the animal which separates one from the animal. Those who believe they have a right to kill their own kind, as all animals do, are animals and not men.

Then there has yet to be a non-animal society on this earth.

I don't think I have the the right to take a life, I think that society has the right to decide to take a life. There are many situations in which society has decided it is ok to take a life and those circumstances have varied widely across times and cultures and the death penalty is hardly the most permissive that has ever existed, and it is a valid topic of debate.

So, if simply saying that "killing can be done" makes us no better than animals, then I think we're still looking forward to the day when humanity blossoms forth on this little rock.

As an aside, no I don't think we're substantively different from other animals. No I don't think there is a soul, life force, or energy that binds us all together. No I don't think life (not even a human life) has inherent value. No I don't think the human condition is perfectable through human endeavors (that is, I'm not a secular humanist). No, I don't think there is a morality towards which mankind should strive. Yes, I still try to be what I think is a good person.

If that means I'm just mucking about with the hogs, then so be it.

Lisa, I'm not afraid of your penis.

Or the "witches" in Salem

That is my next sig line.

Lol!