I also dislike her because she talks bad about me (I hear through reliable sources) behind my back about four beers I took last summer. Now, they weren't even her beers. They were the beers of the third woman living with us that summer (we shared an apartment). Also, I did not take the beers; Stone did during a visit. We offered to pay the third woman back, but she was weird about taking money and insisted I had to give her liquor to re-pay her. At the time, I was working 14-hour days and was (and am) underage. So that didn't happen. To the credit of the woman who holds this whole thing against me, I never really did re-pay the other woman (who's completely over this now). While we're on the topic of holding grudges, I felt that story was worth mentioning. And ranting about. Rant rant rant.
But I got started talking about this because, reading Calliander's last post about McVeigh, I was thinking to start writing something prefaced with something like, "As someone who was closer to the bombing",...but then I realized that doesn't really give me any special insight into the matter at hand.
So, in response to Calliander's post, I have a variety of thoughts. I'm opposed to the death penalty, but I agree that the delay won't prevent his execution, and the circumstances of the delay are awkward at best. On one level, I can understand it, because it's the technical procedure, and not delaying might set a dangerous precedent. Imagine another federal case where, unlike this one, the person slated for execution had maintained his or her innocence the entire time, and then new evidence arose? No confession of McVeigh's has been taken under oath -- they've all been post-trial in that book, or pre-trial to Steven Jones -- so the technical legal circumstances aren't that different.
But on another level it seems a bit ridiculous. We know he did it. Even if the survivors of the bombing only want this for revenge, not justice, the US Government in its policies allows that, as long as the "official" rhetoric is one of justice, not revenge. I think also that many of the survivors just want the satisfaction of "closure" more so than any sort of satisfaction of revenge per se, because even though only one survivor (a devout Catholic) has actively spoken against the death penalty for McVeigh, a large number have expressed a wish just to see this settled, indifferent as to whether it's life imprisonment or the death penalty that makes it "settled". My sympathies are with the people who were hoping this to be over with as soon as possible.
In the long haul, though, I think the delay is the "right" thing, for the technical reasons mentioned above.
I hate the way this case is bringing up all sorts of "failure of the system" stories, though, specific to this case and the federal government, when the vast majority of "failures of the system" are happening at the state level with a clear-cut racial and class bias, with people who actually might be innocent.
I hate my cat. She just peed on a chair in my room. Baby-sitting her has been educational at one level, at least: perfumed body washes are actually excellent at removing urine odors, and they don't seem to stain (though I've only tested this on wood and indoor/outdoor carpet). Just so you know. Her old owner is finally coming back to re-claim her after within a few weeks. It will be a bittersweet, but mostly sweet, good-bye.