Let Slip the Dogs of

Let Slip the Dogs of Inaction - Victor Davis Hanson on the wisdom - and price - of playing it very safe - as well as on how the proponents of inaction keep recycling the same arguments.

Death with No Parole - I'm that rarest of critters - a conservative who opposes the death penalty. I oppose it rather mildly and without a lot of conviction - I wouldn't mind seeing child-murderers or Osama Bin Laden strapped to a gurney, honestly. But the chances of a wrongful execution are too great. On the average, someone is released from death row, somewhere, once a year, for a wrongful conviction. And there have been executions of the wrong person.

The death penalty is also given disproportionately - a black man killing a black man is unlikely to get it, while one killing a white women stands a pretty fair chance.

John Sullivan points out some of the arguments in the evolving debate. I don't entirely agree with him - and he doesn't touch on all the objections. But it's an interesting read.