Dream of the Dragon

Month: April, 2010

April 24, 2010

‘Let’s do it.’

by Justin

I can’t imagine any death-row inmate choosing lethal injection. Sure, if the choice is between the notoriously unreliable and undeniably painful electric chair or some fatal cocktail I’d leap for the syringe. But what if one of the choices is to stand in the open air and brace against a bullet through the heart? Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I’d take the instant and dramatic gunshot over feeling my life ebb away in the cold, sterile air of an indoor execution chamber.  Not to mention recent accounts of botched injections that required additional doses or observable pain in those last breaths.

This article in the Times about the last bastion of firing squad executions made me imagine the scenarios for the first time since Colonel Aureliano. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 23, 2010

MAD world.

by Justin

Sometimes I long for the era when Mutually Assured Destruction was a more pronounced policy, and one that inspired the kind of fear anchored in helplessness if things ever went awry. Because, really, if push came to shove what could anyone have done?

These days the conflicts are dirtier, the lines blurrier, and the politics muddier. Plus, concerns about The Bomb are limited to those volatile wildcards of North Korea and Iran. And NK’s particular brand of crazy or Iran’s particular brand of middle finger to the West are more infuriating than frightening. At least in the way that I imagine the depths of the Cold War to have been.

But the ol’ false alarm scenario got a little nod in yesterday’s article in the New York Time about another ridiculous stride in devastation, Prompt Global Strike. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 20, 2010

Coin toss.

by Justin

If I oversimplified things and bought into my own bias, I’d say this is about waging the war between manic, fevered ignorance and measured deliberation.

NPR’s been running stories on the boom in American distrust lately, the rapidly rising lack of faith in our country’s leadership because of a ‘perfect storm’ of distrust factors. They also suggest that its part of the American identity to give a leery eye to the people in charge.

One obvious trend, evidenced in polls that concluded 42% of American’s trusted Reagan during his presidency as opposed to 29% trusting Carter, is that simple sells. Obviously. Read the rest of this entry »

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