Is it too much to hope that the current Supreme Court would outlaw lethal injection?
As the NYT observes, it’s unfortunately unlikely that they’ll outlaw the death penalty altogether, though it would be a very good thing if they did.
(You will note from this map that most of the world–and, except for the U.S., certainly what’s commonly called the “First World”–has gotten rid of routine death penalty sentences.)
Still, I can hope that a nice wrench would be thrown into America’s capital punishment business as usual.
The Supreme Court agreed today to hear constitutional challenges brought by two death-row inmates in Kentucky, who assert that the state’s lethal-injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
The step could have the effect of postponing executions across the country scheduled to be performed by lethal injection, the method is used by nearly all states with a death penalty, as well as by the federal government.
The court took the cases of the inmates, Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. , whose lawyers have presented evidence that the three chemicals used for lethal injections in Kentucky could produce excruciating pain.
There’s a lot that I could say about this text, but I’m not going to. I’d rather leave it open.
G’mar chatimah tovah.
Rav said: You know the secrets of the universe. Shmuel said: Out of the depths of [my] heart…. Rabbi Yochanan said: Master of the Universe! Rabbi Yehuda said: For our transgressions are too numerous to count and our sins greater than can be listed. Rav Himnuna said: My God, before I was created I was not worthy, and now that I have been created, it as if I had not been created. I am but dust in my life and [will be] even less in my death. Behold, I am but a vessel filled with shame. May it be your will that I sin no more, and may You erase those sins I have committed in Your great mercy, but not through suffering. Mar Zutra said: All of this applies only if one has not said, “But we have sinned.” If one says, “But we have sinned,” nothing more is required.
My erev Rosh Hashana was lovely; I led part of services, gave a sermon, and went to a lovely dinner at friends’. Rosh Hashana morning, however, I woke up feeling… off. After five hours of davvening and leading Torah discussions and running around and generally doing my part to make things go, it was clear that I was sick as a dog. So I went home, slept, woke up the next morning, found that I was indeed still sick, and went to go lead services and give another sermon and take on a couple of ritual jobs I hadn’t planned to have because there are certain days you don’t call in sick. I think people down the street could hear the the sound of the thud as I hit the couch around 2pm. Fortunately, nobody needed me to be anywhere until Shabbat afternoon, when I had to go teach my usual class, so I could rest a bit.
(I did my best to keep a reasonable distance from people; anyway, I don’t think that whatever form of igck this was, that it was a contagious bug. But, obviously, I wasn’t going to be risking folks unnecessarily.)
I’m still sick, actually. Unfortunately, this isn’t a week in which there’s any time that I can take off, so I’m just going to hope that the thing works itself out of its own accord and try to give myself as much rest as possible in-between, well, everything. I have an appointment in a day or two to see a dear friend who is a genius acupunturist, so I’m hoping she can work her usual hocus-pocus on me and do the thing where I come in sick and leave healthy.
I don’t mind being sick–I mean, it’s a drag, but it happens. Next year, though, I’d prefer if it happened during Cheshvan instead. (Not this one, though, mmmkay??)
Time to think a little more about what I’m going to say on Yom Kippur. G’mar tov, one and all….
I’m still here, just buried under a gigantic pile of High Holy Day prep stuff. If I’m not going over liturgy or working on divrei Torah (sermons), these days, I’m usually in class or meeting with my rabbinic partner in the High Hoy Day services we’re doing together. Just not a lot of time for blogging. I’ll be back, though, and maybe I’ll succeed in getting some Torah up here in the meantime……
Well, the first day of school was yesterday. Granted, we didn’t have regular classes–there was a Yom Iyyun (study day on a particular topic), but I also had a class last night, so I feel officially indoctrinated into my last year of rab school. I’ll feel even more so today, when I have my first rab school class (last night was a class from the business school, since it might be nice for us to know something about running a nonprofit).
It was very strange to be at the official “welcoming breakfast” and to not know so many of the folks there–there are two classes of students I’d never met, and a lot of the people with whom I associate my rabbinical school experience have been ordained and gone off to the big world in the last couple of years. I suppose that this is what happens when you move to Jerusalem for three years–life, oddly enough, has been moving on over here as well as over there. (You mean the TV show doesn’t just stop everywhere when I turn off my television??) It’s all good, though; the new folk seem to be fine folk.
I’m glad to have the chance to do some good learning, though it seems pretty clear that this year is going to zoom by in a blur.
Being away was lovely. We got up to the Central Coast for a few days of just good, old-fashioned relaxing. Some highlights:
The fabulous health food store/cafe that turned out to have the only all-vegetarian menu in the area–after the yummy lunch Thursday, we had to go back for brunch Sunday.
Big water!!
Morro Rock, which reminded me somehow of Gibraltar.
Wandering along a beach entirely covered with gorgeous pebbles and shells
The sheep that lived at our guesthouse, who we named Bruce. He had a lot to say.
The way the decks at our guesthouse were built to accomodate the trees.
Figuring out that we were trying to get to Old Morro Road East, which is off Morro Road, after Old Morro Road West and the other Old Morro Road West, and also after Old Morro Road and the other Old Morro Road. It is also after Frog’s Hollow.
Learning how to play sheshbesh and becoming totally addicted (and winning my third-ever game, hah.)
Hearst Castle–well, the castle itself was kind of weird, filled with the pretensions of a man with a large ego who thought that he could recreate a “Mediterranean village” on his California hilltop. It didn’t work–the 16th Century Italian and 13th Century Spanish and 15th Century Northern French art and architecture were all squashed together without rhyme or reason, and the result was pretty vulgar. Regarding the thing as a relic of Old Hollywood and the Golden Age was interesting, though, and they had the coolest mikveh indoor pool I’ve ever seen.
Grilling corn out on the deck just before Shabbos came in.
Did I mention all the big water at the edge of the world?
