Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.
Interpretation
Capital punishment should be critically examined as it is part of a larger government system.
George Will's quote emphasizes the importance of skepticism towards capital punishment, indicating that it is not just an isolated issue but part of a broader criminal justice program run by the government. This skepticism encourages ongoing discussion and evaluation of the ethical and practical implications of state-sanctioned death penalties within the justice system.
In practice
In a debate about the ethics of the death penalty, this quote can serve to highlight the need for critical examination of government policies.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
As long as a man thinks, this struggle must go on, and so long man must have some form of religion.
When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous
Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.
A man builds a house in England with the expectation of living in it and leaving it to his children; we shed our houses in America as easily as a snail does his shell.
Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years.
Our emotions Are only βincidentsβ In the effort to keep day and night together.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.