Did he dies slowly and painfully? Please tell me he dies a slow, painful, humiliating death. Please -- that way I'll know there is justice left in this world.

Retribution is a nice, comforting Old Testament idea, and therefore acceptable to all major faiths.

The Christian ethos of forgiveness and acceptance of injury has been warped by the victimization fetishists into a suicidal idea of non-violence that has never been espoused by anyone, including Ghandi or MLK.

Retrbution is just, vengence is bad. Maliciously seeking the death of one's enemy can corrupt the soul, but appropriate punishment of malefactors is the job of all just societies.

Being glad he's dead, ace, is a little more disturbing than being relieved and satisfied that he's dead. But I'm assuming you're of northern European extraction, ace, so you can blame it on your Celtic genes.

I don't know about Ace, but this Celt is always over-joyed when some of the darkest human evil is eradicated from this earth. No apologies.

Retrbution is just, vengence is bad.

Well, they're near-synonyms. I suppose you are defining retribution as being righteous vengeance, but the trouble is, of course, that everyone thinks his own vengeance righteous.

History provides few examples of men who sought vengeance which they themselves deemed of the non-righteous variety.

Part of enjoying revenge is considering the other guy to be inhuman.

I am no more excited about this guy getting whacked than I would be about a faulty tie rod that resulted in a fatal accident being sent to the junkyard.

These Al Qaeda folk might share similar DNA, but that's as much as I will grant them.

I mean, no one ever shouted, "And now I shall avenge my father, who was a real asshole and pretty much deserved what he got, and come to think of it I should be thanking you for doing him in, but I'm going to have my counterproductive, immoral vengeance on you anyway, you who did me the biggest favor of my life."

Actually, Ace, I think you've just summed up a lot of Greek works.

I guess that's true.

I don't think he is dead. I think it's a ruse. The timing is too odd.

Sorry I wasn't clearer ace. One of the qualities of retribution that I'm thinking of is a certain emotional detachment at the act. Sort of like the death penalty. One hopes that the guy puling the lever isn't cackling with glee, know what I'm sayin'?

Retribution is the highest value in the what to do with evil/wrong behavior catagory. Correction, deterrence, other values which are also important, don't "max out." Holding someone until they're corrected could be longer than seems just for the particular crime. Doing heinous things to an offender may be a great deterrent but far beyond what the crime calls for (chopping off the hand of a shoplifter.) What is the limiting principle, the humane principle operating here...it is retribution. The punishments exceed the just desserts. Food for thought.

The only thing that's keeping me from ululululululu-ing is the fact that the story is both an act of, and reported by the same less-than-reputable and -honorable organization (the house of Saud). These are the people who may have let the previous atrocity perps "escape" an "inescapable" cordon.

Is there any corroboration of this retribution so that I can really get on my ululululululu-ing? 'Cuz I wanna ululululululululu 'til the cows come home ... if'n it's true 'n' all.

Hobgoblin writes: The Christian ethos of forgiveness and acceptance of injury has been warped by the victimization fetishists into a suicidal idea of non-violence that has never been espoused by anyone, including Ghandi or MLK

I beg to differ. From http://www.israelblog.org/1065948183/ , here is a quote from Gandhi:

"If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon. I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this, I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. if one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now."

Incidentally, Aron of Israelblog is a pro-Gandhi peacenik. The essay he writes (link above) is worth reading as an illustration of Matthew Henry's maxim, "None so blind, as those that will not see". It's all very sad.

Sincerely yours,
Jeffrey Boulier