End of days

As 2006 dwindles away, Saddam Hussein's days may be numbered as well. The grim calculus of when to execute the former dictator is somewhat unsettled, due to the onset, of all things, of a religious holiday:

Saddam Hussein may be hanged within hours, senior Iraqi officials said on Friday, but the start of a week-long Muslim holiday might yet delay the execution.

Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and key officials met through the evening to try to settle the details, official sources said. Maliki has said he wants the ousted president put to death before the end of the year but, with Iraq on the brink of civil war, some Sunni and Kurdish leaders would prefer delay.

A senior Iraqi source told Reuters key legal issues were resolved and he could go to the gallows shortly. Among those meeting Maliki were the justice minister, who is responsible for executions, and the national security adviser, who may have to deal with any violent reaction from Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs.

Hussein is a monster who should never breathe free again. He committed and ordered unspeakable acts against innocents too numerous to contemplate. That being said, he should not be executed.

The execution of a criminal is never an ennobling act for the society carrying out the sentence. Execution is born of a thirst for revenge that, although frequently understandable, is an inexcusable basis for public policy. Whatever satisfaction a given execution may provide for the family of individual victims pales next to the corrosive effects the institution of capital punishment has on the rest of society. Where the slaking of blood-lust is enshrined in law, a people cannot hope for a government of compassion.

In Hussein's case, execution carries with it the added disadvantage of permitting that butcher to go to a martyr's death, at least in his own mind. It is a grand and, frankly, easy way out for him. Much better that he be locked away to wait out the end of his days -- impotent, irrelevant and forgotten.

Overheard In the Midwestern Household

MG: Look, the dog has a gray hair on his snout. He's too young for that.

Mrs. MG: Huh, he sure does. You are too young for that, buddy.

MG: I can't wait to get more gray hairs. I think it looks good on guys.

Mrs. MG: Some guys wear it well. You probably could. We can dye your hair gray if it means that much to you.

MG: Nah, that would be a little too Anderson Cooper.

Mrs. MG: What's wrong with that? Anderson Cooper's hot!

MG: He's not hot. He's a good-looking guy, but I wouldn't say hot.

Mrs. MG: It's his brain that makes him hot. If I was out to dinner with Anderson Cooper, I'd find him hot. I wouldn't kick him out of bed.

*pause*

Mrs. MG: But between Anderson Cooper and Hugh Jackman, who gets my loins shaking? I gotta go with Hugh Jackman.

Have you seen my weiner?

Posting pics of one's pets seems to be all the rage among bloggers. The Gent is not immune to the siren call of pimping the furry little view-grabbers; therefore, we present the first installment of The Weiner Blog.

Meet Otto. He's a 5-year-old miniature Dachshund out of Michigan weighing in at 10 pounds. He enjoys long naps in the sun, long naps on laps, long naps on his bed, and socks. Don't even get us started on the socks.

The Gent promises many more installments, because, as we say in the Midwestern Household, "all the world loves a weiner dog."

Need more proof global warming is for real?

NPR reported this morning that Allstate Insurance is discontinuing the sale of new homeowners' policies in Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey because it believes global warming makes catastrophic weather events more likely in those areas. These states join Florida, and parts of New York, Louisiana, Mississippi and California on Allstate's list.

Having worked on behalf of insurance companies in the past, the Gent knows that insurers want to sell policies to as many people as possible. That's how they make their money. For a major insurer to abandon several highly populated states indicates that they have looked at the data, done the modeling, and determined that the risk of global warming-related losses is just too great. That's a pretty strong statement. Insurance actuaries are not driven by emotion or political positions. They are stone cold bean counters (but lovely people) and they are motivated only by risk and profitability. With all respect to Al Gore, their determinations are extremely persuasive evidence that the market can recognize and act on an "inconvenient truth" better than the political class.