Public Final Transit

From Gizmodo.com - not one of my normal news sources, so I won't guarantee this isn't apocryphal. If true, however, then whatever you do, don't get on the wrong bus in China.

If you're a criminal in China, you'll want to avoid its new death buses, vehicles that carry out executions while streaming live video of them, then provide some privacy for organ harvesting.

The buses, of which over 40 are currently in use, are replacing firing squads as China's preferred method of execution. The buses provide a setup for lethal injections, and the acts are carried out on streaming video so local authorities can observe and ensure that everything is done legally.

Critics say that the buses help the government secretly harvest organs to sell to the west, as there's already a doctor on hand to administer the injection and they never show the bodies between execution and cremation.

Sounds like a good idea for Texas, since we send more goblins into the hereafter than any other state. I suspect we'd go for black stretch Hummers instead of the happy-bus, however.

I know a lot of people oppose the death penalty - I have waffled back and forth on the topic several times myself. I do get tired when people claim its a foundational Christian belief and try to make it equivalent to opposing abortion and euthanasia. They are not the same thing. It especially bugs me when Catholics do it, because it means they are either lying about what their church teaches, or have been lied to by someone else. As was said,

"While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

Of course the guy that originally wrote that probably doesn't know what he's talking about. Some dude named Ratzinger...wait - didn't he change his name? Benjamin...Bartholemew...Benedict...Yeah - Benedict ExVeeEye. That's it.