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November 13, 2007

Atonement can take many forms.

Man marries bitch to beat curse

An Indian man has married a female dog, believing the union will help him atone for stoning two other dogs to death.

P Selvakumar, 33, said he had been cursed since the killings, suffering paralysis and a loss of hearing.

The wedding took place at a Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu state. The "bride" wore an orange sari with a flower garland and was fed a bun to celebrate.

(BBC News)

I'm sure Rick Santorum is organizing a protest in Madurai while I type this.

For all our braying about personal responsibility, we don't see a lot of atonement in America. Punishment? Hell, yes. But atonement, not so much. I'm not a religious person, so it's hard for me to point to someone and say exactly how they should be held accountable for their actions against others. I'd be a very poor karmic sorcerer's apprentice.

My general sense of things is that you lock killers away, force fraudsters to compensate their victims and make vandals restore or beautify things that have been made ugly. It just seems fair.

A recent ARG poll reports that 54% of Americans believe Bush has committed crimes that are impeachable, but only 34% want to see him held accountable. I don't get that, but maybe people don't like the idea of impeaching another president so quickly.

If it comes to pass that Bush and Cheney are impeached, here's what I'd like to see:

For the duration of his sentence, GWB is compelled to work in children's hospitals inside Iraq. Dick Cheney is dispatched to refugee camps in Syria and Jordan, where he'd provide basic services to people fleeing the charnel house he helped create.

That would be fair, wouldn't it?

Posted by Your Protagonist at November 13, 2007 06:11 PM