September 26, 2011--Last Meals
Non-Texans have learned a lot about GOP front-runner Rick Perry since he began his official campaign a scant six weeks ago.
We now know that he considers Social Security a Ponzi scheme; that he is so upset with everything having to do with the federal government that he has flirted with the idea of having Texas secede from the Union; he considers the income tax to be unconstitutional even though the 16th Amendment allows it; and has called for the abolition of the direct election of U.S. senators, again, even though it is required by the 17th Amendment. And of course, he is running as much to be preacher in chief as commander in chief.
Also, we have become aware that he is especially proud of his record of having presided over more executions as governor than anyone else in America. The number is 235 and counting. And when this was mentioned during the first GOP debate in which he participated, his evident pride in this "accomplishment" brought the audience to it feet. They applauded, cheered, and whooped it up.
But it's been all downhill for him since that rousing moment. He has subsequently been attacked by the Republican right-wing base for his executive order requiring 11 and 12 year-old girls to be vaccinated against the HPV, cervical-cancer-causing virus; and he has been excoriated for his, by GOP standards, moderate views about immigration--unlike his rivals he is not in favor of rounding "them" all up and sending them back to where they came from.
Thus battered, toward the end of last week he returned to the ever-popular subject of executions.
Yes, another one was carried out in Texas on Wednesday; but the big news--executions themselves in Texas are not considered big news--was about the Lone Star State no longer allowing the condemned to have a sumptuous last meal the night before they are executed.
As a kid growing up in Brooklyn at a time when executions were still legal in New York--by electric chair--mornings after one was carried out there would be a lurid headline and story in the Daily News--"Bugsy Berkowitz Fries!"--and a story about what he ordered and ate for his last meal. These jailhouse feasts usually included steak and at least a quart of ice cream.
I always wondered how a condemned man, hours before he was to be electrocuted, could woof down anything at all much less heaps of meat and potatoes.
We never ate that way in my house so I fantasized about what I would order if I were ever to find myself on Death Row in Bugsy's circumstances. A quart of chocolate-chip sounded good to me. The getting fried part, on the other hand, didn't.
In the spirit of fair-and-balanced, when it comes to execution-macho, I should note that when Bill Clinton was running for president, in 1992, to overcome the bleeding-heart-liberal label Republicans were trying to pin on him, during the heat of the primary season, he broke off campaigning and flew home to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector who had killed a police officer.
But back in Texas, where for years very little has been fair or balanced, not only are they administering lethal injections to condemned men at a record pace, but they have also taken to eliminating their legendary last meals.
The most recent example was the meal order placed last week by a very, very bad guy, white-supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was convicted back in 1998 of a heinous hate crime during which he and two companions dragged an allegedly gay African American to his death after chaining him to the back of their pickup truck.
This is not a commentary about capital punishment (which I basically oppose) or how much Brewer deserved to be executed--a pretty good case can be made for the affirmative--but about last meals.
Before his execution Brewer ordered one that included two chicken fried steaks; a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger; a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup; a pound of barbecue accompanied by half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas; a "meat-lover's pizza"; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and jalapenos; three root beers; a pint of Blue Bell ice cream; and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
Democrats as well as Republicans in Texas were not only outraged by his crime but by the fact that he was being thus indulged. Forget that he passed on eating anything when the food arrived, but note that Perry and his people made it seem that the real reason they were opposed to continuing traditional last meals was because of the expense. (See linked New York Times article.)
I suppose in the race to see which of the GOP candidates can best demonstrate fiscal responsibility, Perry has figured out the ultimate way to position himself one last mile ahead of his opponents.
We now know that he considers Social Security a Ponzi scheme; that he is so upset with everything having to do with the federal government that he has flirted with the idea of having Texas secede from the Union; he considers the income tax to be unconstitutional even though the 16th Amendment allows it; and has called for the abolition of the direct election of U.S. senators, again, even though it is required by the 17th Amendment. And of course, he is running as much to be preacher in chief as commander in chief.
Also, we have become aware that he is especially proud of his record of having presided over more executions as governor than anyone else in America. The number is 235 and counting. And when this was mentioned during the first GOP debate in which he participated, his evident pride in this "accomplishment" brought the audience to it feet. They applauded, cheered, and whooped it up.
But it's been all downhill for him since that rousing moment. He has subsequently been attacked by the Republican right-wing base for his executive order requiring 11 and 12 year-old girls to be vaccinated against the HPV, cervical-cancer-causing virus; and he has been excoriated for his, by GOP standards, moderate views about immigration--unlike his rivals he is not in favor of rounding "them" all up and sending them back to where they came from.
Thus battered, toward the end of last week he returned to the ever-popular subject of executions.
Yes, another one was carried out in Texas on Wednesday; but the big news--executions themselves in Texas are not considered big news--was about the Lone Star State no longer allowing the condemned to have a sumptuous last meal the night before they are executed.
As a kid growing up in Brooklyn at a time when executions were still legal in New York--by electric chair--mornings after one was carried out there would be a lurid headline and story in the Daily News--"Bugsy Berkowitz Fries!"--and a story about what he ordered and ate for his last meal. These jailhouse feasts usually included steak and at least a quart of ice cream.
I always wondered how a condemned man, hours before he was to be electrocuted, could woof down anything at all much less heaps of meat and potatoes.
We never ate that way in my house so I fantasized about what I would order if I were ever to find myself on Death Row in Bugsy's circumstances. A quart of chocolate-chip sounded good to me. The getting fried part, on the other hand, didn't.
In the spirit of fair-and-balanced, when it comes to execution-macho, I should note that when Bill Clinton was running for president, in 1992, to overcome the bleeding-heart-liberal label Republicans were trying to pin on him, during the heat of the primary season, he broke off campaigning and flew home to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector who had killed a police officer.
But back in Texas, where for years very little has been fair or balanced, not only are they administering lethal injections to condemned men at a record pace, but they have also taken to eliminating their legendary last meals.
The most recent example was the meal order placed last week by a very, very bad guy, white-supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was convicted back in 1998 of a heinous hate crime during which he and two companions dragged an allegedly gay African American to his death after chaining him to the back of their pickup truck.
This is not a commentary about capital punishment (which I basically oppose) or how much Brewer deserved to be executed--a pretty good case can be made for the affirmative--but about last meals.
Before his execution Brewer ordered one that included two chicken fried steaks; a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger; a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup; a pound of barbecue accompanied by half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas; a "meat-lover's pizza"; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and jalapenos; three root beers; a pint of Blue Bell ice cream; and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
Democrats as well as Republicans in Texas were not only outraged by his crime but by the fact that he was being thus indulged. Forget that he passed on eating anything when the food arrived, but note that Perry and his people made it seem that the real reason they were opposed to continuing traditional last meals was because of the expense. (See linked New York Times article.)
I suppose in the race to see which of the GOP candidates can best demonstrate fiscal responsibility, Perry has figured out the ultimate way to position himself one last mile ahead of his opponents.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:22 AM
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