See, I don't care what ANY other country has to say with regard to our values (whether they agree or disagree with them) because I do not think the morality or rightness of a position is a matter of consensus. We don't "keep company" with another country just by virtue of the fact that we both permit Capital Punishment, for I very much suspect that many, if not all of those other countries lack the rather stringent due process procedural requirements that we have.

Furthermore, it is a sophomoric way of analyzing the justness or morality of a position, it presupposes that bad people cannot hold some positions that are not inherently bad (if a klansman ran into a burning building to save innocent people, would that make firefighters morally questionable for the "company they keep"?)

By the way, if our values and constitutional protections should conform to those of other western nations, how do you feel about dramatic restriction on freedom of speech in the established tradition of Canada:

Scary stuff, and far more threatening to democratic liberty than the death penalty subject to stringent due process protections!

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane