Rick Perry’s not all that smart by any account given of him so far, but the disgust factor in his boasting about how many criminals he has executed is exceeded only by the creepiness of high-school sports style cheering when he does.

Theoretically, I’m not against the death penalty. In reality, I don’t see a way to make a system reliable enough that we could, in good conscience, enact that penalty again any except (some) self-confessed perpetrators of a limited number of heinous crimes. It’s almost assured at this point that innocent men have been executed and clearly assured that we have come very close only to have those executions stopped by outstanding circumstances and access to resources that only a very small part of the questionable cases have access to.

But all that aside, even if we have a perfect system, is that ultimate punishment really something that we should approach with lusty cheers and revelry?