A massive manhunt and siege in West Texas now?

[onenote]

61. I understand it. I just don't agree with it.

Yes it is a cartoon. Yes the two situations it addresses have a similarity: they involved conduct that caused death and human suffering. In both cases the conduct was reprehensible. In both situations the conduct should be punished. I don't know of anyone claiming otherwise.

But the OP takes these similarities and glosses over an important difference -- one that society recognizes and the law recognizes. We do not regard or respond identically to intentional acts and to acts that are the result of a reckless disregard for life. To give an example: we do not regard or respond the same to someone who, with extreme reckless disregard for the life of their children or those of their neighbors, and for the sake of saving a few bucks, doesn't secure their swimming pool as we respond to or regard the person who grabs a kid and throws that kid in a pool and holds the kid under water with the specific, deliberate intent of killing that child.

Some may argue we should treat those two circumstances exactly the same. But I think they are different and trying to equate them in an effort to argue that we should take the reckless action more seriously than we do strikes me as a poor way to make the argument.