31/01: Why Not Treat Outlaws as Outlaws?
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
My word-a-day of forgotten English give me wolfshead for Jan 31.
Citing older dictionaries, the word is defined as "An outlaw, meaning a person who might be killed with impugnity, like a wolf," and "In old English Law, a cry for the pursuit of an outlaw as one to be hunted down like a wolf; an outlaw. Originally found in the phrase 'to cry world's head.'"
Most of us have seen the old Westerns with the "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters.
In earlier posts I have argued that we need to go back to treating outlaws like outlaws: in relation to piracy, in our rules of engagement, and on the feasibility of the U.S. acting in the world according to modern concepts of criminal rights.
Citing older dictionaries, the word is defined as "An outlaw, meaning a person who might be killed with impugnity, like a wolf," and "In old English Law, a cry for the pursuit of an outlaw as one to be hunted down like a wolf; an outlaw. Originally found in the phrase 'to cry world's head.'"
Most of us have seen the old Westerns with the "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters.
In earlier posts I have argued that we need to go back to treating outlaws like outlaws: in relation to piracy, in our rules of engagement, and on the feasibility of the U.S. acting in the world according to modern concepts of criminal rights.