Lynching redux

[Laurence Horn]

>At 12:11 AM -0400 7/28/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>In an earlier  thread, there was some question as to whether vigilantes
>>had to use  hanging as the means of execution in order for said
>>execution to count as  a lynching.
>>
>>The NYT, in a recent article, referred to a vigilante  killing as a
>>lynching, even though the four victims had been shot to  death. IIRC,
>>the article described the occurrence as "the last mass  lynching."
>
>
>
>I am going to take the law into my own hands.
>
>I state:  EVERY SINGLE ADS-L MEMBER who has contributed to this and  related
>threads has been WRONG.
>
>First to dispose of an extended meaning of "lynching".  During the  Clarence
>Thomas confirmation hearings, someone (I forget whether it was Thomas  or
>Anita Hill, but both were justified in the usage) referred to the
>ongoing  circus
>as "a legal lynching".

Thomas called it a "high-tech lynching".  I wouldn't agree he was
justified in the usage, which I considered to be an insult to the
memory of all those who were actually lynched in the usual low-tech
way.

Larry